"Blurry Vision", HB and B8 Pencil Drawing
This is the first sketch I have made in a while. It is interesting how stressful it is to stare at the blank piece of paper after such a long time not drawing. It is almost like the pencil and eraser could sense my angst. The startled look of the eye in the sketch is also a testament to my own startled-ness when I picked up the pencil. I briefly explain the sketch in a short philosophical essay before I share the video of the process of the sketch. My technique is a little different, I use the eraser almost like a pencil, coating the tip of the eraser with pencil lead. Please see the video for this. In any case, I hope you like the sketch, and the small essay inspired by the work.
Vision and a Blank Canvas: A Philosophical Essay on Seeing without Barriers
A blank canvas or piece of paper might symbolize a new beginning. Starting anew, no indentations have yet been etched onto the stainless piece of paper. Stain-less, without stain. Viewing the world without stains, without barriers, is sometimes impossible. Startled by the everyday, we cloud our vision with rigid structures to help us cope. Coping by posing structures onto the world to lessen the startled-ness, the unfamiliarity of the everyday beams like a bright light when we rid ourselves of these barriers.
But we convinced ourselves that it is a better world when we blur our vision to shorten the startled-ness. Blurring our vision, we cope with life that has become a habit. A habit of living, blurring our vision so that we might live by habit. For getting rid of the fog, the blur, we will become again startled at the strangeness of the everyday, the ordinary, the habit itself. See the canvas as blank is already a blurred vision; constructed from the remnants of a habitual structured ordinary vision. For seeing without these structures would leave one mad. Or it might be the other way round: those who are deemed mad have the ability to see without the rigid structures imposed onto the world. This seeing or awareness leaves most startled, as a result a scurrying back to order, to construction, to habit.
For is it not that our habitual structures which we impose onto the world that save our minds from going mad? Startled we might look into the abyss of a world without structure, but in the end, we would want to see the familiar lines drawn onto the blank page.
Video Process of the Drawing
Here is a short sped up video of the process of the drawing I uploaded onto YouTube:
Process of the Drawing in Pictures
And here are some photographs of the process:
I enjoyed this blog.. hehehehe
It's been a while my friend! I've been gone for a month - but i'm back hehehe
2 weeks of covid (2nd time) - then 2 week wildfire evacuation. and that's all there is to it .
but i'm back and happy to come visit you! hehehe
i love watching sped up art videos - i can draw but i can't DRAW. hahaha my daughter can, and i love watching her videos too hehe
its amazing to see the detail and the process to me. probably especially because I can't do it at all by myself!
also... i have never liked the look of my hands LOL so I'm always very aware of people who have nice hands hahahahahaha and you have such nice hands!
My favorite part of the video was at the end, when you leaned your head onto your left hand and just continued to kinda lightly scribble on the page - adding in highlights, lowlights, details and whatever.
It was such a sweet thing to view - I don't know why.. just... I imagine myself poring over every detail, head 1 inch from the paper, sweat beading on my brow as I work so hard... and here you are... an artist, just casually leaning on your hand and sketching away as if its breathing heheheheh it just made me smile. the things that our brains are attuned to.... i love the differences in us all - it lets us appreciate them all the more i think.
as far as what you were saying in the actual blog - yes... hehehe uncertainty is something I do not like. I like predictability. now.. i don't like to STAY in unpredictability! hahahaha i do love the option of the blank page too - because I'm a creative. but... without structure, order, and predictability - i find that my ability to "dreem" is limited too - because in order to drEEm - i need to build. and if i'm not careful, i won't only be building that castle in the sky - i'll be living in it. hahahaha
so yes... lol i love balance. order and chaos. predictability and spontaneity. reality and fantasy.
Glad you got to drawing again hehehe
Hi there friend! I saw your absence, and I am sorry to hear about both those unfortunate events! I am glad that you are here to tell the survival story!
Oh thank you so much! I try not to be too self-aware of my hands. I am glad that they present themselves well haha. And yeah, I love the sped-up videos as well. It almost becomes a small art piece itself!
For the love of art, I would say haha. Thank you so much for looking in so much detail. I think one is never really aware of your own movements and antics until someone points them out. So thank you in that regard.
Oh yes I understand that one too well. There have been some studies on kids that show with too much freedom they actually become less creative and more "hindered". But as a philosopher and artist, I think I have a unique affinity towards unpredictability and chaos, and unstructuredness. Or as one of my go-to philosophers said, philosophers feel at home in the in-betweenness of science and art. I have no idea if that makes sense! But yes, chaos and order need to find that perfect balance for predictability and spontaneity to flourish.
Glad to hear from you again! 😀
i love you comments!!!! hehehehehe
and you're welcome for the visit and the attention to detail hahahaha
sorry for the late response here! hahaha life got a little nutty again! i have so many irons in the fire and they are all so much fun but require so much time! LOLOLOL
I think i have another comment from you - and i have all these tabs open hehehehe so i'm going to read that one now too - and i think tomorrow i'll come by your blog and see what's new hehehe :)
thanks for noticing my absence by the way! :)
it looks like its all staring into my soul.... Looks so realistic
I am glad! Thank you so much. I really appreciate it.