What Comes Next 2017

Christmas Books - 2016
29 December 2016
Ink and Watercolour
Stillman & Birn Alpha Series Sketchbook
20.3cm x 14.0cm (8.0" x 5.5")

Elaine gave me Experimental Drawing by Robert Kaupelis and Expressive Drawing by Steven Aimone for Christmas. I intend to use these to structure my drawing practice in 2017. The other book in the sketch is Everyday Matters by Danny Gregory. It’s a book I’ve wanted to read for ages and was a present from Julie.

It’s a long time since I’ve thought about what I want from drawing and painting. The last time I wrote a blog post on this was in July 2013 (see What Comes Next).

I enjoy ink and watercolour sketching and I intend to carry on with this in 2017, but I also want something more. Sketching stuff around the house using the same techniques is becoming repetitive, so I’m going to explore some other approaches to drawing and painting.

I’m going to be more experimental in my sketching - use some different tools and maybe even try some collage, but this can wait until the summer. Initially, I am going to focus on drawing and painting techniques.

I know I want to paint, but I don’t know what or how. As a result, I’m not very inspired. Part of the problem is also my lack of mastery of watercolour, so I am going to continue reading and following the exercises from Watercolor Painting by Tom Hoffmann.

I want to make more confident and interesting marks and to incorporate more emotion and spontaneity into my drawings and paintings. I hope to achieve this by reading and following the exercises in the books Elaine bought me for Christmas. The exercises in Experimental Drawing look like they could take a couple years to get through, so I’m going to start with Expressive Drawing - which is all about intuitive mark making. The emphasis is on nonrepresentational drawing which will be a change for me but I’m excited to give it a go.