When I was young, I used to draw a lot and my family always encouraged me to continue with it. My Grandmother on my Mom’s side was a very accomplished artist. She did a wonderful self-portrait by coloring the whole page with pencil and then erasing it to draw the lines.
At some point I just stopped drawing. I think hockey and video games took up most of my free time. I also remember becoming frustrated with drawing. My method was to copy cartoon drawings free-hand. If there was a picture of Garfield, I’d copy it free-hand and it was nearly identical, except in black in white pencil.
Over time I moved on to more complex drawings, like one of RoboCop. I labored for hours over the intricate mechanical pieces and proportions. I remember it being frustrating more than fun. I think that’s when I hit a road block in my skills development. I never took more art classes besides the few I had earlier in my elementary school years. Not having taken classes seemed to stunt my growth as an artist. I could not draw real world objects if my life depended on it.
This why I’m rather stunned at what I accomplished tonight. For years, I’ve wanted to improve my art skills in the traditional ways of drawing. I recently started reading Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain and I attempted my first art exercise before the book went into any teaching. Doing the first self-portrait is a way of measuring how well I improve as I read the book. I expected the self-portrait to be hideous. This is what I did in one hour of drawing myself while sitting in front of a mirror.
"Presence" by Reid Kimball
I can’t wait to see how my skills improve after reading the book and doing more exercises.
© 2010, Reid Bryant Kimball. All rights reserved.
Tags: art, drawing, family, garfield, grandmother, robocop, self-portrait
Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain will change your life. It will lead you to a spiritual awakening, a new level of engagement with the physical world.
I am only partly exaggerating when I say that.
I will consider your experiment a success when you can spend a good half hour doing nothing but staring at the micro-worlds of plants in awe and ecstasy at the beauty of the universe. Spontaneous singing is permitted, however.
Did you ever read my blog post Games and Perceptual Apathy? If you haven’t, click my name for the link.
I dig it, Reid! You should put up a page with your progression.