COLUMNIST
Just like sport, I need
a long warm-up before
I can draw anything
impressive
Drawing is like running, says our
columnist LAURA BOSWELL –
and you shouldn’t let negative
comments put you off your strideI
like to take my working drawings to exhibitions and
shows. I do it because they are so far removed from the
polish of the finished print. They are a desperate mess;
a mass of scribble and wrong moves, often re-sized and
patched with tape. As a professional artist, I want people
to see that I’m always learning to draw in new ways –
and that I’m okay about making mistakes along the way.
I work best when I am exploring new ideas, so my
drawings tend to consist of me slowly sidling up to catching
something that, when I started the work, I couldn’t draw.
Each shows this untidy journey of trial and error to a point
where I can start editing and picking the right shapes and
lines. It’s only when I’ve nailed the image that I transfer the
drawing to the block and begin the print. Even then, I often
re-draw areas as I go.
I am always sad when people in my classes tell me that
they “can’t draw”, as though drawing is a finite thing that
can either be done or not. I prefer to think of drawing like
sport; something that you learn best by doing and, like
sport, there’ll probably be a clumsy stage at the start.
As any professional footballer will tell you, the trick is to
practice. The more you do so the better you’ll get – and
the better you get, the bigger the incentive to practice.
Just like sport, I always need a long warm-up before
I can draw anything impressive at all and, if I take a break,
it takes a while to get comfortable again. And like any
sport, there are days when nothing goes to plan. The big
difference is that we all accept that’s how sport works,
yet most people believe artists are either born drawing or
emerge from art school with enough ability to last a lifetime.
When faced with students who say they “can’t draw”,
I always ask when it was that they lost confidence in their
ability. It’s almost always the result of some damning
comment from an old authority figure, just like my “you’ll
never be a runner” games mistress who made my teenage
life a misery. It’s true I’ll never be the best athlete, but a
few years ago I finally chose to ignore her, put in many
hours of practice and slowly ran the London Marathon.
http://www.lauraboswell.co.ukArtists & Illustrators 43