I perhaps understand the principle behind this assignment, however honestly, this initially felt a bit of a wasteful use of paper. Until I pulled out a new brush pen. I hadn't really used much since purchasing and then really enjoyed the process.
So I opted for A3 paper. Starting with a simple HB pencil I made my way across the page as required. At first I adopted a pretty standard way of doodling, which is not something I really like because it never looks good when I do this. I persisted and I could feel myself becoming less conscious or "tight" on the kind of lines I was drawing. I do find it difficult to let go, as mentioned this kind of practise feels wasteful for me because I will never look at it again, however by the time I had gotten half way into the page, I decided to change tactics which also felt wasteful and pointless, but it was kind of fun! Playing had began.
I held the pencil in way that was barely gripping to the point I could easily drop it when making contact with the paper. It was loose, a bit chaotic and well, completely different to how I would ever allow myself. I filled the second half of the page in this way, and then decided to go over parts of it with thicker, more purposeful lines and marks but still not really thinking about anything.
I hate the results and here's why.
comparison.
I had done a little search on instagram to see if any hashtags used "automatic drawing" and to my luck several results came up. Having a quick browse through the posts, I picked up on a few things that looked really cool, plus the comparison of the works by Joan Miró had also left an impression. I over worked it and brought nothing that I thought would be interesting. The only thing that was nice about it was allowing myself to destroy a piece of paper with random marks, which somehow didn't seem so random!
following behind comparison is expectation. Doing this exercise once I can't expect anything that is interesting to come out. It won't be in a gallery or anything remotely close to this. It's purely an exercise to let go, perhaps just a tactic to help become unstuck. Expectation is what can destroy playing and flowing, which is somehow what happens to me.
I cut up a cardboard piece into 2 L brackets to create smaller crops in this piece. Below the images is the title I thought were fun to match the piece.
I then tried again as I found that some of the marks made with the pencil could look nice with the brush pen!
I liked the look of this page on a whole. I very much enjoyed using the brush pen, creating varying lines and applying different pressures to create texture. I love Japanese art for this reason, the ink and brush work found in Japanese art is beautiful, having this little play with the pen was like testing what marks can be done. The more I did the more confident I got with the brush, somewhat finding an understanding on how I might go ahead and use it, or at least knowing what I can achieve with it.
this piece definitely felt like a landscape, and in a way I kind of had this intention after I had dropped the first line!
So then I tried another piece with the pen.
Again, quite a similar feel with it giving landscape vibes, but when looking at this I feel it is more land based rather than sky. I feel there is movement in this, like it's guiding you of where to look.
They kind of feel like cave drawings when seen as individual crops.
Overall I found the exercise fun. Once I had started using the brush pen I began to play, it was experimental for the mark making. It was great to use the exercise as an excuse to test a pen, to learn it through an exercise that isn't precious with a final result. Letting go is difficult, not wanting to be wasteful is also a challenge to overcome.
By wasteful I mean materials. I have no intention of keeping these drawings as I see nothing worth keeping.
When would I use this exercise?
I think when I feel stuck I would perhaps try experimenting with automatic drawing. I do feel that the more you do this exercise the more interesting it will become. You will learn techniques that you find fun and will begin playing with shapes or other marks. It would be interesting to allow myself to do this more often, what would come of it? Would this be an interesting 365 project? Maybe!
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