Week 2 : Learning lines and Batman

In week 2 we focused on lines and I was struck by parallels between acting and drawing, so I decided to do a comparison in this weeks blog. Our task for the evening was to do a drawing of Batman!

Actually, I'm joking it was more basic than that. I just wanted an excuse to include Batman.

Drawing is all an act

Anyway back to Week 2. In recent years I've become quite involved in acting, mainly with a local theatre group and the odd TV commercial. I love the creative buzz you get from acting, working on your character, collaborating with others and of course the unique combination of joy and terror of actually performing. Acting requires you to explore and push yourself. Even when playing a small role its up to you to bring some truth and authenticity to the part you play.  Coming back to drawing I thought the process would be a completely different, but actually its remarkably similar.

Lines tell the story

Drawings, paintings, theatre performances, and movies exist to tell a story, its their sole purpose. And for the most part the building blocks of the story are lines. As an actor I must learn my lines, reading them over and over, extracting their meaning, and working with the director and other actors to bring them to life. Drawing is no different, an artist must know his/her lines, be confident with them and deliver them to the page with meaning and purpose.

So in Week 2 we got to pick up a pencil and work with lines. It seems like a very simple, almost elementary task. Stand at the easel and draw a series of straight lines. But they need to be level and of the same weight from start to finish. The line should not make a heavy imprint on the page and leave no "ghosts" if the line is rubbed out. This required a surprising amount of concentration.

After the line exercise we wrote our names in script form (joined-up-writing). Then came the twist. Sam had us continue on from the last letter and draw a mirror of our signature - try it, it'll wreak your head the first couple of times you do it, unless your name is Bob or Ian. The idea is to look at something that's very familiar but from a new perspective.

 

Blocking and Stance

I had never used an easel before so standing and drawing at the same time seemed foreign to me (I am a man two things at once and all that!), so it took me some time to get my head around this 'style'. Your physical position, its seems, is as important in drawing as it is in acting.

Actors don't just wander around the stage for no reason. Each move is planned in process known as blocking, an actor most have some motive to move and not just move for the sake of the script. Even with improv there should be a reason to move, its just hasn't been rehearsed. In the same way drawing a line must have intent, a reason to be there (or not be there), otherwise it will look wrong and the viewer will spot it. Take Picasso's "Weeping Women with a Handkerchief" this may be not to everyones taste and its not a 'real-looking' face, but the grief of the women is obvious, something about the way the lines are drawn tells our brains how to interpret the story. Picassco planned each line, there is nothing random or accidental.

The second lesson of the evening was stance, how we approach the easel. A lot of actors have a crisis about what to do with their hands, its an FAQ in all 'Learning to Act' courses. An actor learns how to be aware of their body. The lines, the blocking, the study of the character you play and the director contribute to the how an actor moves (or doesn't move), your body and hands follow. In the same way how we stand and approach the easel will affect the drawing, in general we need to be relaxed and in a comfortable stance. Picasso, a fan of Bull fighting, used to approach his easel like a bullfighter with respect and ready to do combat. I think I'll develop a more laid back approach.

 

A different vibe

The key difference between acting and drawing (painting etc) is the vibe. Acting creates both an internal and external energy. The external energy is felt between the actors, theres a comradeship that develops through a shared experience. This is transmitted to the audience in a performance.  The internal energy develops as you work on the character you play.
With art the energy is internal, it was an almost Zen like experience, as each person in the class became deeply absorbed in process of carefully drawing lines and related excercises. At one point I was completely unaware of anyone else around me, the rest of life banished, there were only the lines to focus on for those few hours.

 

So back to Batman

So I decided to put some of that line drawing practice into, well, practice. I was in the mood for Batman, so I collected a few movie stills and added them to Pinterest, then I picked one I liked. As I worked on the picture I concentrated on the precision and weight of the lines. Hopefully thats reflected in the final drawing.

Roll on Week 3.