Drawing Drawing

So this week I’ve been getting on with a drawing project. In this project we have literally been asked to question “what is drawing?” and think a lot deeper into why we draw and the ways in which we draw certain things. Like the previous project - so far this has been a real eye opener ! We were told to go on an hour long walk and basically think of how we would draw things and what especially stood out and appealed to us and yet again what was it for me – the contrasts between man and nature !

I don’t know why but this thought / notion of the strong contrast between man and nature just keeps coming back and back into everything I do. It’s not necessarily what I want to do….it’s something which I always just become so inspired by and pick up on all the time. I try to get out of my comfort zone by trying not to go back to it but it doesn’t work. However this is not necessarily a bad thing as there are always new techniques and ways of working in which I can challenge myself whilst working on this theme. For instance at the moment I have been producing quite detailed drawings / paintings of natural objects whilst creating free “blind” drawing-esque drawings of sound (in particular the noises of cars passing by / the constant noise of the roads) around these detailed natural visuals.

I’m really enjoying this way of working at the moment. The control of producing detailed natural visuals – which seems to be some-what relaxing and therapeutic. But also the freedom of producing “sound” drawings in quite a loose way. It seems ironic that the more free / organic drawings are actually of something created by man whilst the more controlled and restricted way of working is of something organic and natural. It almost flips the idea on it’s head however the contrasts do still exist – even if in the opposite way to normal !

Although the drawings of sound I have produced so far have been quite successful I plan to experiment more with this idea as I think a lot can be achieved from it. I’ve been looking around the web and have come across some pretty interesting stuff about “visualising sounds” something which particularly interested me was this TED talk by Evan Grant on “cymatics”

Unfortunately this is only a one week project. I would’ve loved to carry this on and explore even further however I can always use what I have learnt again in future projects as I’m sure I will return to this theme once more and also use the technical skills I have gained during the time working on this topic.