At Urban Art Binge we teach sketching on location and Mixed Media Painting amongst  many other things. Recently I was asked to explain if there was a difference between sketching and drawing and if so why we choose to focus on the former. 

Sketching is a process of visualising thoughts onto a surface in an immediate, expressive and honest manner. It is thinking through mark making and not intended to be labored over or contrived in any form. Sketching is a process whereby an artist can quickly record an observation, a moment, a feeling, or an idea to be reworked or transformed at a later stage. 

Learning to sketch is a process of learning to LET GO. Letting go of pre-prescribed notions of perfection and accuracy and submitting to the beauty and freedom of PLAY. 

Sketching on location is about being present within your environment, engaging with your surroundings & harnessing these observations as an infinite creative resource. It's also about travelling at home as well as further afield. 

Drawing is a technically refined version of the description above.
An efficient means of visual expression. Drawing is a language. One with an ever expanding vocabulary and the ability to cross cultures.

For me, it was in choosing to take on French as a second language, that I quickly discovered that my native tongue was actually drawing. This was a powerful moment for me as a person and as an artist.

I speak of depth and perspective with the pressure of my hand.
I express lightness and whimsical thoughts by dancing my wrist. 
I suggest texture through varying marks.

But most importantly, the power of my passionate language is in what is not spoken. A sketch offers the gift of imagination when it is not entirely finished. It is not technically perfect. It has gaps where YOU are invited to fill in the blanks.
 
This is why we teach Sketching on location at UAB. 

Em

As we draw to the close of our first year as teachers in the art-teaching privilege that is Urban Art Binge, I have paused to reflect on our year of Brisbane art classes, sharing, teaching and experiencing. 

What has become overwhelmingly clear is our focus on teaching, art mentoring and working with our art bingers to get whatever is in the way of their creative voice, out of the way, leaving a clearer path to navigate their own creative journey.

Sure we teach practical art skills but as ever in life, it is the winkling out of that which is unknown to us, those dis-empowering conversations we have with ourselves that actually stop us from being big and knowing our full creative potential.

Ultimately what has become important to both Emily and I over the past year is not creating little mini-me's through these art classes but rather igniting a passion for people to find their own unique creative voice, armed with ever growing skills.  It becomes an ongoing exploration and one that has been truly amazing to be a part of as teacher and practitioner over this past year. 

Our Brisbane-based sketching and painting groups take time to collectively reflect and discuss what they have learnt but also what is holding them back.  It has been a safe space of creative and personal exploration with the creation of a beautiful creative community of art bingers.  Often it has been the most challenging sketch or workshop day that turned out to be revelatory for those who were the most challenged by it.  Our experience serves up the condition and it is our choice whether or not to take it and grow.  We love that we are a part of that growth and bear witness to it.

For me in my own art practice, art is increasingly a spiritual, consciousness-raising and healing practice, not only for myself but for those with whom it is shared.   

By first observing that we are having dis-empowering conversations with ourselves we begin to loosen the grip of our ego or id, the one that is helping us survive life rather than thrive in it, and create a little slither of space in which to breathe and in which new things become possible. 

Try it with your breath right now...just stop a moment and observe how you are breathing in this moment.  No need to change anything, just observe it.  Is it shallow, is it deep?  Is it in the top of your lungs or deeper into the base of them?  Are you breathing into your back? your fingers? your toes? 

Through the process of observation alone, something shifts automatically.  The trick is not to judge what's happening in this moment or make it mean anything about you and THIS is what is truly liberating when it comes to drawing and painting.  Next time you are sketching, just take a moment to observe; observe your thoughts, your breath, the place, what you are sitting on, how you feel, maybe even write them down to presence them...then begin.

Jo