The Drawing Club

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62 The Drawing Club

(Text)

How do you learn to improvise

when you draw?

First, what do you think about when you draw? Do you think

about what you are doing technically, or are you thinking about

what you are saying creatively? Clearly, both are valid ways

to think about drawing, and the best artists I know do both

simultaneously.

“What do I need to do technically?” is usually the first

question people ask when they learn something new. This is

understandable. I see my students go through this every day in

class. They can struggle with the simplest of things, such as how

to hold the pencil or what to do first. It is easy to get intimidated.

Confidence comes with practice—with racking up drawing

mileage. Confidence leads to improvisation.

“What do I want to say creatively?” is usually the question

you ask as you get more comfortable technically. This is the

most interesting challenge for the more seasoned artists at The

Drawing Club. They’re excited by the whole idea of not knowing

what to do. They are comfortable improvising.

When new people come to The Drawing Club to draw, it is not

uncommon for their only previous experience to be in the class-

room environment. They are used to either being told what to

do, or they try to follow along with what everyone else is doing.

They ask me questions such as, “How did these artists find their

styles?” or “How do I find my style?” To them, the perception of

a style is an objectified goal, almost like browsing in a store for

fashionable clothes. In reality, what they are looking for is very

subjective. Many of the experienced artists at The Drawing Club

really embrace the idea of figuring things out as they go. I always

reassure anyone new that getting to this level takes time. What

you might think is a style is actually the way that artist ended up

solving the problem that night through improvisation. The next

week, that same artist could improvise with different media and

design ideas and come up with something entirely different.

The Gangster’s Girlfriend, colored pencil and marker on paper, Jeremy Bernstein

Confidence comes with practice—with

racking up drawing mileage. Confidence

leads to improvisation.

In the end, you really can’t be afraid to do a bad drawing.

The best improvisation happens because an artist was brave

enough to do bad drawings to get to the good ones. Nothing

impresses me more than seeing an artist show up and fearlessly

experiment and improvise. I say fearlessly because many of the

drawings might not be working. The problem solving contin-

ues as different media are tried. Sometimes, at the end of the

workshop, no good drawings happened. But it’s worth it. When

you really think about it, all you wasted was some paper and

a couple of pencils—a small price to pay for the possibility of

something special happening.

As one of my teachers used to tell me, “Nothing ventured,

nothing gained.”

The Gangster’s Girlfriend, colored pencil and marker on paper,

Jeremy Bernstein

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63

(Text)

The Gangster’s Girlfriend, colored pencil and marker on paper, Jeremy Bernstein

Confidence comes with practice—with

racking up drawing mileage. Confidence

leads to improvisation.

In the end, you really can’t be afraid to do a bad drawing.

The best improvisation happens because an artist was brave

enough to do bad drawings to get to the good ones. Nothing

impresses me more than seeing an artist show up and fearlessly

experiment and improvise. I say fearlessly because many of the

drawings might not be working. The problem solving contin-

ues as different media are tried. Sometimes, at the end of the

workshop, no good drawings happened. But it’s worth it. When

you really think about it, all you wasted was some paper and

a couple of pencils—a small price to pay for the possibility of

something special happening.

As one of my teachers used to tell me, “Nothing ventured,

nothing gained.”

Chapter 4: Improvisation

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