Thursday, October 14, 2010

May suffer from over sensitivity

Just got back from Life drawing at the Toronto School of Art.  This is great life drawing.  Excellent models, 3 solid hours of drawing, and only $10.  They run them 3 days a week, with 3 separate sessions on Sunday alone.  That is 9 hours of life drawing.  Soon I will do this- sadly most of my Sundays this month are booked solid.

Today was pretty good.  Gestures are still too uptight.  I am finding that my internal dialog is not vibrant enough, nor am I loose enough.  I suppose being out of practice for so long will do that to you.

I think the biggest thing I learned today was about sensitivity.  When I am open, I can be a very sensitive person- sensitive to images, sounds, emotions; especially when it comes to the human form.  It is just so beautiful! Over the years I have created many defenses for this, for a number of a reasons.  The bottom line, though, is that for an artist, having walls up is bad.

As soon as I found myself being more open, more accepting, and more sensitive- basically "trying" less, and "feeling" more, my drawing began to open up.  There is some intangible essence or power that comes through when we open.

Thomas Aquinas said "Our whole business in this life is to restore to health the eye of the heart whereby God may be seen."

It is a long practice, life long; but each moment, each new experience, gives us an opportunity to open more- to look, and to SEE.  To see into a thing, to pierce its external shell, and to really know it form the inside.  The only way we can do this, however, is by opening up ourselves.  Our heart is the means by which we perceive this inner essence.  No heart, no sight.

"Art does not reproduce the visible; rather, it makes visible." - Paul Klee

What we see with our eyes is a veil, a covering.  It lies to us.  Real sight is had with the whole being, the Eye of the Soul.  The only way to get there is by being sensitive.  Being sensitive to each line, each movement, each nuance.

I found that if I relaxed, this opened me up more.  Relaxed my line, removed pressure, exhaled and surrendered.  This is hard however.  We have so much tension most of the time, and so many internal dialogs.  Besides training in the tools, it is just as essential to train in ways to release, and to be sensitive to everything around us.  When we are judgmental, when we enter with preconceptions, we are closed off.  We must let go.

This, I know, will be an ongoing process.  To get that out, to get out of my own way, is the first big hurdle.  To learn how to stop the train of judgmental thoughts.  Otherwise, progress will be slow.  I need to push myself.

Okay, here are some photos from the session. I am hoping to get my real camera online and start getting better pictures of these- so bare with me...


warm up doodle


5 minutes.  This is where I started being a little more sensitive to my line-work.

5 minutes.  Proportions are a bit off, but I like the form.

10 minutes.

 10 minutes.

20 minutes

 20 minutes

 Thats it for now.  I am working on Hands a lot recently.  Ill post up some thoughts and sketches soon.

1 comment:

  1. love the lesson. It's a second by second struggle.

    beautiful work, on all levels

    ReplyDelete