Why Is Drawing From Life Important?
Deciding what to bring with you when you travel with art supplies is also very important. You need to bring lightweight art supplies that you can carry with you and easily pack up whether you are traveling on a vacation, going on a weekend trip, or simply venturing out on an art excursion in your home town.
Museums are a wonderful place to draw from life! We can always learn so much from other artists. Other options include sitting in a coffee shop, going to a local park, or your downtown area.
All art supplies can be found on my Resources page here.
(The sketchbook is handmade by me.)
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WHY IS DRAWING FROM LIFE IMPORTANT? + Travel Art Supplies
WHY IS DRAWING FROM LIFE IMPORTANT?
Before we dive into the reasons why drawing from life is good practice for artists, I want to say that you can still be an amazing artist / designer without drawing from life. Back in the good ole days, photography didn’t exist so artists had to rely on their sketches to remember scenes, compositions, and other details in order to make a final painting. They didn’t have other options!
Now that we’re in the 21st Century, artists and designers can absolutely work from reference photos, trend inspirations, and loads of research both online as well as in retail stores, fashion, and more. In fact, I went roughly 10 years WITHOUT drawing from life so, of course, you can still be a highly skilled artist / designer without drawing from life.
Lately, however, I’ve wanted to push myself and reintroduce more Fine Art practices into my creative process. In college, I was a Fine Art major (BFA with a concentration in oil painting) and we were always encouraged to keep a consistent sketchbook practice and draw from life.
So, let’s dive into the reasons why drawing from life is a beneficial practice!
1 | ART EXCURSIONS ARE FUN
It’s late April, gorgeous weather here in Atlanta, and after a year of quarantine I’m ready to get out of the house! As much as I love working out of my Art Studio (and I worked hard to make it an inspiring space), I need a change of scenery.
If you’re like me, you’ve probably worked hard to make sure your creative process is efficient. You’ve got your space set up, your supplies nearby in an organized, easy-to-access fashion, and when you’re ready to work it’s easy to jump in headfirst. The problem with efficiency is it can get a little boring. When you become a pro at your creative cycle it’s a little like being on auto-pilot.
Art excursions are fun! It breaks up the monotony of your regular work day. You get to be outside in the park, in your favorite coffee shop, perhaps downtown, or in your local museum. You can go with a friend, pack a picnic, or go out to lunch. You can plan a socializing, leisurely activity while you sharpen your artistic skills at the same time.
And I don’t know if you’re interested in neuroplasticity in the brain, but it essentially means that the brain can rewire itself and create new pathways. Getting out of your comfort zone, challenging yourself, and learning something new is good for your brain! Not to mention it pushes your art skills to the next level.
Just like with foreign language, if you don’t use it you lose it. Drawing skills (and especially drawing from life) is a lot like that.
Now, I’m not necessarily saying that drawing from life is going to prompt my next fabric collection and become a best-seller. I still think it’s important to research trends and create sellable, market-viable artwork for commercial purposes. Exhibitions at the Museum may or may not be relevant in a commercial marketplace.
But, I AM saying that drawing from life will make me a better artist overall. And becoming a better artist is always something I’m interested in. It all connects.
2 | GAINING A FINE ARTIST’S PERSPECTIVE
Like I mentioned in the introduction, there’s nothing wrong with drawing from reference photos. Especially, if you took the photographs yourself - then you’re still working from your own eye. It’s usually a more efficient way to get work done and it broadens the possibilities when artists are looking at multiple inspirations.
However, the drawback with working from reference photos is you're always working from a photographer’s perspective rather than a human one, or a fine artist one. With our smart phones, we snap photographs all the time. I basically have a million photos on my phone at all times and I rarely look back through them. These days, photos are a dime a dozen and aren’t necessarily crafted well (exception for professional photographers, of course).
The benefit of drawing from life is that it develops your eye to see in REAL time. Your brain is analyzing the scene around you in 3-D and deciphering how to crop it on the page. Being able to see and draw in real time is invaluable.
3 | DEVELOPS FLEXIBILITY IN YOUR ART
Many times, whether we’re drawing & painting or designing a pattern, the final result isn’t something we could have imagined in its entirety. We have an idea of what we want to create, but the final artwork ends up evolving into its own thing. That’s where flexibility as an artist is extremely important.
Unless the goal is to render in Photo Realism, artists tend to try things and see how they like it as the artwork is developing. It becomes an intuitive process, but we may rearrange the initial layout, add or subtract a motif, create more negative space for breathing room, or add a layer of texture for more interest. We allow the color palette to play out in real time. We started out with an idea for color, but we allow our art to be a living thing: to grow and change as necessary.
When you draw from life, things are moving, the scene might be changing quickly, or if you are in a museum there will probably be someone waiting behind you to see the artwork you’re sketching. It forces you to work quickly! To get the initial impression down.
In my recent experience at the High Museum of Art, there were no benches to sit on while I was sketching. I had to stand and sketch in front of any artworks I wanted to capture, which limited my medium to pen + ink only. There was no way I could pull out my watercolors and I didn’t have time to fill in with colored pencils or markers as other visitors were waiting behind me.
It can feel frustrating when you want to accurately sketch out what you’re seeing, but ultimately it’s a good thing! It forces you to be flexible as an artist, work quickly, and improvise later on if you want to fill in further details.
*Photo taken in Birmingham, AL.
4 | DEVELOP OBSERVATION SKILLS
Drawing from life requires you to slow down, pay closer attention, and really zoom in on the details of what’s in front of you. If you’re in an art museum or at an exhibition, there’s always something you can learn from other artists.
It’s easy to think, “Oh, I’ll remember this,” but our memories embed the details much stronger in our brains if we actually stop and capture a sketch (even if it’s a quick gesture sketch).
When you’re sketching in your sketchbook, it requires you to see the artwork better than if you just stood there for a second and thought, “Hm, that’s cool,” and continued on to the next piece. You are observing with greater attention and clarity: composition, line quality, color placement, mark making techniques, etc.
5 | RECORD A SPECIAL MEMORY
If you’re going on vacation, traveling for an epic adventure, or simply a weekend trip, drawing from life in your sketchbook helps record a special memory. We tend to take tons of pictures on our smart phones, but how often do you really go back and look at those photos?
I know for me personally, I love flipping back through old sketchbooks. It arouses the same feelings I was feeling when I made the sketches and I get a deeper sense of being back in that place. It’s like that moment in time comes alive again.
Nothing wrong with taking photos, of course! I plan to continue taking lots of pictures when I’m traveling, but I also plan on drawing from life more in my sketchbook. I want to make a real effort to do both. Flipping back through an old sketchbook of a really special trip provides a deeper connection to my precious memories.
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