Developing Connection

What Observation Really Means

Yesterday I had an awesome discussion about “connection” in relation to drawing and specifically how it is so important in figure drawing when you are trying to fully express your response to the model.

If you are just learning about figure drawing, or just getting started going to life drawing, it might seem that the practice is ALL about drawing the figure in a literal sense - getting anatomical details right, getting proportion correct, drawing a figure that looks like a figure.

But, I think over time, especially in life drawing you come to realize that the drawing is the vehicle for expressing something much deeper. Even if that is not crystal clear, it is a guiding impulse that is undeniable and brings you back again each week regardless of how “bad” your drawings were the week before.

I think it’s because through this work we come into a present moment and can deeply sense a feeling of connection - to the subject we are drawing, the process itself and mostly importantly to ourselves.

I’ve had a few breakthrough moments in my drawing over the years (just a few, probably like five moments haha!!)… and I luckily remember every one of them. For each one, I remember the drawing and the shift that it produced in my work. I’ve talked before about one such moment in my first life drawing class, but yesterday I thought about another, much more recent moment in drawing that was like a lightbulb moment for me.

It was a drawing of a twig!

For context: I was attending an incredibly rigorous and even arduous week-long drawing workshop, one that pushed me way beyond my limits and challenged every single notion I had about my self as a drawer. In a good way, …. but at times in uncomfortable ways. Throughout the week we did various exercises, and in one drawing in particular I realized that very simple, very obvious truth that we always forget about: that drawing is seeing - but more pertinently, drawing is connecting. Or, maybe I should say: seeing is connecting.

And, like I said, it was just a drawing of a bit of a branch off a tree. But it was a beautiful drawing and it described something about the stillness, the simplicity and the delicate nature of the thing because it was entirely observed. In other words, observing fully can lead you to truth about your subject, a truth that stands apart from presumed or pre-conceived ideas of anatomy, shape and form. Especially in life drawing.

I recently received a comment on youtube that made me wonder about how each person has a different motivation for drawing. This commenter wanted to properly draw the pectoralis major, when the arm is stretched forward. And I’ll be honest I don’t even know what they were talking about. But, it made me think that it’s so good to reflect on what it is are we trying to achieve in figure drawing. For some it’s obviously wanting to draw the anatomy, or wanting to be able to draw the anatomy in different poses. But for me, it’s about experiencing that connection to the subject and feeling how it flows through the lines and marks.

The below drawing is not a twig!! Lol (I tried, this morning, to find that drawing but alas couldn’t find it). This is a drawing I did from a Zoom life drawing session that particularly resonated and felt very connected. Zoom sessions are just as powerful as drawing from life, so I hope you are able to catch one online if you can’t get to life drawing in person.

Wishing you a wonderful weekend!

Siobhan

❤️

P.S!

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