I am sometimes still amazed, after so many years, that I can take a pencil, and put lines on paper to make an image that my mind and others recognize as something real....or imagined. That second sight, of what we can see in our minds, is one of the things that makes me feel close to my creator. I even like to think about Him imagining beautiful things before He created them, the same as He gave man the ability to do. I often approach an art project thinking, "Can I do this?" Sometimes I can't. But I learned, that if I take small parts of what I am drawing, rather than trying to see the big picture, it is easier. Because - it is about the lines. If I see something as lines, I can draw it. Then, I see it as shadows and shades of color to fill in the lines. It helps me to overcome the struggle to put it on paper that way. The only drawback is, when I draw less graphic images and begin to do landscapes, etc., which require illusion rather than detail to put the image to canvas or paper, I get stuck in the lines and try to put in too much detail.
It is necessary with painting to start with the shadows and color and then add the lines, and my brain resists this. Of course, this is why sketching is helpful. This week, I went back to some old line drawings and learned how to create them with technology. What's great is, that once drawn, I can make them move and bend. Now that is fun. But OH the memory they use when a series of them is animated. They locked down my computer, which is admittedly old and lacking memory space. Guess I start with a smaller sample size next time.
