Thoughts on drawing

I was never much of a drawing person, but some months ago a friend helped me decorate my new apartment and we decided to include some drawings and paintings to cheer up the white and empty walls. The experience was so much fun that I decided to take this drawing class. I didn’t know what to expect: a blank paper was scary enough when I had to write on it, I couldn’t imagine what would happen if images and not words had to fill it in.

Through the semester I experienced a series of mixed emotions: excitement, tiredness, pleasure, interest and wonder. But all in all, it was a lot of fun! I especially enjoyed learning different techniques (negative drawing, drawing by subtraction, etc.) and applying them to our drawings.

It was a nice learning experience. Before taking this class, I believed I had a quite trained eye (through the study of paintings, photos and films), but here I learned a completely new way of relating to the image, incorporating a new kind of observation: the one that doesn’t focus on the idea of the object, but on the perception of it.

Although I’m far from being a visual artist, I do hope to incorporate drawing as a more present habit. It is not only pleasant, but it can also be a way of opening our sometimes routinely minds. Even without technique, drawing can help us relax, focus, think, create new ideas and materialize existing ones.