The waves behind "Making Waves" - drawing practice

Back in January I did a show in my Scarborough gallery called "Making Waves" - where I exhibited working drawings. Some large charcoal drawings alongside daily sketchbook wave drawings.

The premise behind mini exhibition was two-fold:

1. To show visitors a drawing practice - not just tidy perfect works intended for exhibitions.
2. To draw "live" in the gallery each open day and push myself to increase the sketchbook practices.

So I created over 30 drawings of waves in the sketchbook over 4 weekends. If you look at the entire series you might sense some trends. There are similarities in pattern and direction that repeat.

The reason for this is my actual daily drawing routine. I use a system adapted from the composition lessons of Arthur Wesley Dow (ps. here's a link to the 1914 book for free, on Project Gutenberg). He recommend a series of exercises exploring line, pattern and composition. My system is based on his lessons of repeating lines over and over and later cropping designs into squares. My adaption is simply that I moved away from traditional designs (though I still do find copying Japanese drawings useful for new ideas) and creating my own sea and water based designs.

One of the most important lessons that Dow gives is to repeat what is successful.  Once you determine compositions that work this isn't an experimental process. It's about repeating the right lines so your hand and mind make them instinct.

So every day I first repeat simple straight lines. Then squares. Then my sea compositions. At least one page full of each.

At the moment I have 5 sea designs I practice, that are all based on the direction of water flowing in a wave. There are 5 little "cheat sheets" pinned to the studio wall so at a glance I can make sure I've practiced all of them.

From this basis it becomes easier to create new more complex drawings. It's like a framework or template to build on. Practice and familiarity with the forms gets a drawing started much quicker since I don't have to think about the starting lines - just decide what angle I'm viewing the wave from, put in those starter lines, then jump into the complex drawing knowing how the lines should flow from the studies. Those lines can shift, change, and get more detailed but my mind and hand already know the flow and direction that feels both real, like real waves move, and that make a good balanced image.

So a long gentle wave viewed from the left might become...

And the curves of waves viewed straight on becomes...

Have a look at the whole series of 30 "Making Waves" drawings on eBay where they are all currently for sale at auction. To fund more sketchbooks and pencils.