The Creative Act of Drawing
This is my first blog post and I would like to begin by introducing what Drawing means to me and how I believe this is at the core of all creativity. In writing briefly about Drawing, I also hope to encourage you, the reader, to draw also.
Drawing is something we are all capable of doing and I would go one step further in saying we ought to do. Whether you keep a sketchbook as a personal diary or whether you choose to share your work with others, Drawing is invaluable to our emotional wellbeing. We solve, resolve, aspire and dream through drawing and this is why it is imperative to us as people and creators of our world now and future.
I always enjoyed drawing from a young age myself and went on to study art at university. The BA Hons I took was actually a Drawing degree. Drawing is not just the preliminary step we undertake before painting. It is much, much more! Here are a few characteristics / descriptions of Drawing:
Records information
Explores ideas through sketching
Encourages curiosity
Teaches us to see
Fosters imagination
Helps the flow of ideas
There are specific principles to Drawing of course for when we look at perspective and technical drawing in general but there is also an intuitive and playful side to it, which is what Picasso worked so hard to capture. Drawing can therefore be confining and liberating. It all depends on what you want to communicate and how. Music has also always been important to me, and I choose to describe it through drawing. These first explorations began on my Drawing BA back in 2000.
Describing, delineating, drawing parallels and discovering patterns in music scores is what I love to do. I choose to do it digitally and use Illustrator for this via the mouse pad. Drawing digitally suits my current process because I’m looking for accuracy and specificity of colour tones - something mixing paint on canvas won’t give me.
My working method is logical and calculative at its core but can be intuitive as well. Similarly, a piece of music is written with certain musical theories and concepts (logical bit) and the performance of that piece, is an interpretation of the score, using dynamics and period styling (intuitive bit).
Drawing allows me to make sense of the world around me – of music. It is my escape, my sanctuary. Through drawing, I can reconnect with music and share its inner beauty with others by giving it visual form. It’s a kind of music appreciation through visual art.
Drawing could be something you also turn to, to reflect on moments or elements in your life, to make sense of them or to take a break from them. Through this introductory post, I encourage you to draw yourself. Go buy a little sketchbook or a big one! Enjoy experimenting and taking some time out.
For more examples of my own Drawing practice, please visit www.elizabethmikellides.art
I also have work in two shows this month, which you can learn more about on my homepage. One is called Rhythm in Art at Liberation Gallery in Brighton and the other is The SOTA Accessible Art Fair in London.
Elizabeth Mikellides
