Drawing is Hard

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Damn, drawing is hard. I was talking (internet chatting) with Kimmie last night about the difficulty of reproducing an image of something by hand. I think that the conclusion we came to was that drawing depends more heavily on the ability to observe, rather than the ability to touch pencil to paper. It's easy to think of drawing as this active process full of movement as your pencil glides across the paper. But I think I've realized how much of an internal activity it is; I spend the bulk of my time staring when I draw.

Thinking back, I realize now how much drawing aided me in learning to identify plants. I had this internship with the National Park Service a couple summers ago, and my boss gave me a handy dandy little Write in the Rain field notebook. Even if I made just a quick sketch, the process of drawing still challenged me to make a careful observation and pick out the identifying features characteristic to a particular plant.

I remember this one sketch of a naked lady that I was especially proud of. I spent probably a good half hour on it, but found the result rather pleasing. I wish I had my old field notebook with me right now. I should go out and buy a new one.