Drawing with Intent

This page started as writing notes about different approaches when drawing from references. The way we think when we draw matters a lot, especially if our goal is not the finished product, but to better understand the subject so we can extract specific parts of it. These parts can then be used for other purposes, such as drawing from imagination.

The Challenge of Memory

Drawing from the imagination is an incredibly hard thing to do if you do not have the pieces in memory that you are trying to recall and draw without looking at any references.

Visual vs. Structural Approaches

By drawing a horse as a subject, we can either focus on drawing what we see. This means drawing the horse via the pieces that make it up visually through lines and tones. Alternatively, we can switch the approach and focus on the forms and shapes. The first approach is more about copying what we see, where there is little or no awareness of the structures of the horse that can be found when we switch the mindset to the structural approach.

The Analytical Mindset

The structural approach still draws the horse on the surface, but this time it is more analytical; we are analyzing and scanning the horse's structures, shapes, and forms. These can then be drawn simply or as complex figures. Either way, both approaches are important to master and learn to work with.

Iterative Learning

The benefit of the analytical approach is that we change the way we are approaching the drawing from a different perspective and a different mindset. This page contains ideas in notes where I was trying to accumulate my knowledge, right or wrong, and build "aha" moments more truthfully. I will get back to them, use them next time to recall the information, and iterate on them for better formulation.