A quick little pen and ink doodle today of the birthplace in my home town of Samuel Johnson the 18th century writer and author of "A dictionary of the English language" which became the basis for the future English Dictionaries.
While making these posts I tend to avoid any kind of preaching on drawing or anything of an arty ilk but sometimes I so waffle on a bit about my point of view or perception of these things and having said that I'm going to again today.
I noted on someones web site the other day that they professed the dislike of sketch books or at least not so much a dislike of them but an inability to use them. They would rather use bits of paper and that way they could screw the drawing up if they felt it was poor and only keep the ones they liked and that then they would paste these into a bound book.
A bound sketch book can be intimidating because it seems to say ' make sure it's a good drawing as there is no getting rid of me once drawn and I'll sit beside the good ones for ever just to embarrass you'. But, to me this is simply a confidence issue, it is that hesitation of making the first mark, is it the right one? I therefore always used bound sketchbooks and to add even more pressure I only use fairly expensive leather bound sketch books. For one I want any doodles I do to be kept together in a time line, secondly I like leather bound books and even though the doodles I create are only quick scribbles I want them to held in a nice book for one day when I look back at them and lastly to create the pressure to create something that I won't be embarrassed of.
Draw on loose paper and you will always throw away more than you keep. You will always put down three lines and then crumple it up and start again. You will always hesitate. Draw in a sketch book and you will always finish the piece and you wont put down 'incorrect' lines and if you do you will incorporate them into the drawing. I never throw away a drawing or make several attempts at a drawing. Every single drawing I do goes into the sketchbook first time and then gets posted on here. Some are better than others, non are fantastic, but they are all acceptable.
The second thing (for now) is pens. I noted another blogger talking about pens and paper and saying that it doesn't matter what the pen is or the paper any old stuff will do. Well paper was kind of covered in the first part of this, the sketch books contain good quality 150gm cartridge paper which is a pleasure to draw on, so pens..
I think that the tools are important. It's like golf. Yes you can play golf with any old crappy set of clubs, but, as you progress you will buy better clubs because they maybe improve your game, maybe are better balanced but more importantly because they feel more comfortable to you and you like them and you want to play with them, you have a pride in them. I always use Rotring pens. This has a lot to do with the fact I was introduced to Rotring pens over twenty years ago when they were the tools of the trade but it also has to do with the feeling that you have a quality technical pen in your hand and that I like them as objects. Fiber pens are OK, although quite often the line tends to dry grayish not black, they are easier to use, certainly cleaner but they don't give me the same feeling as a Rotring pen. When I draw with a fountain pen it is with a $100 fairly nice fountain pen that is a nice object in its own right.(I convert to $ USD as I realise 95 percent of the visitors here are American). It is a pen that I want to pick up just as an object, I want to draw with it. Now yes I could draw with a £10 fountain pen but some of the enjoyment and some of the want to doodle comes from the fact I want to pick up, handle and use this fountain pen. It technically won't make you draw any better but subconsciously I think if you love the tools you use then it does make you want to use them and then also reflect in how you draw. Even if it only makes you want to pick it up then it is having a positive effect.
Drawing is a mixture of things for me, it is the enjoyment of drawing, the enjoyment of capturing moments, the enjoyment of looking while I draw, but it is also the enjoyment of using tools and materials that add to the experience.
So while it is not the be all and end all I still think that there is something positive in using quality materials that mean something to you and allowing yourself the best to work with. It just makes for a pleasurable experience and 99 percent of the joy of drawing is the experience of actually doing it, making the experience of drawing special, not the looking at it after wards.
Next time back to pictures and a few words, less of the waffle!
The Technical Bit.
Technical Pen on Cartridge Paper.
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