There was a point during tonight’s drawing session that I felt lost. I really didn’t know what I was doing. I was drawing the figure, but none of the drawings were looking good. I felt I was just moving the charcoal about without any direction, I didn’t know what I wanted. Should I measure and work on getting the proportion just right, or should I work on form through value, or should I work on my line quality, crosshatching, gesture, composition, value, emotion or abstraction.
Jamie asked me “How are things going over here?”. I said, “I have no idea what I’m doing”. I think he could tell that I was struggling for direction, the drawings were boring and lacked life. So, during the break he brought me over to another artist to show me how she was dealing with the form, with a searching hand, moving in and out of the figure, establishing center lines and surface contours, describing form with quick broad strokes over the form in circle, arcs, dark and confident.
I’m lucky to have a teacher as good as Jamie Bollenbach so easily accessible. I produced an amazing drawing after his counsel. He noticed the drawing and praised it loudly in class, and I think I said something like, “It is because of such a great model” or “I got lucky”. I think I should have said that it was only because of his influence that I could have done anything like it.
The Drawings
