Some wonderful stuff here. And this passage sums up my feelings about drawing and photography pretty well. Drawing/sketching is all about impressions and choices (we don’t have to put the powerlines or other distractions in a drawing): photography, as practiced by most people, is about realism, warts and all. Truth be told, I wish I could draw more realistically so I could feel more comfortable about adding my impressions. And the desire to make a faithful record of a scene is what drove the invention of photography, after all.
On various sketching and drawing styles (autumn, 2005)At one end of the drawing spectrum is the very loose and carelessly scribbled sketch. This can be fun to look at even if you don’t know what it’s supposed to be. A lot of people think only of this style when they hear the word “sketch.”
At the other end of the spetcrum is the meticulously rendered drawing with photographic realism that took many hours of tedious labor to achieve.
Between these two is the vast area where most of us non-professional artists probably live, the realm of living sketches or drawings that depict recognizable subjects with a balance of freedom and accuracy.
We don’t have time to waste on scribbles, and the invention of the camera has freed us from the obligation to slavishly record reality.
Sketching may be the only art we produce, and we want to make it worthwhile. We want to make stuff that we are proud to show to others, even if they are thumbing through a sketchbook rather than strolling through a gallery. This kind of art can exciting for both the artist and the viewer.
Thumb through his sketchbook.