Since one of my goals in this class is less to express myself than to improve my tools for expressing myself, I chose to make artworks based on the following rules
- All artworks must be done with pencil & paper
- No erasing may be done in doing the artwork
- Artworks must be completed in three minutes or less.
Drawing fast is something I’m particularly bad at. I tend to take way too long with my drawing, and I’m almost never happy with the result. So I decided to constrain myself by forcing myself to work quickly, and try to draw accurately at the same time.
I wound up drawing various people in the campus center and library. The results are about as shoddy as you’d expect, but I think they’ve helped me work towards becoming better at life-drawing and draftsmanship.
And finally, here’s something my roomate did, at my request
I was surprised by the open-ended nature of these rules and enjoyed thinking about the vast possibility space they provide. If you were to ask several people to complete a piece of art with these rules, without showing them what you did, do you think they would produce similar pieces?
I noticed that even with the time constraint, you were able to put together some good drawings!
Is this an example of you trying to get back into sketching or cartooning?
I was surprised by using time as a constraint. Didn’t think of that.
Have you thought about making this a daily practice?
This has the ability to produce so many different types of work, I decided to give this one a try as well and found it to be very fun, I draw fast because I feel the marks coming together as a whole at the end is the goal so dwelling on one mark is not much to worry about.
Did you intend for this to take on some documentary-like qualities?
three-minute studies are wonderful. I always have a set goal in mind when I do them. practicing shading, gesture, cloth folds, or facial structure. 10/10 love these.
I appreciate the encouragement to step away from perfectionism that these rules provide. I feel great tension as I sit to try this ruleset. In the end, I am surprised with my results. I did not focus so much on grabbing details as I did on grabbing attitude. This reminded me of my design school days. I was uncomfortable then too. I know this practice would be good for me but like eating spinach, I am not sure I could do it everyday. I think this is a brave ruleset. How often do you follow your own rules?