Okay, the first two methods we’ve discussed follow the general approach to drawing we’ve all learned instinctively, whether we realize it or not.
Drawing actually consists of two stages:
1. Seeing, and then…
2. Swirling your pencil around.
It’s surprising how many of us can actually swirl our pencils around quite well, and find that our missing skill is not pencil- swirling but the seeing part of the process.
So if we could just swirl our pencils around without seeing, what kind of interesting results might that reward us with?
Try this exercise: Get out a blank sheet of paper and a good ol’ #2 pencil. Don’t worry whether it’s even got an eraser or not, because you’re not allowed to use your eraser. In fact, you’re abso- lutely forbidden to use your eraser in this exercise.
Sound scary? Good. Let’s get started.
You’re about to take your pencil in your hand (whether it’s your usual drawing hand or not doesn’t really matter — you might try this with either hand) and start randomly swirling your pencil around in little doodles.
But here’s the catch: Before you go any further, and before you so much as set your pencil down onto the paper… whatever you do… don’t look at the paper!
Just draw, and try not to think too much about what your hand is drawing. For the moment, you are totally unconcerned about what direction your line takes.
Put your pencil down on the paper, and start swirling it around. Do this for five or 10 seconds, alternating between slow and steady swirls and quick and erratic flicks of your pencil. Better yet, don’t even let your pencil up from the paper. Just draw one continuous, flowing, wiggling, jiggling line and don’t worry whether it’s cross- ing over itself or not.
The point is to get as close to a random series of blind lines on your paper as possible.
Okay, once you’re done, you can now peek at your paper.
Random results of blindfold drawing
How did you do? Is it an absolute mess? That’s okay; it’s all part of the challenge.
Now your assignment is to start staring at that seemingly ran- dom mess and try to find some recognizable patterns. See if you see anything that resembles a face, or a body, maybe even an animal or a person.
Naturally, you might not see it at first. You may have to search through your doodles, but you’ll see them eventually.
It’s almost like staring at clouds in the sky. That cloud looks like a dragon, or that one looks like a sailing ship, maybe even a
wolverine swallowing a badger in a duel to the death with bat- tery-operated saxophones. (Okay, if you see that, you might actually want to seek psychiatric help; that’s how I found out I was working too hard.)
Now, let’s say other people were looking at this doodle, and try- ing to see this character that you’ve arrived at. They might not see it as easily as you see it; as a matter of fact, they might need some help. What sort of help would they need?
Okay, if you see an eye, maybe you could help the image by adding its counterpart eye on the other side of the face. Do you need to add eyebrows, a nose, or a mouth?
Go ahead and do that now. Your objective in this exercise obvi- ously isn’t making a finished drawing, but a beginning drawing. And sometimes those are more important than the “final.”
Find the hidden critters and add lines as necessary.
Repeat this several times until you find at least one drawing you can use to begin with.
A similar approach to this is even closer to the “cloud gazing” experience. You can start out by staring at clouds and drawing what
you “see,” but just about any seemingly random pattern will work as well. I used to have wood paneling on my walls when I was a kid (yes, well it was the ’70s), and I always remember seeing the “teddy bear” design in the wall. It wasn’t a real drawing of a teddy bear, but just a wavy wood pattern that reminded me of a teddy bear.
How the ancient astronomers ever decided those constellations looked like Hercules, or any Greek heroes, monsters, or even a “big dipper” is beyond me, but it’s using almost the same approach.
You may have textured plaster on your ceiling. If you don’t have a textured ceiling, maybe you’re sitting in a classroom or the library. If that’s the case, and you look up, you may even see those little pinholes in those ceiling panels. Are there any interesting characters residing there, just waiting for you to stare at them long enough for them to begin to stare back?
Do you have carpet on your floor? Has it been disturbed by someone’s footprints recently in a pattern that reminds you of a towering ogre’s profile? How about a rock formation in a city park or zoo? There was a tiny, almost imperceptible tear on the wallpa- per of the bathroom in our last apartment that few would have noticed, but right next to that tiny tear was
a slightly discolored blob that made me think of a prehistoric monster,
with horns like a musk ox and tusks like a wild boar on steroids. By this time, you may find yourself get- ting some ideas. Y’know, you’d better jot those ideas down before you forget them.
You might be able to