Still haven’t departed tulip land.  I must be dreaming of early spring…or MsKitty is.

These “Peggy” drawings start out as simple, rough gestures.  The main difference in this type of drawing is that this is an immediate dialogue between my paper and “inner eye”.  I look at my paper rather than the physical model.

If you’d like to know how I do it or give it a try, here’s what I suggest:

Materials:  Graphite pencil, drawing paper, knead-able art gum, paper towel or soft cloth for smudging

Try this:

• Either set up a simple still life, or take out a recent drawing.
• With a pencil, loosely, fluidly draw in the shapes.  Feel free to alter location, orientation, shape, as fits your needs.
• Put the still life or original drawing away; work from memory.
• “Restate” or go over the lines that you like.
• Smudge lightly, pick out lines with art gum and pencil
• Look at shapes, nodes (where two shapes overlap or join).  You’re searching for design
• Add, lift, smudge, restate…have a dialogue with the inner eye and the paper
• Eventually you reach a point where the drawing is going one direction.  Follow that direction to a conclusion
• I like to alternate lights and darks.  Select your “center of interest” shape that you want white.
• Start filling in the darks around, adding shapes or merging shapes to fit your needs.
• Take out another piece of paper and do it again.

The earlier you get to the “ugly” point, the better.  It frees you to experiment.  If the drawing starts out too pretty, smudge immediately!

The wonderful thing about drawing is that you have permission to stop anytime you want to!  I have found, though, if I stick with a drawing through the ugly phase, I am rewarded with an interesting “Peggy” drawing.

If you’re having trouble with the idea of drawing in an “unrealistic” manner, consider this: all drawing is an illusion.

Should you take the leap and try doing a “Peggy” drawing and are interested in sharing, please let me know.  Perhaps we can post it to my blog!

Thank you.