A good drawing

A good drawing is an organic thing. It refuses to have its future planned for it. It has a life of its own. It asks questions of the artist, who’d best listen. It provokes a healthy struggle with the artist. It wants to be open to possibilities. It sometimes even wants the chance to fail.

What is a drawing?

A drawing can be many things; and, in some ways, it’s not unfair to expect all things from a good drawing: craft, substance, character, integrity, evidence of a smart and sensitive hand. But each drawing has its own purpose; and while it will always reveal something about its maker and act as a mirror to the artist’s self, it can be measured honestly in relation to its own intent.

How?

How can we have faith in the possibilities of drawing, of images, ideas, narratives, experiences being “drawn out” simply by the accumulation of marks? Simply, such faith is affirmed by histories of marks on surfaces made by greater and lesser artists alike, grappling with problems and reaching powerful conclusions, often using less than a thimbleful of graphite, a puddle of ink or a few inches of burnt stick. Images on the walls of caves, carvings on rocks, markings on papyrus all still speak to us.  

Drawing as research

What results if we think of drawing as a tool for research? We expect to get at something, open it up, fine tune it, probe it in a way we could never do without thinking of drawing in this way. We expect that we can solve problems we couldn’t without it. We anticipate problems posed and solved will generate new problems. We discover that the problems solved give us new facility with the tool and new possibilities for seeing.

Drawing well?

Drawing well is not essential for “drawing out.” Like any language, drawing is a tool for thinking, telling, discovering and articulating. But while language skills are important for any kind of self-expression, the most refined skills don’t always guarantee the deepest insights or most powerful expression. It’s the persistent and intentioned use of drawing as a tool that most supports the passionate voice seeking to be heard.

How to look at a drawing

A drawing comes into view. As you walk slowly and attentively closer to it, what does it reveal to you? At each step nearer, do you see more? Are you engaged at still another level? Do you learn more? At what distance does the drawing fail? At what distance does it seem to lose its vitality or integrity? One measure of a successful drawing is that this never happens. Nose to the image, there’s still more to discover.