Gosh - there’s a glaringly obvious metaphor here isn't there?
But in terms of art, you’ve really taught me such a lot. For my occasional run-ins with pencil and paint, definitely for my needle and thread and ABSOLUTELY for my writing. Thanks for this, Rebecca, and I really loved the pencil sketch of the dandelion buds. It was filled with life. Loved the other work too but the dandelion buds were my favourites.
You’re right, Prue - and it would have been hard to hide it! 🤣
And thank you: those dandelion buds were lovely to draw - the shapes were just gorgeous. For Christmas a few years ago I was given ‘My Year in Small Drawings’ by Matilda Tristram, and I absolutely loved working my way through the book doing four small drawings a day. The book is small, and the squares to draw in are VERY small, so it didn’t feel at all overwhelming. That’s when I drew those dandelions. https://matildatristram.com/index.php/illustration/my-year-in-small-drawings/
Quite illuminating, Rebecca! I must confess that my “putting marks on paper” usually amounts to only that. Indecipherable. Not even able to be called hieroglyphs. All of which is to say “Brava” for learning a new practice and sharing the results with this reader…with the world? ☺️
Thanks for taking us out into the garden Rebecca! Once, in a landscape class, the artist/teacher had us break down the vastness into interlocking shapes, with minimal detail at first. Then we filled in with minimalist pencil scratches to suggest texture, but not try to produce it in a minimalist way. It was a process of making the immense, smaller. So it went when I was sitting in front of Longs Peak, in Rocky Mountain National Park. Triangles along the ridge, rhomboids in the foothills, parallelograms in the meadows. Simple simple simple. But golly, I love to draw a pinecone too. Pinecones are amazing!
Oh wow, Peter, that’s such a brilliant way to go about capturing the big stuff. I’ll be looking at the view very differently from now on - thank you so much!
Whoa! 🤯 I thought I was just playing with horizontal lines, not changing your life! And, anyway, I like the way you are. If you stop getting lost I’ll never forgive myself.
So interesting to witness this entire process, Rebecca. It's a class I would LOVE to take! I especially like the practice with the continuous line, eyes closed. A friend of mine did an entire ballpoint pen sketch of a girl straddling a bicycle with one single line and his eyes closed. I was fascinated. It captured the moment utterly. I am so pleased to hear you are out and about!
🤣 I flipping loved drawing that cow, Sharron! I went up onto Firle Beacon on the South Downs and spent some time sketching cows - and one of them was very friendly and wanted to nibble me. I think Jim took a picture of the moment - I shall have to find it!
Oh wow, that girl-on-a-bicycle drawing sounds amazing! I remember an artist telling me once that he’d taken a small sketchbook and pencil to an evening performance at the ballet. He sat and captured - he hoped! - movement after movement, pose after pose, of dancers, all of whom were moving very quickly and fluidly on the stage.
Afterwards he looked at his pages and found one sketch - out of hundreds that he’d done right there in the dark, looking only at the stage and not at his sketchbook - in which he’d captured perfectly the shape and movement of a dancer in one continuous line. He described it as an incredible moment in his art practice.
He was a lovely chap and so generous with his knowledge. I did a course with him on drawing in nature - he taught us how to sneak up on a field of sheep without them scattering so that we could draw them. It was ace! xxx
I have a vague thought about “big picture” thinkers vs those who zero in on the details, and whether that might tie in to how people would approach art. Are you a detail oriented person in other ways?
Also, the importance of breathing in creative work— I started playing the piano again last year after many years, and am astonished how important breathing and posture are. I don’t recall ever thinking about them when I was young, but now I’m astonished at how frequently I find myself either slouching or holding my breath while playing, and what a difference it makes when I sit up straight and breathe deeply.
Oh gosh, breathing and posture - yes, you’re right, and they’re not something I ever really think about! So happy to hear about your piano playing - that’s brilliant, and gosh, I can remember my piano teacher (I stopped playing when I was about 15 and it was never really a passion) telling me to ‘sit up straight’ several times each lesson!
You’ve absolutely nailed me, Kerry - yes, I’m excruciatingly detail-orientated in very many aspects of life! I’d never really thought about it in art, though!
Totally enjoyed your sketchbooking works. It showed such improvement when you and your Mom went back for more. I've read a number of posts like this and admire you all immensely for your courage. I keep trying to do this too, but run out of nerve. Your visions of the garden, though, and the small stuff therein, give me hope. I have a wild jungle of flower now-a-days too, so continuous drawing and focusing on one flower or two may break the evil spell my brain has put upon my hands and eyes. Thank you, Rebecca, for a refreshing nudge in this direction.
We tried a return visit to the same garden again on another day, and having had a quick bite in their café had been looking forward to heading into the garden with our sketchbooks again. Sadly our visit coincided with the arrival of two coachloads of visitors, and we’re the nervous type so didn’t want quite so many people around who might want to peek over our shoulders! 🤣
So we went somewhere else instead, just down the road…. which was BEAUTIFUL - and the first thing to land on my sketchbook page (I already had a pink felt tip pen ready to make my first mark to represent a hollyhock) was a drop of RAIN. Sue, the CHEEK of the weather!
We retreated to the café for a cuppa and to discuss our next move…. which was to try again for one day very soon!
Ans even if you go back SOON, you'll have a different garden by that time. As for the rain, YAK! We also have wind, bugs, and depending how few into the "wild" we go, we'll have wildlife. So far, no bears, but that's sometimes a fear of mine. Don't do plein air these days. Bravo for you.
I love your drawings Rebecca. The colours are so bright. The drawing exercises are really useful to get you going. I am still struggling the finer lines after my broken arm and miss it. Drawing ad painting is so mindful 😘😘
Oh Jo, this means so much - thank you! Yes, I had such fun with those exercises - nothing mattered; I didn’t care how they looked - it was a fabulous way of going with the flow! And heck, that’s something I need to do more of. Sending love to your finer lines - you’ll get there! Broken things take their sweet time, don’t they? Sending love! x
This was so fun! I loved being right there with you as you absorbed your lessons and created the fab results. What a thrill it must have been! And I'm so glad to hear you went right back out there, and of course it rained! Ugh! Now you have to do it one more time before you lose your nerve...I love reading the joy and energy in your words too 🎉🤗
Happy sigh. Absolutely wonderful. Inspirational!! So glad you had such a good time. Terrific workshops.
Awww Beth, thank you! x
Gosh - there’s a glaringly obvious metaphor here isn't there?
But in terms of art, you’ve really taught me such a lot. For my occasional run-ins with pencil and paint, definitely for my needle and thread and ABSOLUTELY for my writing. Thanks for this, Rebecca, and I really loved the pencil sketch of the dandelion buds. It was filled with life. Loved the other work too but the dandelion buds were my favourites.
You’re right, Prue - and it would have been hard to hide it! 🤣
And thank you: those dandelion buds were lovely to draw - the shapes were just gorgeous. For Christmas a few years ago I was given ‘My Year in Small Drawings’ by Matilda Tristram, and I absolutely loved working my way through the book doing four small drawings a day. The book is small, and the squares to draw in are VERY small, so it didn’t feel at all overwhelming. That’s when I drew those dandelions. https://matildatristram.com/index.php/illustration/my-year-in-small-drawings/
Quite like that little book.
Small bites are best, aren’t they?
Quite illuminating, Rebecca! I must confess that my “putting marks on paper” usually amounts to only that. Indecipherable. Not even able to be called hieroglyphs. All of which is to say “Brava” for learning a new practice and sharing the results with this reader…with the world? ☺️
Thanks for taking us out into the garden Rebecca! Once, in a landscape class, the artist/teacher had us break down the vastness into interlocking shapes, with minimal detail at first. Then we filled in with minimalist pencil scratches to suggest texture, but not try to produce it in a minimalist way. It was a process of making the immense, smaller. So it went when I was sitting in front of Longs Peak, in Rocky Mountain National Park. Triangles along the ridge, rhomboids in the foothills, parallelograms in the meadows. Simple simple simple. But golly, I love to draw a pinecone too. Pinecones are amazing!
Oh wow, Peter, that’s such a brilliant way to go about capturing the big stuff. I’ll be looking at the view very differently from now on - thank you so much!
Whoa! 🤯 I thought I was just playing with horizontal lines, not changing your life! And, anyway, I like the way you are. If you stop getting lost I’ll never forgive myself.
🤣
So interesting to witness this entire process, Rebecca. It's a class I would LOVE to take! I especially like the practice with the continuous line, eyes closed. A friend of mine did an entire ballpoint pen sketch of a girl straddling a bicycle with one single line and his eyes closed. I was fascinated. It captured the moment utterly. I am so pleased to hear you are out and about!
PS. That Cow! All those angles. I could hear a contented mooooo
🤣 I flipping loved drawing that cow, Sharron! I went up onto Firle Beacon on the South Downs and spent some time sketching cows - and one of them was very friendly and wanted to nibble me. I think Jim took a picture of the moment - I shall have to find it!
Oh wow, that girl-on-a-bicycle drawing sounds amazing! I remember an artist telling me once that he’d taken a small sketchbook and pencil to an evening performance at the ballet. He sat and captured - he hoped! - movement after movement, pose after pose, of dancers, all of whom were moving very quickly and fluidly on the stage.
Afterwards he looked at his pages and found one sketch - out of hundreds that he’d done right there in the dark, looking only at the stage and not at his sketchbook - in which he’d captured perfectly the shape and movement of a dancer in one continuous line. He described it as an incredible moment in his art practice.
He was a lovely chap and so generous with his knowledge. I did a course with him on drawing in nature - he taught us how to sneak up on a field of sheep without them scattering so that we could draw them. It was ace! xxx
Thank you, my friend, for sharing this inspiration!
A bit like the art equivalent of flash fiction: focus on "small" details. I think it’s not simple in a sense.
I have a vague thought about “big picture” thinkers vs those who zero in on the details, and whether that might tie in to how people would approach art. Are you a detail oriented person in other ways?
Also, the importance of breathing in creative work— I started playing the piano again last year after many years, and am astonished how important breathing and posture are. I don’t recall ever thinking about them when I was young, but now I’m astonished at how frequently I find myself either slouching or holding my breath while playing, and what a difference it makes when I sit up straight and breathe deeply.
Oh gosh, breathing and posture - yes, you’re right, and they’re not something I ever really think about! So happy to hear about your piano playing - that’s brilliant, and gosh, I can remember my piano teacher (I stopped playing when I was about 15 and it was never really a passion) telling me to ‘sit up straight’ several times each lesson!
You’ve absolutely nailed me, Kerry - yes, I’m excruciatingly detail-orientated in very many aspects of life! I’d never really thought about it in art, though!
Totally enjoyed your sketchbooking works. It showed such improvement when you and your Mom went back for more. I've read a number of posts like this and admire you all immensely for your courage. I keep trying to do this too, but run out of nerve. Your visions of the garden, though, and the small stuff therein, give me hope. I have a wild jungle of flower now-a-days too, so continuous drawing and focusing on one flower or two may break the evil spell my brain has put upon my hands and eyes. Thank you, Rebecca, for a refreshing nudge in this direction.
Jungly gardens are the BEST kind, Sue!
We tried a return visit to the same garden again on another day, and having had a quick bite in their café had been looking forward to heading into the garden with our sketchbooks again. Sadly our visit coincided with the arrival of two coachloads of visitors, and we’re the nervous type so didn’t want quite so many people around who might want to peek over our shoulders! 🤣
So we went somewhere else instead, just down the road…. which was BEAUTIFUL - and the first thing to land on my sketchbook page (I already had a pink felt tip pen ready to make my first mark to represent a hollyhock) was a drop of RAIN. Sue, the CHEEK of the weather!
We retreated to the café for a cuppa and to discuss our next move…. which was to try again for one day very soon!
Ans even if you go back SOON, you'll have a different garden by that time. As for the rain, YAK! We also have wind, bugs, and depending how few into the "wild" we go, we'll have wildlife. So far, no bears, but that's sometimes a fear of mine. Don't do plein air these days. Bravo for you.
I love your drawings Rebecca. The colours are so bright. The drawing exercises are really useful to get you going. I am still struggling the finer lines after my broken arm and miss it. Drawing ad painting is so mindful 😘😘
Oh Jo, this means so much - thank you! Yes, I had such fun with those exercises - nothing mattered; I didn’t care how they looked - it was a fabulous way of going with the flow! And heck, that’s something I need to do more of. Sending love to your finer lines - you’ll get there! Broken things take their sweet time, don’t they? Sending love! x
Lovely work, Rebecca! You are stretching your artistic wings…and it looks as if they have taken flight!! 🌾🌿💞💞💞
AWWWWWW! Thank you, Sharon! x
This was so fun! I loved being right there with you as you absorbed your lessons and created the fab results. What a thrill it must have been! And I'm so glad to hear you went right back out there, and of course it rained! Ugh! Now you have to do it one more time before you lose your nerve...I love reading the joy and energy in your words too 🎉🤗
Awwww, so kind, Sabrina! We’re aiming for another try (fingers crossed for dry weather!) tomorrow. Will report back! x
Looking forward to it!