Figure 1. Head, nervous painting, mixed media, 2022. This is an example of a nervous painting I produced during a nervous drawing workshop. I like the randomness and energy of the marks. There are no mistakes! People often ask me what "nervous drawing" is, and why "nervous". I came up with the term "nervous drawing" as a way of describing my style of sketching: quick and abrupt mark making (figures 2 and 3). This is my natural way of drawing. If I want to draw something in a precise way I need to pause and concentrate. Instead, nervous drawing is an instinctive and immediate way of making marks. Looking at the sketches of different artists I can see that what I refer to as "nervous drawing" is a rather common practice. Therefore, I cannot take credit for inventing "nervous drawing." Figure 2. Head,nervous drawing, 2022. Colour pencil. This is one of my first sketches that I called “Nervous Drawing.” Nervous drawing turned into a technique and art workshop by chance. If I have the possibility, when I have an exhibition, I like to set up studio in the gallery and work. I find gallery spaces inspiring. This probably goes back to my childhood when I often used to sketch on visits to museums or galleries. During one of my exhibitions back in 2022, I was sketching heads. Visitors to the gallery stopped to watch me covering page after page with random marks that “magically” turned into heads. They seemed to be impressed by it, and so I invited them to try it out. Some did. I then realised that both professional artists and people who had never drawn before in their life have a common fear: the fear of the blank page. Nervous drawing is the perfect way to overcome the fear of mark making. I borrowed the term "break the fear" from parkour, where it is used to describe overcoming the fear of jumping. The problem in both parkour and art is hesitation caused by expectations and preconceived ideas. Nervous drawing is intended to dispel any hesitation. There is no pressure and no expectation in nervous drawing. There are no mistakes, every mark that we make on paper is perfect. I made this idea into the one and only rule of nervous drawing (figure 1). Figure 3. Head, nervous drawing, colour pencils, 2022. Notice that the face is built out of random, energetic marks rather than being drawn. At the time I came up with the name "nervous drawing" and the idea of turning it into a workshop, I had one big fear: Watercolour Painting. I knew that my friend Deborah Crofts ran watercolour and ink painting workshops, and I thought that such a workshop would be the best way to break my fear of watercolour painting! I asked Deborah if we could do a workshop together, and this is how "Break the Fear: Nervous Drawing and Painting Workshop" was born. I have to say that my fear of watercolour is long gone. In fact, watercolour and ink are now some of my favourite media. Working with Deborah was one of the best things that happened to my art practice. It dispelled all my preconceptions about what watercolour is and it opened endless possibilities for experimentation (figures 1 and 4). If you do not believe me, you should come and try it for yourself! Figure 4. Head, nervous painting, colour pencils, watercolour, and ink, 2022.
This is one of the first watercolour paintings that I did in a workshop with Deborah Crofts. I was surprised how easy it was to use watercolours once you dispelled any expectations.
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