Don't Sweat The Details

Goodness gracious, it has been a day. I am posting late because this is the soonest I could get to this today. I won't list it all here so that I can make it to the end of this post. I started off early by tending to a chore. My husband hasn't been able to mow the lawn, so I did it today. Things were beginning to have that "house abandoned" look. The grass was so high, the deer could hide out in it. I wanted to beat the heat so I started off early on the lawn instead of doing my sketch. Not a good plan. I was cursing the hills as I pushed the mower over the bumpy terrain. By the time I was done, I was in a full sweat. I hadn't done such a great job either. When I jumped in the shower, I was wondering if I was going to get to the sketch at all.

I made up my mind to do it as soon as I was dressed. What to draw? What to draw? The only thing on my mind was that D%@* mower, so the mower it was.

I set up my easel down under the one of the back decks were we store the mower (and I didn't bother to mow). I was precariously close to plants that I couldn't differentiate from baby raspberry bushes or poison oak. Setting up that easel is complicated, I flip mine upside down to extend the legs. Is there an easier way?

I am still working on that book, Drawing From Observation. The chapter I read yesterday discussed gesture drawing, a quick 5 minute pencil-to-paper session before the "real drawing" begins. The whole purpose of doing a gesture drawing, as I understand it, is so that you can get a feel for the general placement of things and their size in relation to everything else in the picture. The idea is to let your pencil (I used charcoal) flit about trying to "position lines, corners, and edges" without actually drawing something that your brain could put a name to. You can see in my gesture drawing (below) that I was having second thoughts on the placement of the mower's handle. I didn't know I was off until I started in on the pillar to the right of it.

Once your gesture drawing is starting to have parts that you can name, then you actually are in regular drawing mode, at which point you have to start asking yourself the big questions - like : does the edge of the wheel (see, I named it) end here or a little more to the left, or does the angle of the wheel seem the same in my drawing, is it in shadow or not, and so on.

The completed drawing, below, is all I had time for today. I was attempting to draw a sense of place, rather than a mower floating in nothingness. Getting the floor joists from the deck above looking right was a spot that required intense brain squeezing, but it all was made a bit easier by the preliminary gesture drawing. In fact, the entire placement of the mower itself would have required serious eraser duty had I not spent the 5 minutes on the gesture drawing. I tried not to get bogged down in the little itty bitty details in the beginning and leave those for later.

The whole point is to not sweat the details - kind of like my lawn mowing. The lawn IS mowed, just not every blade. OK, more than a few blades are there, clumps, and entire swaths were left neglected, but the lawn has a "mowed" presence about it now that let's the deer, fox, and coyote know this place is mine, not theirs.

The lesson for the day is obvious. Had I waited for all the details of the perfect lighting, the perfect studio set up, the perfect object, and even the perfect mood to be in place, there probably would be no post today. The lawn is mowed enough, the gesture drawing lesson is locked in my brain, and I am happy.

I leave you with a quote from Howard S. Hoffman that Brian Curtis (Drawing From Observation) wrote in his book.

"The only occasion when the eye moves steadily and smoothly is when it is following a moving target."

The way your eye moves is the way your pencil should move during the 5 minute gesture drawing. Try it. Look at a chair and notice, as you look at it, just how many times your eyes flit about, from one spot to the next, taking it all in. In a gesture drawing, your pencil should do the same.

Good luck with it,

Carolina

Comments

[Elizabeth Mackey]

I remember when I took my life drawing class, we had to do quick mini gesture drawings. Then we moved on to full pages. He gave us only minutes to complete it. Your daily sketches are bringing back all kinds of memories for me.

I think you did a great job with the proportions. The rock pillars look great too!!

[Melissa P]

Your drawing has a definite sense of place. The floor joists and the columns anchor the subject. The mower did double duty today. And I think it's the perfect lesson--art isn't about making something out of nothing. It's about making something out of our everyday experiences in ways that cause us to rethink our previously held ideas.

[Amy O]

I'll take drawing over lawn mowing any day! Let's face it, the chores of life will ALWAYS be waiting for us. The beauty of a moment will not. We need to grab our moments of creativity when we can. The growing grass is secondary.

[Alicia Armstrong]

I love the joists and column in your drawing, makes the mower almost regal, which is then balanced by the comic relief of it also being surrounded by very tall grass.

When Jim and I had our first place with a patch of grass I decided I would surprise him and mow while he was at work. I also decided straight rows were boring and there was no good reason to live in that box. So I had a fabulous time mowing completely random swatches until it was finished. I guess I made the little old lady across the street about apoplectic, she gave Jim an earful when he got home. They continued to ruminate and grouse about it the entire time we lived there. It wasn't my intent, but hey, I've never had to mow again in the 15 years since!

[Cindy Lane]

Wonderful sketch and a beautiful lawn all in one day!

There is never a more perfect moment than "right now"!

Cheers,

Cindy