The Zen of Drawing
A long while back, there used to be a book on my shelves called the Zen of Drawing. But you know how it is, you move house a few times, you have a decluttering frenzy, you lend books out: I have a feeling it went to a charity shop a few years ago because it hadn’t been opened for some time.
It’s funny, though: sometimes when you haven’t got a book to consult, it becomes very clear what you took from it. For example, I remember very little about this volume except for one idea. One notion lingers. I don’t know whether it was glancingly touched upon in the introduction, or made up the theme of the book, but it was this: you never really see a thing until you draw it.
I don’t know much of Zen, but I understand it emphasises an awareness of the now. This would be an interesting - and possibly very fruitful - way to approach drawing: concentrating not on the finished product, but on the process of what you were doing. The final drawing would be complete almost incidentally, and probably much the better for it.
Whenever I find the time to sit and do a proper drawing, based on real observation, I discover things I hadn’t seen before. These leaves, picked from the pavement yesterday, have been sitting on my desk since, but until I drew them, I did not notice the serrated edges. The colour had registered to some extent, but only in that it was pretty enough to make me want to pick it up - when I drew it, I had to think about its colour, and the fact that of course it has many, not just one. From the nodules on the stalk to the curve of the whole, drawing these leaves was an exercise in new understanding as well as rediscovery of things I’d forgotten I knew. Things I probably haven’t had pointed out to me since Biology at school.
If nothing else, the clearing of the mind to concentrate on nothing but the object you are drawing can only be beneficial. Who knows - you may find spiritual benefits too.
Posted: November 2nd, 2007 under Inspiration, Technique.
Comments: 4
4 Comments
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Thank you for writing about this. It’s one of the things I like most about drawing, the way it helps me to really see things I’d never looked at properly before. And now and then, even when there’s no paper handy, I find myself looking at things very carefully, noticing angles and textures and details as if I’m going to draw it — I’m sure that helps later on, when I do have some paper, even if I’m drawing something completely unrelated.
The leaf picture has a really special quality. Perhaps it takes a Zen state of mind to produce exceptional drawings like this one.
Thank you, not least for understanding my prose! Like I say, I’m no expert on Zen or Buddhism so no doubt I have not completely understood or remembered the message of the book (which I do recommend if you happen to see it somewhere). That aside though, I totally agree with what you say about how observation can inform even totally unrelated pictures that you do later.
As it happens, that picture was produced in circumstances quite far from the meditative ideal: my daughter has a cough and was coughing herself awake every ten minutes throughout. Still, just goes to show, you can train yourself to concentrate hard, even for short periods of time.
As usual, good, intresting and really useful post for all readers and specially for me, thanks!
Good luck to you!
;)
Aw good - thanks!