A groove

I haven't posted much here about my recent struggles with drawing, until I retro-post, you can see them at: My Live Journal

Here's the most recent post, with the good news that I'm liking my drawings again.

Short version:
So, here's one of the drawings I did yesterday.



Long version:
Drew again last night and had fun. There's a place, a state of mind that I sometimes get to, where I am having fun and for lack of a better phrase am "fucking around." Playing around? Not really sure how to describe it or what to call it, but it's when (first instinct was to say 'where' - future topic) I start embellishing on the photo. I throw some scribbles in, I use abstract marks to represent something realistic and the same idea/image is communicated to the viewer despite the fact that the thing I'm trying to represent and the mark look completely different yet convey the same thing. That's when I'm having fun. That's the result of it. Not so much the goal, because when I try to do it, it doesn't happen. When I don't try to do it, it does happen. And it's not so much working on "not trying to do it" as it is just being in the moment, being in the idea of what the image says, not reproducing an image.

I'm going to let that sink in (for me) and come back to this topic later. And make a note to discuss why reproducing the image isn't very interesting, but representing it is. Another note, so I don't forget what the hell I'm trying to say, is that photographs are a better tool for reproduction, but drawings/paintings, etc are my choice for representation. The result (and guess I'm writing about it now instead of later) is that I can convey what I see when I look at the photograph/subject-in-real-life with the drawing. You look at a photograph and see something, maybe it's what I see, but you look at the painting and if I've done my job, you have a better chance to see what I see. Or more accurately, you start to feel some of what I feel and you see what that feeling evokes in your mind based on your experiences, personality, and aspirations (past, present, future).

Or something like that.

Hey, and the absence of comments means this is interesting or this is boring. I'm gong to keep posting about these thought processes, but I am curious to know if they're interesting.