I’m having a good time with my pencil drawing class. So far in the first class I’ve learned there are 5 pencils, each with different degrees of hardness. I’m also learning how to develop my own personal stroke. The second class occupied me by teaching me to shade patches for each pencil from darkest, to lightest, to fading away. I learned that the span of this graduation for each pencil was its value.
The third lesson began showing me how to apply the total value of each pencil. There is a good rule to this 5 pencil method. You never exhaust your values, especially of the 4B pencil, the softest and darkest of all of them. If you exhaust your value of this pencil you can back yourself into a corner and never be able to go darker should your picture call for it.
Hmmm….I think as I move through my days it’s a good idea to never go to extremes and exhaust my values. It’s best to breathe and stay away from that place where feelings scourge through me and cause that out of control searing anger or fear. I learned from long hours of practicing these graduated patches with the pencil that there’s plenty of space in between to hover and figure things out, without exhausting the value. I remember being in that place where all the values are exhausted and I was backed into a corner, helpless. Not a place I want to revisit anytime soon. I’m learning to enjoy the control gained by practicing patches. Starting with not quite the darkest stroke, and moving out to the fade. Slow, controlled, and knowing there’s plenty of room to move around. This takes practice, both on and off the paper.
As a former kindergarten teacher, I firmly believe we need a physical medium to help us reach the abstract concepts. Now, in retirement, I find this sensory learning is not confined to young children. When life gives you a bit of a challenge, try doing something with your hands or body. You will see immediate changes take place within yourself. Even as a writer I sometimes have to admit there’s some things all the words in world cannot teach as well as pencil, or yoga, or a dance or an exercise class can.
And so, as another day goes by, once again, the physical transfers over to the mind and spirit, I learn from muscle movement and control, and …I have written.
I like this post! Thanks for it.