What is Drawing?
Drawing for me is like a kind of magical activity which conjures something from nothing and could be absolutely anything in the process.
At the same time, as being such a wonder, it is a principal activity that almost everyone has done and can do. If you are lucky, you were encouraged to draw from a very young age, a crayon or pencil a bit of paper or a stick in the sand.
Digital age
Drawing in the sand? We live in a digital age with the sophistication of screens and programmes however I like the idea that drawing is even more available than that; a natural process of materialising and ordering thoughts, with potentially little or no cost to the individual or the environment. Second only to thinking and feeling.
drawing as…
Communication,
Enjoyment,
a challenge,
relaxing,
ordering of thoughts,
self-expression,
research,
escapism,
memory,
relationship,
development,
endless,
equitable,
and recyclable.
Of the mind
Drawing and illustration pervade our world as a vehicle for thought; on a practical level, we need it to plan, map, explain, direct, identify, warn and entertain. We are used to understanding drawings; this language seems to come naturally and there are definitely instincts towards it, however, we are also initiated from infancy by our family and society as a precursor to letters and writing.
History repeats itself
A team of archaeologists have discovered what could be the oldest drawing by us, Homo Sapiens in the Blombos cave in South Africa. This abstract pattern; nine red lines on a rock was made with an ochre crayon and is said to have a familiarity to modern-day eyes because it looks like a hashtag. Researchers believe it maybe 73,000 years old, predating the next oldest drawing by 30,000 years.
While essential to our individual development as humans; in prehistory along with sculpture and painting, it was critical to our species evolving into modern human beings; developing the capability of abstract thought, imagination, and conceptualising time.
View my drawings and sketches in the art shop
visit the shop
Leave a Reply