Rendering Accurately

Sketched on 2/21/12, Kuretake brush pen, Moleskine sketchbook

A couple of years ago I took an art class that ran for several weeks, and I sat next to a young woman who was a graphic designer. One day, I said to her, “If you’re a professional designer, you probably already know how to draw well,” to which she responded by shrugging and acknowledging that her drawing skills were sufficient for getting her work done. I then started saying that my drawings always looked wonky, the perspective was off, things didn’t look right, etc. (my usual list of complaints about how I “can’t draw”).

She listened patiently, thought a moment, and then said, “If all you want to do is to render things accurately, anyone can learn to do that. There are all kinds of mechanical tricks and techniques you can learn to make an accurate drawing.” Then she said, “But just because you render something accurately doesn’t mean you have anything to express.”

Whoa. The proverbial sledgehammer to the head. Suddenly I understood the difference between an accurate rendering and an expressive drawing.

In the spirit of expressive drawing, I made the self-portrait above, number 100 (finally!) in the series, without a mirror.