Line: "Drawing as you see it"

"Creative art begins with creative line. Creative line can only be the line as you see it and prefer to draw it. Projecting literal contours by and artificial means can only result in stifling your most valuable asset- individuality. Draw from copy as you would from life. Have always the courage to draw it yourself." Andrew Loomis. 1947

I included the quote above, from this seminar's presentation, as I like the way Loomis talks about the value of using your own tone of voice and the importance of having the courage to do so...

Drawing is not something that can be taught, but that you have learn to yourself as each person has a unique way of seeing and recording information. 

"There is no standard for good drawing - In illustration this is determined by the unique craft of its maker, the context it exists within and how it communicates its message"

I should aim to be experimental - drawing with lots of different media and tools. The lines I create should be dictated by what I use to make them, as well as different physical means of drawing - fast, and slow, controlled or loose, soft or hard pressure... ect. 

Our task from this seminar was to produce 20 different drawings of the same subject. My topic being 'Rainforest and indigenous cultures' I choose a ceramic figure from brazil, as I liked his character and thought he would be good to draw using lots of different lines. I found, however, that he was almost too simplistic and that all my drawings ended up looking the same. On the other hand this may have been because I was not experimental enough. I used different media and tools - such as ink with a nib and also brush, charcoal, different sizes of fineliner, pencil... But I should have been more adventurous, perhaps using collage, drawing on different surfaces, using negative space... I also think I did not venture far away enough from my reference material.  

Despite this, however, I do really like this drawing. This was one of my final ones as I moved into brush and ink. I like the flow and variation of thickness in the lines, as well as the simplification of the shapes of this ceramic figure. Comparing this to the ones above, I think it demonstrates a better understanding of the shape of this figure as well as a confidence in application. Therefore I do think I learnt about line through this exercise and definitely, maybe improved slightly in my drawing; however in the next exercise I am going to push myself to be really inventive and experimental with the way in which I am drawing my subjects.