The phrase 'drawing drawing' really stuck with me from Stephen Farthing's original lecture a few weeks back. So, thinking about this idea of 'drawing' a drawing, for this weeks 'drawing machine' task, I decided to try and make a device that records the act of a person drawing! Here are my results in video form. I tested several different media with my device, which ended up being a simple structure that strapped on around the wrist using a length of elastic and a clothes peg to hold the drawing media in place. I think it's an interesting way to capture the movements that a person makes while sketching, and it is almost like a translation of the drawing that is intentionally being made-- all the marks created by the 'device' are essentially a by-product to the drawing that the wearer is actually choosing to make with their hand. The outcome is a record of the wearer's own individual style of drawing. It captures the physical movements that were made by the hand/wrist while the wearer was focusing on drawing their intended image above.
I hope you enjoy the little video! It contains stills/pans over the outcome drawings (but I'll post images below, too). This is one of my first times at piecing together a video, so that was a fun little extra learning challenge in itself! Here we go:
It would be interesting to develop this idea further by asking different people to test out the device, to see how each persons individual drawing style is recorded by the device. I would imagine that each trait that is natural and instinctive to our individual method of sketching- eg- the angle a person holds their pen at, the speed and force of their marks, the amount of detail/tone, ect, that they choose to include, would all affect the outcome of the device's corresponding drawing.
Perhaps a device like this could help someone analyse their own individual drawing style, through looking at the drawing the device makes of their drawing. I found that even as I used it in these simple experiments, I became more aware and conscious of my own drawing style. I noticed that I tend to pause briefly, and then make a series of marks/shapes in quick succession, before pausing and repeating the process again. The device leads to self-awareness in sketching!
Perhaps a device like this could help someone analyse their own individual drawing style, through looking at the drawing the device makes of their drawing. I found that even as I used it in these simple experiments, I became more aware and conscious of my own drawing style. I noticed that I tend to pause briefly, and then make a series of marks/shapes in quick succession, before pausing and repeating the process again. The device leads to self-awareness in sketching!
