Contemplative drawing

(Nimue)

I’m exploring the potential of drawing as a way of contemplating. I’m interested in the way in which trying to draw something leads to intense concentration on it for some length of time. This works especially well when applied to things that might otherwise be overlooked. I recently had a go at a half used bulb of garlic as well. Radishes aren’t the kinds of things I normally spend a lot of time looking at, so paying this kind of focused attention proved interesting.

There are many ways of drawing things, and all of them involve compromises. You get to think about shape, colour, light, shadow, and texture. When you’re working with a single pencil, you can’t catch everything, and I often find there’s a really interesting tension between trying to describe the shape of something and trying to describe its texture.

I spend a lot of time online looking at the work of other artists and seeing how they draw. In recent months I’ve been particularly looking at the work Jason Eckhardt does – his pencil sketches of trees and landscapes have made me want to get outside and have a go, although I’ve yet to do that. I’m also learning a lot from art by Martin Hayward-Harris, whose pencil studies of birds and other wildlife are stunning.

Whether I’m looking at things to try and draw them, or booking at drawings to try and understand the techniques involved, it all takes me into places of deep contemplation. What it brings up are thoughts about what makes something recognisibly itself. What is the essence of whatever I’m trying to capture? What makes a specific example of it individually itself? Each of the radishes I drew was distinctly different from all of the others. Spending time exploring that difference and getting to know the radishes was a peaceful process and a rewarding one.

The great thing about this is that it really doesn’t matter how good your drawing skills are. There’s no end goal here beyond the experience. It’s about taking the time, immersing in something and seeking to understand it. The focus of pencil on paper can be a real aid to contemplation, and whatever comes out of that is fine.

It’s also a good way of digging into the magic of the everyday. Taking small, familiar things and studying them can reveal their beauty and value. Making the ordinary into a subject worthy of your study and your drawing is rather lovely. And of course if you do a lot of drawing, you get better at it. Like anything else, time spent on creating gets more done than any innate talent you might have.