Lunch music
Posted: February 14, 2013 Filed under: Uncategorized 11 CommentsHere’s another view of the students in a lounge at my school at lunchtime. Looking around the room I realize almost everyone is on some sort of device. That makes them pretty good drawing subjects because usually they sit still for a long time, giving me the chance to capture their gestures. And being a teacher, I am virtually invisible to them. They look around occasionally to see if any friends have shown up but a teacher in their midst outside of classroom time is of little or no interest to them. Perfect!
The invisible artist…perfect!
Wow… great sketches with such expressive linework! Looks like you have finally realised that a pencil works differently to a pen… the line gets darker when you press harder. : )
Thanks Ross. Why did it take me so long to figure this out??
Here we go… questions again! Why do I have to work so hard with this blog?
Answer: Probably because you are sooo comfortable with watercolour (ie wet media)… and the pen is just another way of applying wet media to paper. It seems to me that, with wet media, you make decisions about intensity before you get to the paper (ie mixing the paint or choosing the ink). With pencil, you certainly make a decision about the grade of the graphite before you get to the page but when you are drawing even a single line, you are really making a series of decisions about the intensity (ie how much pressure to apply to the pencil)… so that might be the reason… it is so different to wet media. Or it could be that you are just not the sharpest pencil in the box??? : )
Good theory Ross. And your speculation has helped me think about the answer too.
For years, before I took a long break to raise children, I sketched exclusively with a black Pilot pen. So it was natural that when I got back to sketching I picked up the same tools. I never experimented with different materials like I am doing now. I think it is as simple as that. The wet theory doesn’t really work because the pen is not really wet media unless it is water-soluble and I go over it with a brush pen. It is only now that I am getting around to being the sharpest pencil. I mean USING the sharpest pencil : )
So, here is the problem… I think we are both answering different questions. You appear to be answering “Why did it take me so long to use a pencil?” and I am answering “Why did it take me so long to figure out that putting more weight on the pencil gives me a darker line?”
My answer was pointing out that, with the wet media (which you use so comfortably), the intensity of the mark on the paper is related more to the selection or mixing of the colour before you apply it to the page… whereas, with a pencil, it is more about the pressure you apply to the pencil. Do you see my point? [pun intended]
As for your suggestion that the pen is not wet media… if I used a big brush to apply ink to a page, that is wet media, right? If I used a small brush, is it still wet media? What if I used a really small stiff brush? (This next step is where you will have to test your rigid thinking.) So, isn’t a pen just like a small stiff brush, except that the nib doesn’t flex? …just think about all those pen/brush variants that you can buy in an art shop. It is all the same… the ink is liquid… doesn’t that make it “wet media”?
It is okay if you are too busy to respond in detail to my long comment… a simple “You are right about everything, Ross” is quite acceptable. : )
You are so right about everything Ross. Except about the pen which I don’t consider wet in any way.
Correction: So here is the real problem… we both like to be right. : )
So, as it is your blog, I give in… you are right about the pen, Shari.
I enjoyed your comments about being invisible to the students. Isn’t that just like going into the woods to draw? You sit, and at first – nothing. But then after maybe ten minutes, the birds, insects and animals continue about their work. You have become a part of their landscape and since you are neither food nor danger, you are invisible. Think I’ll go over to our nearby college to draw in the library. Thanks.
Don’t go to the grocery store Lee. I wasn’t invisible there. Stick to the library.