When I was on my Foundation Course in Art and Design at Burnley College at the age of 18 our course tutor banned the use of the word ‘sketch’ in the studio, he saw it as a way of inhibiting the potential of a drawing before you had even begun and as a way of excusing shoddy drawing technique when challenged, saying ‘it’s only a sketch’. He sort of reinforced this way of thinking in one of our earliest group critique sessions by taking one of our fellow student’s drawings from the wall and calmly tearing it to shreds in front of us. Appalling as this sounds and yes jaws went slack and some outrage was expressed (notably not by the student himself who shrugged resignedly) I think we all came to understand and appreciate the brutal honing of our crtical faculties.
Recently I have been drawing in colour using water soluble crayons, acrylic paint and oil paint. I’ve always liked acrylics, I find them versatile and they really suit the drawing studio set up, they’re water based so easy clean up and dry very quickly so can be packed up at the end of a session without damaging the drawing. We used to debate the difference between painting and drawing, I can’t remember any of the substance of these arguments or what distinctions or conclusions were arrived at, probably not many but perhaps some notion that drawing was essentially a monochrome pursuit. I don’t know, however I don’t think I would be getting the results I am now drawing directly with colour had I not spent so long on greyscale drawing. The latest works (January 2025) presented here are from evening drawing sessions at Hampstead School of Art and are made by directly drawing with a variety of brushes and acrylic paint, no underdrawing. There are charcoal and pencil drawings included here also. Click to view and then to see the full image click the ‘info’ icon in the lower right corner
Michael Ward Artist 