Friday, February 8, 2013

Cutting Out The Control

Yesterday evening my fiance and I took a trip across to the Wellcome Collection as he had missed out on joining me to see the Death exhibition a few weeks back. I left him to wander through this incredible collection and made my way up to the first floor where I planned to draw any of the various treasures on display. I'd brought along a couple of the painted palettes that I mentioned in my last blog post to be used as my drawing surface. After doing a brief round of the gallery I decided that a particular cabinet would go very well with one of my painted textures. This cabinet glistened with an array of medical saws and knives, used for amputation. Whilst drawing I overheard the tour guide explain to a visiting group that one of the fastest surgeons of the time was Robert Liston who could perform the removal of a limb in an amputation in 28 seconds. This was a time when speed was thought to reduce pain and increase the odds of survival!

Drawing directly onto my painted texture, I found I experienced a very different sensation from the usual one I get when drawing into my sketchbook or composing finished drawings and images using the computer. I felt like the stakes were high - there was only one perfect texture that suited the subject matter, and this could have easily been ruined by an incorrect stroke of the black ink pen, an awful drawing or bad composition. Plus I only had the luxury of about an hour to draw and then the only way I'd see the objects would be by another visit, by which time I would have most likely 'moved on' from this particular drawing. This sensation is something I thrive on - there's nothing like the mixed emotion of thrill and terror when the stakes are high. It seems like too often many artists fall into the trap of being able to cmd+z or erase unsightly lines - it makes for laziness and ultimately uninteresting and well-trodden lines. I always find that the little 'mistakes' I make in drawings urge me to explore a 'solution' and I end up with something exciting and quite different from what I had first planned - it always nice to be surprised, even by yourself, now isn't it!

 

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