Eyes in art eyes up mothers

I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve stared into and at these eyes: they belong to Barbara Durer, mother of Albrecht and I’ve drawn them over and over again.

Copying the drawings of others is a fabulous way to learn to draw or improve your drawing skills. It’s very practical too – you never have the excuse that you don’t know what to draw or don’t have time or space or, let’s face it, the energy to set up a subject.

I have drawn the whole head from time to time, but usually I concentrate on those marvellous eyes. Durer walks me through the process as I study each meticulous pencil stroke and mark. I work very slowly and really look.

The girls have watched me do this all their lives, and copy what I do. Now, if Beka wants to draw an apple, she goes to the fruit bowl and studies one carefully, looking from fruit to paper and back constantly as she works. If I’ve done nothing else for their art education, that willingness to look afresh, to look and what’s actually there, will help their art along enormously.

Betty Edwards is one of my drawing gurus. Author of Drawing on the Right Hand Side of the Brain, her approach to teaching and learning drawing is straightforward and brings instant results, improvement and satisfaction.

“People feel that they shouldn’t take a drawing course because they don’t know already how to draw. This is like deciding that you shouldn’t take a French class because you don’t already speak French…”

If you’ve always wanted to, but never thought you could, make today the day you surprise yourself! Betty Edwards makes use of a technique I always find surprises, encourages and delights.

Find a drawing you want to copy.

Don’t study it closely.

Turn it upside down. You stay the right way up.

Now start drawing.

Just pay attention to the lines.

Where do they start from? Where do they go? How do they get there? And what lines to they meet on the way?

That’s it. You’re drawing.

You’ve tricked your mind out of its negative “I can’t copy this drawing my a world-renowned artist. What sort of fool do I think I am?” You’re assessing, measuring, evaluating. You’re absorbed, you’re meditating on the line. You’re drawing.

Michelle at Scribbit is collecting our ‘guilty pleasures’ – be great if you could list drawing as from today!

And I feel it’s only fair to mothers in general and Durer’s in particular, to include this earlier portrait by her son, some 24 years earlier than the 1514 drawing.

Tomorrow in Works for me Wednesday I plan another post on arts activities for children - this time suggesting a kitchen art idea for older children and teenagers. And prompted by Mrs Durer here, maybe this suggestion would appeal to older people in recovery from illness, stroke etc., looking for a meaningful and absorbing activity to encourage motor skills and concentration.

Join me here. I'll bring the biscuits!

scribbit: What's Your Favorite Guilty Pleasure? | A Blog About Motherhood in Alaska