drawanyway.com

Regular readers of Drawanyway will know full well that it preaches a slapdash approach to drawing. Precise, careful illustrators with o.oooo1 Rotring pens and set squares might be advised to avert their eyes for this particular post. Unless, you know, they are trying to loosen up a bit more.

OK, have the very precise artists left the room? Are we left with just the happy-go-lucky types? Good.

I’m going to talk about the technical side of drawing: perspective, ellipses, depth - and I’m going to put it to you, Madame Speaker, that they’re not that important.

I’ve talked before, I think, about how I consider some aspects of making art to be more like a science. I find these aspects really hard - for example, I can never mount a picture straight, and spacing letters evenly for, say, the title of a cartoon, takes real concentration and lots of swearing. On the other hand, I assume that lots of people who can do these things with both eyes closed would find, say, sketching with a loose line a real challenge, while for me it’s second nature.

Long story short: if perspective or ellipses or proportion are hard for you, try drawing anyway (oh, look, a name check). We are highly fortunate, us non-technical artists, that we live in an age that celebrates all types of art. Consider how Picasso and Braque brought us Cubism, drawing objects from many angles simultaneously. Consider how the scrawls of Tracey Emin have been elevated to commodities worth millions of pounds. And then ask yourself if your picture really needs to be 100% technically accurate.

It doesn’t. What matters (in my opinion) is verve, confidence, and the ability to convey the essence of what you are drawing. So if your jar is slightly wonky or your background looks like the foreground, ask yourself if it’s a good picture nonetheless.

Your task: Try drawing a cup, a mug, a jar, or something else that requires a degree of technical expertise. Loosen up, do it quickly, and do not fret if it doesn’t look quite right.