Keys to Drawing

the introduction…In addition to trusting our eyes, the quality that most defines us as artists is curiosity. An artist I know recently found a dead duck. He took it back to his studio and made drawing of it. He studied the arrangement of winged feathers to better understand how the bird flies. He observed them under a blow dryer. He made studies of the legs and feet, noting their location well back on the body—awkward for walking but perfectly suited and powerful for swimming. His drawings helped him understand ducks. For this artist drawing is a means of satisfying scientific curiosity. Whether your curiosity is scientific or visual, or both, the mere fact that you approach the world with wonder will impart your drawings an authority and a beauty not otherwise obtainable.