Today I got the urge to experiment with scribbling. I had in my head sort of what I wanted to do, but I was unsure what I would end up with. I knew I wanted a somewhat controlled scribble, to design what would be thought of as a mess of lines with no plan behind them. And I knew I wanted to add color in some way. So bristol board, india ink, and acrylic inks were the materials I dug out from the plastic drawers in my room that have yet to be organized.
As I held my first blank sheet, ready to go, I couldn't help but hesitate. What should I draw? With that, an internal dialouge began. I could define an object or figure with loose, scribbling lines. Or I could layer different gestural drawings on top of each other an go from there. Or maybe... Those are all good ideas, but how about you stop over thinking it and just draw. Just start putting lines down and see what you come up with. It doesn't have to be anything. Be you. Experiment.
Still being unsure of the advice from my "get out of your comfort zone" self, I decided to at least start in pencil. I realized the light pencil lines weren't going to cut it when it came to adding color. That's when I ventured to use india ink, sloppily tracing over my lines with a brush.
I tried a second piece, leaving the first in black and white in the meantime. This time, I went straight to ink. I started out giving myself guidelines. For example, "Draw a line that starts and ends off the page" or "Start your next line on top of another" or "Draw a closed shape that touches a line." Etc. Eventually, I got to a point where I was making compositional decisions based on what I already had down. Finally, I added color to it. Then I went back to the first and added color to that one, too.
While I don't normally lean toward this kind of thing, I had fun. I guess I'm broadening my horizons. Maybe...
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