Draw

I see drawing as a tool that should be kept sharp in order for an artist to realize her ideas without limitation. Drawing skill is something that must be practiced, just like practicing scales on a musical instrument. I no longer have a strong desire to draw representationally, as perhaps I did when I was younger. At the same time, I want to have this skill in my back pocket as preperation for when I need it down the road as an artist. It is ofen difficult for me to work through long drawing courses, but my endurance seems to grow the more I practice. Drawing can be difficult because I can't easily see my progress, but I know by looking at my past sketchbooks that practice helps.
I was trained to draw in pen and sharpie, without an eraser. I was taught one and two point perspective, but for the most part I was taught to observe very closely and use my tools to record what I see. Learning tips and tricks for creating composition or texture, highlights, etcetera seems odd to me because they reduce the integrity of pure observation (although they are quite useful). It has been hard for me to adjust to these methods in class, and to use soft, erasable (and smearable!) media like charcoal and graphite- I don't mind getting it on my hands, but man how fast a drawing can become a smeary medium grey with no pure white highlights!
Things that resonated with me from this semester of Drawing 100 include:
- the idea of keeping a collection of stock drawings for use in future drawings (not 'cheating' with drawing from photographs, but still allows one to build a collection of images)
- use of the foreground, middle and background method of composing empirical perspective drawings to create depth
- the insane reflective light that Art Werger depicted in his prints- I was also impressed by his ability to be successful as a representational artist (by no means due to lack of skill, but because the art market seems to steer increasingly in the direction of further abstraction)
- the idea of making a fantastical composition based in realistic drawing- before now I'd never considered in depth the ramifications of making fictional representational compositions, I think it will be useful in the future