I finished my first full figure drawing on Friday.
What's absolutely insane about this whole process is that three months ago, I never could have accomplished anything remotely close to a work like this.
Like I told my classmate, this is the farthest I've ever taken a drawing, so I'm really happy with it. The most important thing I've learned is that creating a beautiful picture is not just about having an accurate representation, but it's about... well... honestly I'm not sure if I know yet. As a beginner they teach me to consider the whole. How does placing one line affect another line. Have I captured the natural rhythm of the figure that more likely than not is holding a contrapposto pose. Have I captured the impression--which what you see when you quickly glance at something. An image that can be reproduced by squinting way down, blurring out and simplifying the information. Because from there it's just a matter of expanding your values and defining shapes.
These are the fundamentals. That whole process is already second nature to the advanced students. My dad and I talked about how the greatest professional chess players, boxers, piano players work the fundamentals until they didn't even have to think about it. They normalize the trivial so they can focus on the subtleties. It's a long, painful, sometimes boring process. Think "Million Dollar Baby" where Clint Eastwood uses ropes to reteach Hillary Swank how to walk. The bargues that I do train my eye the way scales train a musician's ear.
The best compliment I received for my drawing was from Ryan, the director. The teachers NEVER give out sincere compliments, though I have received my share of sarcastic ones. A couple weeks ago, Ryan was critiquing my drawing and he said, "You have some promise, you just need more of us." Obviously it went straight to my head, which is probably why they never give out compliments in the first place, but I think that's a pretty good representation of where I stand at CAS. (To compare: about a month and a half into the program, I was working on a 2 hour figure drawing when Ryan came by to critique. After erasing pretty much everything on my paper, he tore my drawing to the ground.)
There is no end to the progress you can make. I look around and I see what I could achieve, but even those students are trying to push past their current skill level. One of my classmates the other day expressed concern about his drawing, contemplating the balance of classical and naturalistic representation in his art. I think about him, and I think about how all I want is to understand what he understands, but then what?
At the beginning of the summer, I thought that I could spend a trimester here and leave happy with my progress, but I actually think I'm less happy now with where I stand as an artist than before I came. Not because I haven't improved, but because I now understand. I see the kind of training that's available, and I know that I won't even touch it without proper guidance. I was ignorant to think professional art as anything less than a lifetime pursuit.
I leave Provo mid-August, and I leave for Geneva September 5th. I don't know if I'll come back to CAS though it's certainly something I'd like to do.
Love \\ Christelle
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