Strange one this workshop. Strange is good though, makes you think, look at things from a different point of view, explore your creativity.
With this brief we started by taking an object and without looking at it draw it on a piece of paper. I had a plastic cow with a larger timer clock on the side. A strange piece in itself, stranger to draw without looking at it. I found it easier to not actually look at the paper I was drawing on either, I felt if I looked I could potentially draw what I thought it should be rather than what it felt like.
After a couple of attempts at the cow I decided to change the item for a foam brick that had the end all broken off creating a rough, yet soft end to the block or brick.
This required more translation of touch to putting a mark on the paper. The shape was quite abstract, the end of the block had rough edges where the foam had been pulled apart creating indentations, outcrops, undetermined edges. This translated as combination of lines and shapes overlapping that didn't really represent the block in the way it would have if I had drawn it as a still life, yet was far more interesting and the marks told much more about the actual surface and shape of the item.
Now time for a self portrait.
Taking a 3 dimensional object and depicting it on paper is one of the biggest challenges of drawing. You look to show the form, the bulk of the shape. Lighting and shade help to translate the item to give it wholesomeness. Yet some of these are tricks, techniques. Often the drawn item or painting is made to look as if it is in the round yet it is still on a 1 dimensional plane.
When drawing by touch you don't limit yourself to just what is visible, you feel beyond what the eyes can see. The back of the head, the indentations, textures, bulk. However you also loose the ability to depict colour, relationships, structure and expected form. What is the true representation? The more interesting one is the one by touch. The detail you can feel and the way it is translated onto the paper make for far more of an interesting piece. Parts of it may be slightly disturbing but also parts of it may be far more true to what the actual item or in this instance, head is and the space it occupies.
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