Drawing

Next word was 'medium'. Now what I found here was something special. As it can quite honestly be anything then i'm not going to post the whole selection of definitions I found but here's the link if you do so wish to sift through them yourself, this I don't recommend. 



http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/medium



What I feel I should take from this selection however is this,



me·di·um – noun...



...11. Fine Arts.

a. Painting. a liquid with which pigments are mixed.

b. the material or technique with which an artist works: the medium of watercolor.



Interesting so it is that 'me·di·um' be technique aswell as material. This my friend is brilliant.

Medium - 'DRAWING'

The easiest one of these to choose I think was the medium, although there were many things I could have chosen. I decided after great deliberation that 'drawing' was going to be my chosen medium, and in particular the meaning of drawing and the personal qualities that drawing holds for me and also how others see drawing. I was once part of a group who were asked to write a manifesto on drawing and this is something that has already re-ignited an interest in the topic and a number of questions.

- What is drawing?
- Why do we draw?
- What do we get from drawing?pan>

I started with this, a bit of history. Interesting.

The human being has always felt the need to represent all that surrounds him, finding in drawing, the most interesting means to carry out this desire. The first drawings goes back to the Superior Paleolithic , 35.000 years ago, when the Homo sapiens represented on the cave surfaces of the caves or on the skin of the coats, animals that he hunted. An example of this artistic manifestation can be found in the cave paintings of the caves of Altamira, in Cantabria (Spain).

Later, the Egyptians knew how to take profit of this art to decorate the most imposing constructions in the history; the pyramids. It had passed thousands of years and the drawing had evolved substantially. From the single-coloured and static composition of the prehistory, a new stride had been made to the balance, thoroughness and coloring of the theological representations in temples and sanctuaries. There was a need to detail the figure of gods to thank them the splendor of the Egyptian empire

It was necessary to advance to the sixth century BC to find in the Greeks the maximum representatives of the balance in drawing. Worried to center in the human candid expression, they denude it from any ostentation or supernatural connotation, they are able to achieve their target and they obtain what was considered to be the harmonic balance.

The Romans, 500 years later, contributed to the diversity it was lacking . And army and an discipline was required to maintain an empire on such an extensive territory in order to subdue so many diverse cultures under the same authority. That facilitated, in certain part, the abandonment of the artistic and ornamental stuff to come closer to a more practical and more useful doctrine for that time; Solid constructions were necessary to maintain the authority from the continuous attacks of the invaders. They obtained in the drawing the means to reflect what the useful constructions needed to be . The first maps arose and with them the architecture was born. The technical drawing required a bigger technique and mathematical knowledge about what had been forged until that moment.

A greater number of complete works is preserved from the Middle Ages. During this period, vivacious representations prevail. Spectacularity and garnish is imposed without giving any opportunity to colour to act ; Line is in charge of standing out the detail. The Arab invasion introduces a revolutionary support to drawing and painting: the paper. This is a Chinese invention that will facilitate illustration to stop being an exclusive activity which monks did on skin and cane parchments. The general population can achieve it. Starting from that moment, it can be shown the radiance of color. It is also necessary to highlight the introduction to the general use of the metallic fountain pen and the ink as we know it at the moment.

From Italy, and advancing among the Gothic period ,(second half of XV century ), the Renaissance is disarticulated of the religious stuff. Now the important thing is to recognize the beauty and to know how to express it . Being based on the Greco-Roman artistic civilization (the old thing revives), the natural and concise is imposed again. The magnates allow their busts to be reflected in multitude of portraits. Of the mere forgotten decoration, the feminine nude begins to appropriate of the main topics in the creations and one returns to the study of the human figure. The drawing ascends to the volumetric thanks to the new techniques of colouring . The game of lights and shades, together with the perspective, makes reality nearer to drawing. A manifestation of artists demonstrates this new development: El Greco, Miguel Angel, Sandro Boticelli, Leonardo da Vinci.
The last one stands out from the others because of his investigation desire. He picks up under his works anatomy studies, invention of devices and a new way of using the illumination in drawing. The " esfumato" dissipates the closed line of the contour of the drawing to increase depth and what it will pursue from then on: the approach to the natural thing. Therefore the drawing stops to be something spontaneous and subjective to become a true discipline.

The Baroque stretches out until the VII century. It uses exaggeratedly all the resources contributed by the Renaissance to express a wide range of attitudes, from the calamity of poverty until the splendor of wealth. Rightness and uniformity are broken in the pictorial representations and it is tried to the maximum to move and to attract the spectator.

From the XIX century onwards the continuous uniformity that had followed the history of drawing is broken. It forks in multitude of styles: romanticism, realism, impressionism, expressionism, fauvism, cubism, futurism, surrealism... Nevertheless, all they make use of what had so far been contributed as a tool to express new approaches of the society they were living in.



http://www.dibujosparapintar.com/english_activities/drawing_course_history.html

Drawing for me

I draw because I find in drawing something nothing else can provide. The time spent drawing is my time. My time in which I can relax under no pressure to fill any one elses needs. I find myself being entranced by my own ability to draw, focussing not always on my drawing but often on my style and technique which I find very odd that I sit and anylise my drawings. To me my drawings are not complete until I am personlly happy with how they look. If it doesn't look right its no good. It has to look right to be a self satisfactory piece.

The time and the place to draw is also a big determining factor as to wether I enjoy a drawing or not. You see personally I find that to enjoy a drawing, you shouldn't have to be looking at it. I think that the process of the drawing is as much enjoyable as looking at your finishes drawing after. The place, usually I can only draw indoors, in my studio space or at a lifedrawing class and I have to plan. I have to plan ahead, deciding in myself when I am going to be able to produce. Alone is often the way I have to be and in no distraction from voice. I am helped a lot by having music playing, and find it detrimental to have others around me talking.

In any case, I have to be copying from either direct observation or a photo, using such images not to create a carven copy but to use as a reference point for my drawing on the page, I can't create a drawing out of my head an I often use the photo's or drawings and paintings of other artists to make my piece. Either this or I'll take from my other previous drawings and give to my new piece elements of other drawings I have done on the past.