The Secret of Drawing

Andrew Graham Dixon produced a series of TV programmes about drawing back in 2005. They are a very good introduction into how to think about drawing and he opens out the role of drawing far beyond its 'Fine Art' applications.
If you are thinking of contextualising what you are doing for Context of Practice they are not a bad place to start. In particular because he ranges over such a wide field of approaches it can be a helpful way of thinking about how your own work relates to the broader issues of what drawing is capable of.
The Secret of Drawing part one Beginning with a surgeon who draws, AGD looks at Leonardo, George Stubbs, Turner and Constable as well as natural history and scientific illustration. George Shaw and Richard Long are used as contemporary examples.
The Secret of Drawing part two Narrative drawing. Beginning with Hogarth and Gilray, including Goya and Picasso, american comic book, Japanese Manga and animation. 
The Secret of Drawing part three How drawing captures emotion, concept and personality. Drawing as an instinctive activity, perhaps even as a definition of who we are. Durer, George Gross, Sol Lewitt, outsider art, life drawing, Sarah Simblet, Raphael,  David Shigley and the balance between reason, intellectual ideas and emotional engagement.  Ends with Michael Landy's drawings of weeds. 
The Secret of Drawing part four Drawing and design, in particular architectural ideas. Includes Leonardo, Brunelleschi and a really interesting beginning section on Mark Fisher's design for rock concerts, that opens out ideas of how to communicate to thousands through drawing.

I realise that we have now reached the end of term, but the summer is a wonderful time for research as well as recharging creative batteries. You Tube can be a very good resource for research and in particular I always find interviews with artists fascinating. Try this film on William Kentridge or this one, David Hockney's Secret Knowledge or Vik Muniz: Art with wire, sugar, chocolate and string.


Look at the BBC series 'Making Their Mark: Six Artists on Drawing'


Maggi Hambling


Drawing as a primary medium: a focus on the drawings of Eva Hesse


Richard Serra on his drawing.


Rachael Whiteread: drawing





Try and keep drawing during the summer, especially if you want to build a practice that relies on your ability to control the materials you are working with and the skills to draw convincing images. It does take hours and hours of practice I'm afraid to be able to develop these skills. 

COP3 is meant to be a balance between practice and theory, reading around the subject, watching programmes such as the ones linked to this post and visiting exhibitions are good ways to prepare yourself, but don't forget what you are writing about is how to support your practice.  So keep drawing, even if only in short bursts, because it is only by making drawings that you will discover what it is that you are doing. Sylvain Chomet the animator that AGD interviews at the end of The Secret of Drawing part two has a wonderful way of describing how when drawing the image arrives out of the process, you can only discover what it is you are drawing by drawing.  The more you therefore draw the more you will invent new things.