“I have learned that what I have not drawn I have never really seen, and that when I start drawing an ordinary thing I realize how extraordinary it is, sheer miracle: the branching of a tree, the structure of a dandelion’s seed puff. ‘A mouse is miracle enough to stagger sextillions of infidels,’ says Walt Whitman. I discover that among the Ten Thousand Things there is no ordinary thing. All that is, is worthy of being seen, of being drawn.” - Frederick Franck
Friday, May 23, 2014
Outdoor Urban Scene: Trees in Downtown Traverse City
One thing I love about pure contour drawing (or "blind," as I think of it), looking only at the subject and not at paper and pen (or pencil), is the freedom of it. There is the freedom of simply looking intently at the subject -- in this case, two small trees between street and sidewalk -- added to the freedom of not worrying at all about results. Because the pen is not lifted from the paper, of course the drawing will not "look [all that much] like" the subject. And yet there is a feeling of its spirit.
I did this pure contour drawing with one of my Staedler pigment liners (0.7), little German pens I love, in the small sketchbook I carry in my purse for opportunities like this.
Labels:
contour drawing,
drawing,
pen,
Traverse City
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