Putting the effort in effortless

Looking closely at my drawing, proper nose to paper

I’m looking for something.

When I’m drawing, I’m always searching for a specific quality. It comes about naturally when I’m in the zone, but often I have to intentionally create it. I’ve heard this quality in drawing be referred to as ‘life’, ‘energy’ or ‘freedom’.

I like to think of it as chaos and it’s been occupying my thoughts pretty constantly over the last month or so. 

sketchbook experiment with collage and ink and structure and chaos

I’ve been experimenting and learning and discovering two important (to me) things:

✏️ Chaos plus chaos is a disaster.

✏️ Chaos plus structure is where it’s at.

This is not a revolutionary subject, and a pretty bleedin’ obvious discovery, but I want to talk about it anyway.

The point of illustration is communication, so deliberately trying to throw an image into chaos is maybe a bit paradoxical but here we are.

When I first discovered chaos was the most exciting thing (for me), I spent a lot of time with paint splatters. This works ok but it’s not an element that makes sense in every image, adding splatters for the sake of it would be pointless.

paint splatter chaos for a reason

I like to work shape first, line second. So I leaned into bringing chaos to my shapes, adding texture by dry brushing watercolour and adding scribbled tone before a broken ink line goes on top to make everything more legible.

edges of trousers breaking down, edge of sleeve disappearing

With drawing figures I want a lot of information to be carried in the pose and I want the body to be flowing through space. Ideally I want a leg to look like a line of paint, and only look like a leg because it’s in relation to the rest of the body.

For a while this breaking of shapes was working, so I started pushing my lines.

But sometimes the lines pushed back.

Illegible coat on the left, slightly more legible on the right

Sometimes the lines didn’t describe anything.

In the image above on the left it’s impossible to tell that red shape is a coat. It’s also hard to tell on the right but a clearer, more solid line helps.

Also, I experimented with switching my dip pen for a brush to see how it changed the image.

Still life of plant: shapes out of control, lines running wild

With this plant the brush lines did what I wanted, they are pretty ramshackle but they tell you this is a plant. More excitingly (for me) those green shapes of the leaves could be disconnected from reality because the line, though wobbly, holds them together.

I was on to something!

I was pushing the line, I was pushing the shape, I was pushing my luck.

an unfortunate drawing of the pipes under my kitchen sink

I was throwing everything out into chaos - the whole kitchen sink.

Ahhh, deciding to draw under the kitchen sink.

It was already going badly when I made wobbly shapes for the main pipes in colours that shout when they’re together. Then I got as uncomfortable as possible on my knees to throw myself physically off balance and drew the lines, thinking here comes some glorious chaos!

But what I got in the end was a big mess.

There’s only the vaguest of clues about what the subject matter actually is. And if I crop the image I get intestines - no one wants that.

I was learning that too much chaos in the shape plus too much chaos in the lines gives me an unreadable image (it’s obvious, really. But sometimes I can’t understand the obvious until I’ve done the obvious).

I need to be sure there is a proper structure in place so those lively chaotic elements can dance around without falling over.

firmly glued bananas

When I feel lost I often reach for scissors and glue. Cutting a solid shape and firmly gluing it to untouched paper always feels decisive, I’m now a person with a plan.

I bought the chaos in by drawing the lines using one of those sticks you get in a reed diffuser. If you hold it at the very end like a conductor the lines are wild and squiggly.

landline phone (ask your grandparents, kids) made with firm collage and wobbly stick drawn lines

The problem I found as I kept going with collage though is that ink doesn’t easily flow over the cut paper edge. The stick or pen bumps off the edge and then follows it for a bit so the dancing line is suddenly walking along a path. Also, the ink line is always clearly inside or outside the paper shape and this irks me.

There isn’t a neat end to this search. I’m not about to ta-da you with a perfectly unbalanced, carefully wobbled, just about falling apart but exactly right drawing.

How could a search for chaos end with a tidy solution?

bonus condiments

What I have learned this month (which I re-learn every time I draw) is the importance of looking - really. properly. looking. Wanting to create chaos can’t be an excuse for lazy drawing.

If I’m making an observational drawing I need to be sure I’m looking properly at what’s in front of me.

If I’m making an imaginative drawing (like those of characters above) I need to have spent enough time looking at and drawing people so when it comes time to make the drawing the basic structure of the figure works and their poses are real.

Then I can have fun bringing the chaos.

What seems to work best (for me) is to have disciplined focus while using a carefully planned system that deliberately works against me. So I am constantly tripping myself up and accidentally letting in the exact type of chaos I’m searching for.

Makes sense, right?

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What about you? Is there a specific quality that you try to bring to your work, whether that’s drawing, writing or something else? It’s a complicated question but I’d love to hear about it!

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Links you might like:

🎨 - Raoul Dufy The work of painter, printmaker, furniture designer and illustrator Raoul Dufy has been an influence on my drawing since my teens. He is (for me) a genius at having all elements of a piece of work dancing at the edge of chaos.

🍿 - Why Children’s Drawings Matter a video about balancing rationality and naivety. Video by The School of Life, found via Art Departmental

📱 - 3 Materials Drawing Challenge. An instagram challenge I’ve been doing, it’s making me look closely at how I work. It’s open to everyone and still going on, join in if you fancy! Started by Kathryn Boyt and hosted this year by Charlotte Durance and Naomi Tipping

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All my posts are remaining free and open for the foreseeable future! If you fancy getting me a cuppa tea that would be amazing! Totally up to you, we’ll still be friends!

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