Tag Archives: Practice

Safety Net

I’ve been sifting through my Evernote files in order to do a bit of digital housecleaning. As tasks go, revisiting the diverse array of items collected there can be both enjoyable and interesting because it often results in new and unexpected ideas.

Midway

Work in progress   © Elizabeth Fram

Tools like Evernote and Pocket make it easy to file all sorts of data and images without the burden of storing paper. I never know when something I’ve saved — inspiration, business tools, specifics about art supplies, notes from my reading, calls for entry, etc. — will be useful, but sooner or later a need invariably crops up. That said, every so often it’s fruitful to review the whole lot, culling the bulk for what still resonates.

Skimming through a series of quotes saved from various readings, I found one to be particularly apropos to the new piece I’ve begun this week. At this early stage I don’t have much more than a sketchy idea of the endpoint I’m aiming for, so I know there will be plenty of trial and error ahead on the horizon. But leaning on previous lessons-learned will help me get the stitching off the ground, and I can consider the exercise a fresh opportunity to deliberately practice older methods while hopefully discovering new ways to mesh ideas with process.

Mid-Point

Work in progress   ©Elizabeth Fram

In discussing the idea of “deliberate practice”, Joshua Foer writes in his book Moonwalking with Einstein,

Deliberate practice, by its nature, must be hard.
When you want to get good at something, how you spend your time practicing is far more important than the amount of time you spend. In fact, in every domain of expertise that’s been rigorously examined, from chess to violin to basketball, studies have found that the number of years one has been doing something correlates only weakly with level of performance. Regular practice simply isn’t enough. To improve, we must watch ourselves fail, and learn from our mistakes.

What a perfect testament to the desire we all have to keep trying. Some pieces make me feel a bit like I’m at the foot of a mountain that I haven’t yet figured out how to scale. The wisdom and encouragement of the above quote is reassuring, like a climbing harness or a safety net, lending support as I wrestle with the possibilities of where I want to take this piece and, perhaps more importantly, where it will eventually lead me.

Slant

Work in progress   © Elizabeth Fram      The stitched-resist dye in this new piece is the perfect example of deliberate practice. At this point I’ve stitched and dyed this pattern many, many times, but this time my goal was to separate the two sides of one length of cloth with opposing colors while still having the piece read as a whole. It’s a first shot at a seemingly simple idea, but tricky to accomplish, and one that will benefit from further practice.

Giving shape to a nebulous idea doesn’t come easily. I appreciate Foer articulating the importance of mindfully failing in order to succeed — an attitude that lightens the overall process.

If you’re interested in what Foer has to say about how important memory is to creativity, link back to this post.

Full

Work in progress   ©Elizabeth Fram, Stitched-resist dye on silk, approx. 18 x 24 inches

Undeniable: Practice = Progress

One of the many enjoyable aspects of traveling is that opportunities to pull out a sketchbook are plentiful, and doing so seems to be the best way to cement detailed memories.

DarkHorse

Dark Horse Espresso Bar ©2016 Elizabeth Fram                                                                         People working at their computers not only stay relatively still, but also assume some interesting, if subtle, postures.

I love that there are multiple chances each day to both make leisurely drawings, for example while lingering in a restaurant, or to squeeze in a quick sketch during a random 3-5 minute gap in whatever else we’re doing. I try to do likewise in my regular day-to-day, but it’s much easier on vacation when there seems to be more time and less to juggle.

WaitingByElevatorsWeb

Waiting by the Elevators ©2016 Elizabeth Fram         Filling a few moments while waiting for our car, I caught this young woman sitting with her pile of luggage by the hotel elevators.

It’s one thing to draw an inanimate place-setting or the surrounding scene of tables and chairs, but images of people make a drawing come alive. And the more I sketch in public, the more I am finding my challenged ability to capture people quickly and accurately really needs to be addressed. The best and possibly only solution is practice.

AllStarBandWeb

All Star Band © 2016 Elizabeth Fram   Musicians make for great models. Even though they aren’t static, their movements are repetitive allowing extra time to catch a shape or gesture. Drawing at this jazz club had a couple of advantages: we were close to the band and it was light enough that I didn’t have to strain to see the page, benefits one doesn’t usually have at a concert.

I rarely have time when I’m out and about during the middle of the day to just hang out and draw people. And since it would be ideal to have a steady stream of models whenever practicing, for now I’ve decided it’s okay to rely on my iPad and a timer in order to build up some practical capital in facility and speed. It works in a pinch, but I do keep in mind that there is no substitute for working “live”.

Figure1

Checking Phone © 2016 Elizabeth Fram

I bought a cheap 100-page sketchbook in Toronto for just this purpose, and I’ve set a goal of filling it up by making 8-10 quick drawings at a sitting, giving myself about 3 minutes for each. I have a long way to go, but practice definitely makes a difference. I am at least beginning to feel more comfortable placing features so that the figures aren’t just faceless beings.

Figure2Web

Practice © 2016 Elizabeth Fram

Also, I am using a mechanical pencil rather than a pen — not so that I can erase, but so that I can vary the line with pressure while keeping it, for the most part, in contact with the page in an effort to work on speed.

Several of my trusty books have been helpful resources:

Figure4Web

Head ©2016 Elizabeth Fram

My request to you: please share any bits of advice you may have picked up along the way on this subject. I know for a fact that several of you are accomplished at drawing the figure and I would love to hear any pearls of wisdom you may have beyond the gold standard of “practice, practice, practice”.