Preparatory Drawings
I taught my students that prep sketches were for very concrete tasks: to explore forms, analyze formal relationships, discover and think about composition.
But they’re not necessarily about composition or the concrete. Ideas occur in the mind as a pencil delineates a form, too - associations that by their nature run the risk of being swept away in a rush to find form. They are soft and fleeting and half baked. Irritating. They’re in the way of a clear notion, a way to start.
The task is to include the mess of suggestion and sideways hints. To allow irresolve so that the content may stew and steam in its own juices. It’s uncomfortable, waiting for all the bits and pieces to resolve themselves. (I like to step back and read at this point, maybe some pages of a novel or mystery. A watched pot never boils, to mix my metaphors horribly.) Chances are the original inspiration or impetus will slide away or become only slightly recognizable. Or disappear completely. In this way a psychic field of play may occur and there is at least, a way to begin.
3/26/2021