Gestural drawing: a quick study -

"Mick's Glasses"
pencil sketch by Mick Mather

Last week I participated in Career Day at one of our local High Schools. My presentation was a general discussion of drawing & illustrating by hand vs computer generated work and how both relate to individual fields in real life. Such as: graphic art, design, architecture, illustration and fine art, to name a few. Each student was encouraged to take pencil and paper and do a quick study of the coffee cup I was drinking from that morning. When they turned the tables on me I said, "okay, what should I draw?" Their answer was, "how about your glasses." Above is the scan of that very fast sketch, used as an example of the difference between a sketch, a working drawing, a preliminary study and a finished work of art. They seemed amazed that it was "okay" to just scribble out something in less than 30 seconds as I went on to tell them that, "this method of letting yourself go will accomplish a few things, not the least of which is a much more interesting, fluid and loose drawing style compared to something restrictive and tight." You can see another, manipulated version of this drawing at MickMathersARTblog.

The Original Photograph -

"Study for The Lawn Chairs"
photograph by Mick Mather

Here's the promised peek at the original photo that resulted in "The Lawn Chairs" as posted on MICKMATHERSARTBLOG. As you can see, it's a fairly simple shot of some twigs scattered across a concrete slab. This is just as I found them, no rearranging was done, patterns formed out of chaos by invisible hands of the wind, the weather and perhaps a bird or small animal here and there.