Blindfolded Drawing with Shape North
Last week, I had a wonderful day at the Shape North ‘Building Connections’ Creative Conference in Huddersfield, which I attended with the lovely Sophie, of Sophie Seddon PR. The whole day was interesting, insightful and lots of fun!
As part of the day, we were able to choose two workshops to take part in - the first one that I requested was ‘Collective Drawing’. As the group assembled around the tables at the start of the session, it felt a bit nerve-wracking to face the huge sheet of white paper in front of us. What were we going to be drawing? What if my drawing was no good? I don’t usually use this material - what if I can’t do it? These are some of the thoughts that crept into my head as the workshop began.
Half an hour later the session had ended and, as I looked around, the room was full of smiles and chatter. Furthermore, we had created a piece of art as a collective group that every single person had contributed to. This had been developed in a relaxed way, where all pressures surrounding outcomes had been removed. How on Earth did the workshop leader achieve this? We were all wearing blindfolds!
Blindfolded drawing exercise at Huddersfield University, as part of the Shape North Creative Conference.
It is a exercise that I’ve come across before, mainly as a creative warm-up task, which encourages close observation of an object. However, I had never considered the possibility of wearing a blindfold to create a finished piece of work. Furthermore, there was no bowl of fruit or bunch of flowers to use as reference - instead we focused simply on different properties of line and also on using both hands simultaneously. Some groups drew horizontally, some vertically and some drew curved lines.
Blindfolded drawing as a group! Can you see the patch towards the left which isn't quite as dark as the rest? This was the section that I worked on...I don't really enjoy the feel of charcoal and never use it normally. Did that affect my enjoyment of the task? Not in the slightest!
As we all stood back to examine our joint masterpiece at the end of the session, all the comments I heard were positive ones and many were saying how much they liked the overall effect (including me!) Over the past week, this session and the pleasure that the participants seemed to take from it, has stayed with me. It has got me wondering how many of us shy away from creating art, due to a fear that it might not be a realistic representation of what they were observing.
As I move forward and continue to develop my art practice further, I hope to hold onto a connection with the way I felt after we’d completed this piece of collaborative art. It has made me determined to make more time and space for exploration and experimentation, setting myself free from the constraints of accurate representation and correct proportion. It has also made me curious about how elements from nature could be represented using simple mark making.
Thank you, Shape North, for a truly inspiring day!
