At the beginning of the session we were shown slides of various artists who responded to the figure using a variety of line and discussed the works. Never having done any life drawing for over 25 years made for a daunting but lively workshop session. However the anticipation took over and I threw myself into the work enthusiastically.  The focus was mark making and line. Our mark making is like our handwriting. We all make marks differently as was evident from the work in the class. Instructions were not to worry about detail and proportions but to think about creating some movement in the drawing and think about the quality of line. Trying to vary the line to suggest tone and form makes for a much more interesting drawing. The media used is of importance as this can dictate the weight and quality of the line and the ease of drawing and provides the opportunity to experiment with mark making. Blind drawing is a technique used and this encourages hand, eye co-ordination and control of materials. Rubbing away lines, layering, turning the drawing upside down and reworking it produced ghostly line and shadows. During the critique at the end of the session I confessed that I had been completely unsure of what results I would achieve. Bolton(2005:33) in ‘Reflective Practice. Writing and Professional Development’ wrote, ‘the responsibility of uncertainty is uncomfortable, until confidence in the excitement of discovery is acquired’. She goes on to say, ‘not knowing is active and enquiring, rather like the small child’s iconoclastic eternal ‘why?” (ibid:34). I searched and explored and experimented with the concepts presented to us and enjoyed the discovery. The drawings may not be in proportion, representational examples of figure drawing but they are about enquiry and finding out, a personal response and questioning ‘why and what if?’

Bolton(2005)  ‘Reflective Practice. Writing and Professional Development’ Sage