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| Elaine Cooking Dinner Daily Composition - May 2012 Graphite Pencil on Paper 13cm x 19cm (5" x 7.5") |
Last Sunday (3 June 2012), I completed a year of the Daily Composition exercise from the Natural Way to Draw.
The daily composition is a scribbled gesture drawing of figures and their environment (see Daily Composition). It is drawn from memory and can be something you have seen in the last 24 hours, a memorable event from your past or even an imagined scene – at least half the drawings should be a scene from the last 24 hours.
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| Man at the Bar in the Black Horse Daily Composition - May 2012 Graphite Pencil on Paper 20cm x 15cm (8" x 6") |
As the name suggests, the daily composition is supposed to be a daily exercise. I managed to do a drawing on 339 of the 366 days.
Most of the days I missed were in the early part of the year. In the first few weeks, I worried about doing the exercise when I was tired and not giving it my best. This was until I realised the importance of the instruction to do the exercise every day. Nicolaides practically says quantity is as important as quality. If the choice is between doing the exercise badly and not doing the exercise, do the exercise. If you put in the effort, the quality will eventually take care of itself.
The exercise is about observation. It encourages you to take a moment each day to think - if I am going to draw this, what do I need to remember? It is also a daily statement of my intention to learn to draw.
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| Ladies in Baseball Caps Making Sandwiches Behind a Display Fridge Daily Composition - May 2012 Graphite Pencil on Paper 20cm x 15cm (8" x 6") |
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