This is my first entry, Art Cats. It’s quite hard to talk about my own efforts. Especially because I see myself as a painter more than an artist (the definition between the two deserves another blog entry). So, I want to tell you blog about what I have been posting about on my Instagram page #ABPainting&Drawing. I have currently been participating in a #100 Heads Challenge… and yes, my lovely Art Cats, it has been a challenge and yet it has been a very steep learning curve in my art practice.

I am about 79 portraits into the project. It has taken a lot longer than I thought it would have taken. Yet on reflection, I thought I was more competent at drawing, but I realized I had “holes” in my understanding and skill.

From the start of the challenge, I had to revisit and learn the fundamentals of portraiture. I was lucky as this has been easy as I had easy access to some great resources, like Love Life Drawing, Proko, Loomis, and Bamms (see the bottom of this post). What I quickly realized is I know nothing about portraiture and I have a lot to learn if I wanted to paint/draw to a standard that I feel happy with. Whilst working through the challenge I started to reevaluate my fundamental relationship with the act of painting and drawing. I was reading Robert Pritzieg’s Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance which encouraged me to strip back my practice and ask myself why I started drawing and painting and who am I drawing and painting for through the lens of practicing drawing every day.

Consequently, the process of reevaluation is still painful. But as they say, “no pain, no gain!” However, I almost stopped and gave up and thought what was the point but then I recalled John Berger’s book, In the Shape of a Pocket and how he describes a new type of rebellion as being quintessentially act of human connection, with each other, towards our different environments or towards objects that have a meaning that is pocket of resistance.

I can’t think of anything more human than drawing a line. In my opinion a line is the first step in exploration and growth. A line is also mental construct that can define and records interactions within an environment; with each other; with an object(s). We all have wondered what is on the other side of the horizon line. If we are moved to do so we will chart the best course, which will be a line of prediction, problem solving and record of travelling to go beyond a horizon line. A horizon line can be the line that defines the shoulder and neck of a life model also. When drawing we sometimes want to leave a tantalizing clue what is behind the model, their other side through drawing the line disappearing giving us an appearance of three dimensions. No! a drawing describes four dimensions: The model drawn through time and space. A recording of the passage of time between two people: The model and the person drawing the model. This can then get wider as we consider the viewer of the drawing. The drawing puts the person in a specific time and space as they give drawing their attention.

These portraits are a chosen few. The ones I like. I hope you like them too:

My First Entry

Welcome to my blog: The Drawing Gym