Claudia Massie

The importance of drawing

Watch a child draw. See how she scrawls with abandon, jabs the felt tip at the paper, colours an eye so deeply the pen drives a hole through the paper. Look as she concentrates on the action of the subject, strips out unnecessary detail, toys with scale. This is pure drawing, instinctive, expressive and truthful.

Children’s drawings are interesting, especially to artists, because of their honesty and their energy. Unfortunately, these qualities are frequently abandoned as they grow up and, for most teenagers, a good drawing is one that resembles a photograph, with the emphasis on precision and neatness. The result is usually a tidy drawing stripped of life; neat, dull and dead. The great challenge is to revitalize drawing.

Throughout October, The Big Draw seeks to do just that. Through thousands of events in countries all over the world, this loose ‘Festival of Drawing’ aims to promote the art of drawing, and stress its continued importance. For drawing is important, even today when almost everyone has a phone in their pocket that can record an image in 1/500th of a second.

Think about that image on the phone. It captures less than a second and, once stored, will probably be looked at again for less than a minute. Imagine instead making a drawing of the view, the face, the plate of food you wish to photograph. Consider the length of time you would have to scrutinize the subject; think how you would be forced to appreciate the spatial relations within it, and the tonal ones. How would you convey the differences in form, in texture? Imagine how well you would know your subject after this inspection.

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