What’s With the Drawings?
Posted by bethrobinson on April 23, 2008
“I can’t draw, but…” echoed in my head and I realized I needed to experiment with incorporating visual thinking into my life and blog outside of the “art box” that I unconsciously had it in.
It began when Rob commented a few weeks back with a suggestion that my blog could use a few photos for a bit of flavor. I liked the idea, but didn’t want to spend time looking through photo archives for appropriate images. I thought - I am an artist, so maybe I could generate my own images. My usual medium is too slow and I can’t draw representationally very well, but I could try to cartoon.
As I was mulling that idea over another part of my brain realized I’d heard part of that phrase recently. “I can’t draw, but…” is at the center of Dan Roam’s visual problem-solving philosophy in The Back of the Napkin and I’d been playing around on his web site before I decided to go ahead and buy the book.
And it clicked.
To meet my goals, I need to expand my thinking ability by adding visual tools and methods. I’m so close to the idea already. Although I do most of my thinking verbally, I do it by writing out in long-hand, adding in the visual and the tactile. This should be a small step for me.
So - drawings.
Today’s is actually a slice of a sketchbook page from my art blog done as part of an exercise from a book called Keys to Drawing with Imagination by Bert Dodson. The exercise involves applying deliberate variations to improvisational forms. Sounds like problem-solving to me.
