Overview -

I have never really considering myself an artist but have been intrigued by the possibility of improving my drawing ability at this stage in my life. I went into the experience with the personal goal of becoming better at drawing. What I would learn is that RBR doesn't just focus on the skills of drawing but on the perception and creativity involved. From the beginning, the five day workshop seemed like a perfect opportunity to work on these skills and abilities. The workshop is provided at the RBR Creative Arts center in Tokyo by Kristin Newton. RBR Website

 

Starting Place -

Before the course we were asked to draw a portrait of ourselves. Below is my first drawing. This drawing took me about 30min. I used some of the skills I thought I had learned somewhat at university and actually felt pretty proud of the drawing when finished. I remember wondering if I would actually learn anything. In hindsight that was a rediculous concern. The progress I would experience would be truly shocking.

 

 

The workshop Begins...

 I really didn't know what to expect on the first day of the workshop. I thought the other participants might be much more artistic than me. I was open minded but didn't really have very high expectations for myself. The first day we spent doing lines and noticing edges. In the photo below we are completing an excercise on day two that taught us about contrast and shade. What was most interesting was that at first I couldn't even see the contrast. Looking and drawing our hands as we we did here, I assumed my hand was just flesh colored whatever that means. Having completed the exercises in this part of course I learned to first notice the many shades of pink, red, brown, black and white highlights that comprise the image I see when looking at my hand. I know it probably sounds insane that you can spend hours looking at and drawing your hand but this one exercise took me from a state of "not seeing" to a state of seeing.

 

 

Day Three Breakthrough

 

On day three the course focuses on the space around objects or negative space. Drawing requires of us to focus on the objects of the drawing but equally on the space around objects. The object we had been assigned to draw was one of those bent back wooden chairs with the wicker seat. You would think this might have been a simple thing to draw but in actuality it was really hard for me to get the curve of the line just right. I couldn't do it and the reality or inaccuracey of the drawing made this perfectly obvious to everyone including me. I needed a new method. I needed a new approach to this assignment.

 

I was frustrated and started to hear those old voices tearing down my confidence with drawing. When I was a child my sister was the artist. I was the musician. We both did sports but she rarely crossed into my world of bands and music. I had rarely delved into her world of visual art. Here I was bumping against, for me, ancient patterns of inexperience and self-doubt with drawing. I started thinking about the things I can do and one of them is snowboarding. When I was in my 20's I had taught snowboarding at Vermont mountain resort in the winter and managed to ride nearly 80 days a season. As absurd as it sounds, I tried to imagine what it would feel like to ride my board around the bend in the back of that chair. I could almost feel the board beneath my body and the shift in direction originating from stomach and hips that characterizes fluid snowboarding. Once I had that feeling I tried again putting pencil to paper and to my shock and surprise the line came out perfectly. Seriously! I had struggled with that curve for nearly an hour and with one minor shift in thinking I had it perfectly. I was astounded.

 

Day 4 Perspective Drawing Project

I don't have photos of this project but day 4 I spent the entire day and well into the evening drawing a hallway and door. This was an interesting experience in part because I think I could have built the door faster than I could draw it accurately. One of the issues I encountered was that the light behind the door changed over the course of the day as the sun rose into a midday sky and then angled low into evening. There were windows in and to either side of the door I had chosen to draw. The consistantly changing shadows and highlights proved extremely challenging and I had to go back and tighten up the highlights again and again before I moved on. In the end I decided to get all the lines down and then go back and add the contrast. This proved to be a good strategy and enabled me to finish the drawing. In the end I had had to re-work the drawing so many times the paper showed signs of wear from all my erasing and re-drawing. Of all the drawings this was the one I was and still am least pleased with.

 

One of the biggest issues I had with this assignment is that I actually know a fair amount about carpentry and literally I might be able to build this door. What I learned was that this knowledge which in almot any other circumstance would be helpful or a strength was actually a hinderance. In the language of the workshop, that knowledge is intellectualized analtiycal thought or "Left-Brain". Rather than help me, it actually inhibited my ability to actually see the door as it was. I kept on thinking about the way the wood fit together rather than just enabling myself to see the door (particularly the door frame). Furthermore, because I had spent four days using accurate perceptive skills and not using  analytic/abstract thought I found it hard to effectively rely on that skill and made some stupid mistakes. Looking at it now, I can see that this was a threshold moment. I wasn't allowing perception to operate uninhibited by intellect but had been exploring that way of observation to enough depth to actually become rusty with more nearly pure intellectual observation. I left day four less than satisfied with my finished drawing but pleased to have understood what my biggest challenges had been. The next day we were scheduled to complete our self-portraits and I wanted to have it all assimilated for that day.

 

Day 5 - Portrait Day and Celebration

 

 

Here is one of the instructor's self portraits starting to emerge out of the page

 

 

Here is my second self-portrait

 

 

Here is a drawing I did of my son several weeks after finishing the course

 

 

Increased their overall awareness of their own strengths and areas for growth. âœ“ I never considered myself an artist before this course but now see that it isn't as much about talent as it is about perception, use of skills, and practice. I know that I actually am an artist and while I still have a lot to learn, I can see how through development of specific techniques such as line drawing or negative space occured in this course I could become even better and visual expression.

Undertaken new challenges ✓  I have never taken drawing seriously but in this course I really wanted to try and apply myself. I am amazed with what happened over the course of the 5 day workshop.

Planned and Initiated Activities N/A Other than signing up for it I didn't have to plan anything for this activity.

Worked collaboratively with others ✓ There was a lot of collaboration in this course. We had to work frequently with partners and model for each other. When I drew my partners I had to accept the risk that they might now like how I drew them. Similarly, when I was the model I tried to take all pressure of my partner so they could relax and just practice the skills of the course. It wasn't as much teamwork as it was empathy but it still required collaboration.

Shown perseverance and commitment in their activities âœ“ Well for 5 days I was committed and dedicated as far as the future is concerned I think I will draw more than before but am not sure how much time I will be able to dedicate to drawing. I think an important first step was just getting involved and really committing to it for a week to try it out. I am very happy to have had this opportunity.

Engaged with issues of global importance N/A

Considered the ethical implications of their actions N/A

Developed new skills ✓ I developed many new skills in this course but the one with the most impact is how I now see the world differently. It is as if I can turn on an "accurate perception" setting in my mind and eyes and see things as they really are not just as I imagine them to be. This has been a profound shift that I'd highly recommend for other people.