Immaculate Imperfection

The Humble Art of Drawing

“Now get out there and show them what you are made of.” Said the coach. I’m sure I’ve heard this in some movie – maybe multiple times. It comes to mind now when thinking about drawing because drawing is a lot like sports. Like baseball, soccer, or golf (if golf is a sport?) you can’t go out and show them until your good enough. And how do you get good enough. For most it’s not some sort of immaculate perfection we are born with, it’s from practice. And a lot of it.

 Drawing is a manual skill which requires good hand eye coordination, like catching a ball or throwing it. I don’t want to get too technical, mostly because I don’t know the technical, but I’ve heard it said that practice builds the necessary neuro pathways that allow us to get our hands to do what our mind and eyes want them to do. But really there’s no trick to it, no complex theory, or secret sauce. Just get out there, and draw. And over time, and I admit it’s probably more time than you would prefer, but you will show them what you are made of if your patient and keep drawing.

 So take a walk, bring a few sharp pencils. An ink pen or ink brush, and a sturdy sketchbook to use them in. Find a nice spot to sit, or stand if you prefer, and yes you guessed it draw. Draw what you see. The contour of a tree branch as it reaches for the sun, the way the light illuminates a flower bed in the foreground and in contrast creates shadows on the underside of tree in the foreground. Study the illusion of distance and how to create it with soft edges and blurred details. There are is so much wonder and beauty all around us if we can open up to it, embrace what is right in front of us, and learn to truly see it. Easier said than done, but it does get easier the more it is done. 

One trick (okay there are some tricks) that could help is to pretend you’re travelling, that you’re a tourist. Once on a visit to New York I remember noticing the locals were all looking down, looking inward. While us, the tourists, were easy to spot. Heads tilted perpetually upward in Manhattan, the awe easy to read on our eager faces. In Brooklyn we were stopping on every street corner to soak in every detail, nuance, and droplet of culture. New York has so much personality, so much story, such a sense of place and being. But our town does too, it’s different and unique if looked at with a fresh perspective. 

 Another story from that trip to New York was going for pizza with a couple other illustrators that were alumni of our school, Sam and Jillian. The owner of the pizza parlor, Pauly I think was his name, heard we were from Calgary. He was excited about it. This born and bred New Yorker was excited about Calgary? He brought out his phone and showed us pictures from his visit to Lake Louise. But it wasn’t tourist snaps of majestic peaks, it was photos of sandwiches. Sandwiches from a shop in a strip mall in the town of Lake Louise. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, so go out and behold. Pretend to be a tourist in your own town.

 6 Things to practice:

 Foreground, middle ground , and background.Seeing and capturing a sense of depth and space is essential to drawing environments, for every drawing try to establish a foreground, middle ground, and background. And if you don’t see it directly in front of you, change and edit on the fly, don’t be stuck with what you see, draw what you want to see. 

 Light and shading.Tone is fundamental to clear communicating. Consider local tone, shading, and gradients. See how light works and draw it. And again if you don’t see what you need change it. Exaggerate, bump up the contrast in your mind’s eye.

 Detail and Texture.Little things can have surprising impact. Imagine yourself a botanist and study the details in the plants and flora of your own backyard. There is so much magic in these fine details if you stop to see.

 Simplification and editing.There is so much to see once you start looking. But that can be the problem, sensory overload. Who wants to draw all that stuff, who can draw all that stuff? Well who said you have too? Edit out the things you don’t want to draw. Be the master your domain, draw what you want, or better yet what you feel like.

 Draw in a format.Try to get in the habit of composing your drawings by drawing a rectangle(s) first. And also make it as small as you can so you can keep your drawings quick, fresh, and focused.

 Exaggerate and Emphasis.  Make the mundane – magical. It’s our job to present things in its best light. To optimize, stylize, and emphasize.

Okay, one other last thing: stay safe! Be aware of your environment, draw in pairs if possible. In particular be careful if drawing digitally in public.