Artisan Roast in Edinburgh

Artisan Roast in Edinburgh

From a visit to Edinburgh’s Artisan Roast, it was good fun seeing the original shop from visiting the Glasgow branch. I was initially drawing quietly in a corner before I was found out, happily everyone was cool about it and showed my moleskine book around, friendly folk.

I’ve been slightly changing my approach to drawing recently. I remember trying the approach of drawing what you see which really helps you to recognise the unique shape of your subject as the prior knowledge could sometimes affect the drawing for the worse. For example drawing a nose, the idea of a nose can influence your drawing so much you can sometimes draw what you think a nose looks like rather than what you see in front of you.

In time during life drawing classes where I started learning anatomy I started leaning towards drawing what you know. Seeing the structure beneath the body really helps to define your drawing. Later on drawing buildings with Alasdair Gray he made it important that each building had to be accurate, for example tenement roofs had to “work” and meet the walls correctly. What was true in life had to be replicated in the picture.

I’ve found it useful to switching from one mode to another as the drawing moves on. Recently though I’ve been thinking of a slight shift in perception in how I’m drawing. I think when you’re starting the main thought that’s running through your mind is getting what’s out there in front of you down on paper. And if you do something that’s close to what you see, the job is a good un.

But it could be useful to think of the drawing you’re doing as being a small world in of itself with its own rules.

““When thinking about rendering, you’re making a scale model version of the world.
You have to think about it differently.
You have to conceive of it differently.
Our eyes when when looking at reality and when looking at our painting are looking at two different things. One is an illusion and one is not and so we have to enter into the world of the painting.”
— Joshua LaRock from the American Painting Magazine ”