INTRODUCTION
ALCHEMY
At school, and sometimes beyond, we are advised or even
required to plan our pictures, declare the idea, explain the
composition, and practice each part before putting the final
image together. This suits many artists well and is perfectly
valid. However, excessive planning can get in the
way of the imagination, the unknown, and what
you discover in the process of making. It denies
the importance of accident, which can offer
keys to other things.
These two brush drawings, created
centuries and cultures apart, are both
made of ink laid onto wet paper with
speed and agile certainty. The physicality,
balance, and spirit of each subject was
held strongly but loosely between
the fingertips, and allowed to flow
through the brush. Each image
relied upon past experience to
know the probable behavior
of the brush, ink, water, and
paper. They each allowed the
FLOWING SKELETON
The gliding poise of this walking
anatomy comes as much from the
feeling of movement as it does from
the feeling of drawing. I made it
almost unconsciously with a pen and
a brush, trusting my intuition to find
a visual equivalence for the sensation
of weight within my body.energy and focus of the moment to be expressed through
controlled accident and a degree of the unknown Both
drawings were made trusting the marks, and at speeds
beyond conscious thought.
As you draw any subject—something you see, feel, or
imagine—it is not enough to only render its shape,
size, and position in space. You must also think of its
intrinsic nature: its purpose, meaning, and how it feels
to the touch. Know the texture, temperature,
depth, and opacity of your subject. Imagine
these qualities so strongly that you feel them
in your mind and at your fingertips. Whatever
the material— wood, silk, bone, metal, fire, or
ice—you must actually feel it beneath your
fingers as you draw. As your hand meets
the paper to make a mark, it should
be responding to the sensation and
meaning of the subject it draws. If
you can do this, your marks will
become the subject on the paper.
This is the alchemy of drawing.
BRUSHED LANDSCAPE
This is a detail of a brush-and-ink
drawing by a Japanese Buddhist
monk. Our position as viewer is
unsteady. We float toward the
quiet vista as it also moves toward
us. We are caught in a shifting focus
that makes everything fluid, and we
can just make out the distant stains
of mountains, mists, and an island
brushed with trees.581 / 2 x 14^7 / 8 in (148.6 x 32.7 cm)
TOYO SESSHULandscape in Haboku Style
15TH CENTURY