On Drawing
This past year I started attending life drawing sessions at Manifest Drawing Center. I’ve only been twenty times so far, and haven’t drawn since I was young, so I’m not particularly good, but that’s not why I go. I show up because of what drawing demands.
My preferred medium, photography, is instant. That’s part of its strength, but it’s also part of its downside. Those who promote shooting film in the age of digital always talk about how much it makes them pump the brakes to take a little more time with their subject. Wet plate photography does this even more, but by comparison, drawing is in another league.
What drawing demands is a kind of seeing that is largely unnatural in respect to time. You have to focus on subtlety and detail in order to get things right. This takes a lot of energy, and learning. Even a non literal gesture drawing has to have some element of correctness to feel right. And the quickness gestures entail can only come with a lot of practice. To get all this on paper you have to observe things to a degree that is uncomfortable in the same way meditation is. Moving past reflexes and assumptions is necessary for the discipline.
Just because something takes longer doesn't mean it's better though. Acting intuitively can be as equally beneficial as intentionality, so taking more time doesn't add value de facto. I only say this because it would be easy to assume a direct connection between time and value, but I think it goes without saying that these two things are not inherently linked.
Session 9. Something about the shading clicked on this day too.
So, why did I start going to life drawing sessions?
There's a long tradition of the nude subject through art. I have really only worked with a medium that is innately "fast" (as well as modern). Because of this I knew that I had probably built a habit of not seeing things as I maybe should or could. A subtly different form of photography (like shooting wet plates) couldn't address either, because it's not necessarily relative to putting in more time. Sometimes we have to be forced to observe things differently to not fall back into preferred habits.
What I've learned so far is that drawing is an incredibly awful experience. I both love it and despise it at the same time, which is similar to my attitude towards working out. I don't feel like I will ever be good at it, but this isn't necessarily the point for me. It's simply a way to learn to see the things that are right in front of me a bit better. In return, I can potentially avoid taking as much for granted as I do.
