Shades of Grey
April 29, 2009 by Janice
I love to draw. Always have. There is something about that pull of graphite across paper that does it for me. And when I hold another artist’s drawings in my hands, or look at them on exhibit, I feel about as close as one can get to the person making the marks. There is no middleman, no embellishment, no interpreter of medium necessary.
Just pure and simple graphite tracing impulses on paper.
In the real world of artistic currency, show me an artist’s drawings and you’ve shown me the keys to the kingdom. Pure line. Pure form. And some shades of grey. Rudimentary or refined, drawings are the most direct line to pure thought for a visual thinker. They are concepts, origins, pulse points in shades of grey.
They are story.
I spent most of yesterday drawing. Tangles of trees. Organic lines. Large shapes for areas that need to be left alone, or graded ever so much in 6B. I need some of the paper left open, some of the lines made dark, some of them need to twist and turn. Others not so much. This is ground I have trod. Steps I have taken. Familiar textures and shapes. But this is only part of the piece.
Like leaving a place set for another guest, I’ve left room for more to happen.
In the little orange Rhodia pad are new spontaneous doodles. Four so far. Each one of them capable of being a full fledged piece to work on. They came to me after I let myself get still and relaxed. I was playing with an intersection of what I thought were two entirely different things. Not so. We’ re going to put them together. That pad is for capturing things just like that.
Yes, set some experiments up, step out on a limb a bit and ideas start presenting themselves.
Capturing is essential. Because after I saw those doodles, I pulled out another sketchbook and saw some similar sketches done immediately after the storm. And the notes that I had made with them. Hmph. This experiment series has been waiting for me. Patiently, but waiting nonetheless until I could stop and listen.
Oh, it needed some more elements, it needed some time to pass, but here we are now. Right here, right now. I am present… and I have plenty of pencils. I have a few sheets of paper. I am listening and capturing and playing in shades of grey. And things are getting good. Really delicious, I hope. Because the marks are pure and real and right for just this moment in time.
This is what it is like in Private Studio.
What about you? When you get down to the real nuts and bolts of what you do, does it give you shivers? Does it set your heart racing? Do you get a thrill over the tiny bits of magic that appear?
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6 Responses to “Shades of Grey”
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I love yr little orange Rhodia pad!
Innermost sketches…
Make em HUGE!
those pads should come BIGGER!!!
parisbreakfasts’s last blog post..Paris Posh Places
LOL … they will…still working on them….
I LOVE your chic neighborhood today….gorgeous facades.
“Capturing is essential.” This says it all…thanks for the meditation and inspiration.
Charles,
So good to see you here. Thank you. And you are more than welcome.
You have given me a new concept this morning as I looked your site over: Primary Food. What a wonderful way to think of things.
My father is a fantastic artist and although I’m more than thrilled to be a writer, I read a piece like this and I feel a twinge of loss for something I never had.
But then again, when I create a world, put people in it then want to go back and reread about the lives I create, I feel like a god and know that feeling of joy you describe.
Alex Fayle | Someday Syndrome’s last blog post..The World Owes Me Nothing: Glen Allsopp Interview
Alex,
You make me smile with your kind words. Thank you. It is amazing isn’t it? Hard, challenging, but ultimately so worth it.