Why Is Drawing So Important?
Why is Drawing Important To You? She never asked herself that question but she does get it asked a lot. She finds it funny that she has never asked herself that question before but she also thinks it’s strange to answer because there are a million reasons why. Drawing has been her life. She can’t remember the exact age she was when she started to draw but she does have a few memories of when she was a little girl. She had mountains and mountains of colouring books and she could remember that she brought them everywhere, especially with her Grandad who would help her with her colouring. But the moment she knew she had an eye for drawing was in high school. She had the huge Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix book and she used one of her exercise books to draw the front cover. It took her about two weeks to finish and when she looked at it, she thought “That’s alright”. To her, drawing has been a huge part of her life, without it, she wouldn’t know where she would be. She has always expressed herself visually through drawing by means of interests, hobbies, personality etc. But she has always remained true to herself by always saying, “When i draw, I wanna be me, not anyone else, me”. In our everyday lives, we will use drawing at some stage. People will use drawing on a day to day basis in their professional careers from fashion, interiors to product design etc, people might use it during their years in school, college or university, or some people might only have memories of drawing when they were kids and never took it up again. This zine is about showing how drawing has become such key figure in our lives. She wanted to show who she looked up to, who inspired her and what she personally thinks about drawing. But she wanted to gain attention to the public and encourage more and more people to take up drawing again. Or if you are still drawing, keep drawing. We don’t want to see drawing just fade away into the light. We want to make sure that it keeps moving forward. When you read through this zine, maybe you should ask yourself; Why Is Drawing Important To You?
Drawing Can Be Very Personal As soon as she begun drawing, she knew that she didn’t want to draw what everyone expected her to draw or what you usually see being drawn. She wanted to be different and she wanted her drawings to be different as well, so she would try to focus on an aspect of whatever she found interesting to draw from. She would then try to draw that to scale but each time she would develop that particular drawing, she would put her own twist on it and hopefully try to make it a completely different drawing, with the exception that you can still see the original image and where it came from. She then began to think about her colour palettes. For her, colour is everything but sometimes she likes to be a little different, a little experimental. So her colour process comes from thinking about which colours would work nicely together and then it’s just a matter of seeing how it turns out. If a mixture of colours has worked, she would continue with this specific palette to her development stages but if it doesn’t turn out that well, she would just continue with experimenting with her colour choices.
Expressive
Jean Hans Arp
Jean Hans Arp, Color Pochoir, 1949
Jean Arp, Constellation, 1960
I use very little red. I use blue, yellow, a little green, but especially... black, white and grey. There is a certain need in me for communication with human beings. Black and white is writing. (Jean Hans Arp)
Jean Michel Basquiat I don’t listen to what art critics say. I don’t know anybody who needs a critic to find out what art is. (Jean-Michel Basquiat)
Emotional Madding Surreal “Scull” (1981) Believe it or not, I can actually draw. (Jean-Michel Basquiat)
Drawing Can Be Emotional There is an activity called Art Therapy. This basically means that a group will supply you with a shopping list, make suggestions for creating a peaceful “healing place” and describe a variety of projects to get you started. Usually they will start you off with either an Art Journal or a Sketchbook. Art Therapy encourages you to express you emotions through images. By doing this, you will discover your inner voice and you will be able to make the connection between art and your inner voice. This may be the first time that you will experience this, with your deepest feelings and emotions. While expressing through colour, form, shape and texture, it will release their hold on you, to make the way of healing. Another value of this therapy is that it can give you an enjoyable respite from your grief work. It makes you learn to let go of that critical voice inside your head that can say things like: “Don’t waste paint”, or “You should be doing something else”. Making art can be a very enjoyable, valuable and life enhancing activity. They want people to become free, to explore and experiment with materials and time as much as they want. “The creative process involved in the making of art is healing and life enhancing”. ~American Art Therapy Association Mission Statement ART THERAPY ACTIVITY “Drawing” Out Your Emotions 1.
Doodle with a dark marker or pencil with your eyes closed. Then color in some of the spaces. Embellish it where needed.
2.
Doodle with your non-dominant hand. Add color. Give it a title.
3.
Draw a cartoon. Add some words to it.
4.
Circle drawings-- It is believed that circular shapes, mandelas, have calming effects and promote emotional continuity. Take a dinner or salad plate; place it on the blank page and trace around it. Then make your creation within the circle.
5.
“Drawing “ your emotions: sit back and do the guided imagery with one of the following emotions before getting started: ANGER, SADNESS, FEAR, HAPPY MEMORIES, DESPAIR, HOPE, GUILT, HEALING, PAIN, PEACE, LONELINESS, REBIRTH
JOAN MIRO
DARING The Smile of the Flamboyant Wings, 1953 Harlequin’s Carnival, 1924-25
The Birth of Day, 1968
Brave
“The works must be conceived with fire in the soul but executed with clinical coolness”. (Joan Miro)
Drawing Can Be Good For Your Health At some point in our lives, we have all done an aspect of drawing. I think the most important time of all was when we were kids. Drawing then, it was a great importance to our parents and us. It was a form of expression and communication. From all over the world, authors from various countries, cultures and social classes have all agreed that drawing is one of the great arts. But what about you? Do you draw? Do you use drawing as a mean of expression? Or do you only draw for fun? But the most important aspect of drawing is that it can create positive benefits for your health
Communication Benefits
Motor Skills
Drawing helps us communicate in many ways. It allows us to express what we feel, what we want, what are visions are etc. We can show feelings, emotions and thoughts when we draw. This type of process is extremely important to people with disabilities, for example if they have communication deficits, or if this particular person is shy and is not capable of communicating in a fluid and natural manner.
By using a variety of mediums to draw from, like pencils, charcoal and brushes, this will help to develop our fine motor skills, especially in children. For example, if you are grabbing the utensil or trying to manipulate a movement, the hand will move perfectly with this utensil in a certain capacity.
Cerebral Benefits
Mental Health Benefits
Our own brain can actively participate in the activity of drawing. The left hemisphere of our brain is responsible of logical tasks but the right hemisphere is responsible for creativity and imagination. So, when we draw, we are actively working with our brain and we don’t even realize it.
Drawing has a clear purpose of helping our mental health. Drawing has been shown to favor concentration but we can also acquire it when we draw and when we need to focus on what we need to get across and not on other things. But it has been shown to help distract us from problems or situations that we might be going through. If we are relaxing in our own home for example, our mind can take us to our own little world to create unique pieces of art.
Mark Rothko
Minimalist Black In Deep Red
“I’m not an abstractionist. I’m not interested in the relationship of color or form or anything else. I’m interested only in expressing basic human emotions: tragedy, ecstasy, doom, and so on.” (Mark Rothko) Untitled (Yellow, Orange, Yellow, Light Orange) from 1955
Galerie Sophie Taeuber-Arp
Non Conformists Sophie Taeuber Arp
No Boundaries Galerie Sophie Taeuber-Arp, 1932
References Jean Michel Basquiat - Now’s The Time by Jean Dieter Buchhart, Pub by Art Gallery Ontario, Toronto, 2015 Jean Michel Basquiat - by Richard Marshall, Dick Hedbige, Pub by Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, 1999 Joan Miro - The Ladder of Escape, by Joan Miro, Daniel Marko, Matthew Gale, Matthew Green, Pub by Tate Pub, 2011 Joan Miro - Painting and Anti Painting, 1927-1937 by Joan Miro, Anne Umland, James Coddington, Pub by Museum of Modern Art, 2008 Mark Rothko - 1905-1970, Pub by Tate Gallery, London, 1996 Mark Rothko - The Late Series by Mark Rothko, Achim Borchardt-Hume, Briony Fer, Pub by Tate London, 2008 For more information about the Art Zine please visit: http://imogenhorner.blogspot.co.uk