Sunday, March 7, 2021

March: Drawing a Lion, Drawing a Lamb

I have continued to create a sketch to go along with the date for a card that's at our COVID check in station at school.  Some days I'm drawing something abstract, while other days, I have something specific in mind.  Some days I work from a picture, if I'm trying to attain realism, while other days I'm having fun creating something that's in my imagination.

Some days, I try drawing something as I envision it and quickly realize I need to shift gears.  

In the waning days of February, I had a vision for a March 1 card that had both a lion and a lamb to reference the old saying about March coming in like a lion and going out like a lamb.  Of course, down here in South Florida, we seem to be back in swampy summer.  

I tried drawing a lion, and realized I had drawn him too big:




Then I tried to just draw his head.




And then I got lost in self-loathing about how I had no skills at all.  How could I draw lions that looked so much like jack-o-lanterns or strange suns?

I realized that I wasn't sure what a real lion would look like, so I did a search for images.  And then I tried to draw what I saw:



Then I drew a lamb--without looking at images of lambs.  I was less pleased with the lamb, but I had already spent way too much time on the project.  When I googled lamb images, I came up with lamb chops.  I did get a sense of the ears.  

When I look back at these lion images, I'm astounded.  I drew them all, and not across an expanse of time.  I drew them in about 15 minutes.

Here I might end with a meditation on the importance of learning to see, to look at images and copy what I see, not what I expect to see.  But some days, I've sketched solely from imagination, and been delighted with those sketches.  Some days, I see what is there and change it for the better.  Some days, I couldn't draw what I see, not for love, not for money.

I am happy to have a variety of creative practices, particularly ones that can be done when I don't have vast expanses of time.  To throw a pot on a wheel takes more than 15 minutes.  To sketch a lion three times can be done in 15 minutes.

To master the ability to sketch a lion--that will likely take a lifetime.

No comments: