Outside that Comfort Zone
So there has been much discussion as of late about stepping outside of comfort zones and growing as an artist.
It is important to me to do this and to push myself so that I do not stagnate. So along those lines I am going to publish the results from my first two weeks in portrait drawing class. We are working from real live people and I am not really thrilled with the results.
I am putting these up here for a few different reasons. One, I would like people to know that I am walking what I am talking. Two, I want to demonstrate that the immediate results are not what it is truly important… and lastly I am hoping that as the class progresses I will be able to see an improvement in what I am doing. (I will post the drawings from other classes here or in another post.)
I know rather this proves to be true or not that I have already learned a great deal about both myself and about drawing portraits and I am glad to have been able to do this.
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These sketches were done in about 15 minutes each and all of them had different goals. The class is being taught by Patricia Tribastone at the Art Stop in Webster, NY.
Just TeeJay's Blog 
“i am not really thrilled with the results”. what was your expectation before class? have you changed that since beginning? perhaps you need to be less ‘results’ oriented to get all you can from the class. what if you could draw what you see/feel, without seeing the canvas and then it was removed before you could critique it? what would you learn then? how you stand, how you feel, what angle you hold the pencil/brush, what line on the subject do you draw first? why? is it the easiest or most prominent? what if you started with detail work before gross features? what if you had a piece of weird plexiglass between you and the canvas, so you could see your hand and basic shapes and could thus follow your own work, but the surface in some way obscured the canvas and all you see is the basic idea of what you are drawing? kind of like wearing someone’s coke bottle glasses if you didn’t need them. how would that change your approach to the model’s likeness? i do not know if you were looking for someone else’s untrained thought process, but it all popped into my mind… and so of course i shared. kudos for continually moving forward! gretchen
and one more thing…
the second to last drawing speaks to me. seems like you were trying to use light and shadow instead of line, and it has drawn my eye more than the others. it seems in that drawing lines are craft but light is art. (if that makes sense).
ah yes…. well Gretchen, therein lies the truth that I am far better at images than expressing myself with words.
I suppose that putting the statement out there “I am not really thrilled with the results” is more of a fear buffer. Part of the “danger” in stepping outside one’s comfort zone is the fear of failing. While I don’t feel that these images in of themselves are particularly successful, I believe that the endeavor has been everything that I could have hoped for so far.
I AM thrilled with what I am learning.