I have recently been enamoured by John Vervaeke’s youtube lecture series “Awakening from the Meaning Crisis”. Vervaeke is an assistant Professor of Cognitive Science at the University of Toronto as well as trained teacher of mindfulness practises. In this series he pulls together many threads from the history of philosophy, theology and wisdom traditions, the evolution of which provide a profound context for the widespread contemporary increase in depression and lack of sense of meaning. I thoroughly recommend the series if these topics interest you because he is one of the most lucid speakers about them that I have heard, combining both a scientific rigour with a practical familiarity with these topics. He clearly has a strong connection to the poetic or spiritual aspect of lived experience.
I wanted to share a reflection on how the type of life drawing I practise might relate to some of the points Vervaeke makes about mindfulness early in the series. I practise a few times a week what I think of as a more classical approach to the discipline of life drawing, which is to say that within the confines 1 minute to about 40 minute poses I am aiming find balance in a range of important aspects - form, design elements, gesture, anatomy, character - and have these compressed into powerful, graceful marks that read true and are sensually enjoyable to the eye. I am distinguishing this from ways of drawing that prioritise, say, more pure abstraction or the expressive mark above other elements.
First, I’ll do my best to summarise the relevant points from Vervaeke here:
In discussing mindfulness, he notes that in the west mindfulness, meditation and contemplation tend to be treated as one thing, but he describes how certain traditions make a clear distinction between :
practices that focus attention onto specific sensory information such as the sensation of breathing - ie getting back to concrete reality in whatever form it takes in this moment
practises of a more contemplative nature that involve an awareness of seeing oneself in a very large, even cosmic perspective.
He suggests that the first practise promotes a way of being that can allow you to get out of mental frameworks, conclusions or patterns of thought that might be only partially correct, in other words opening space for thinking outside the box. On the other hand, the more contemplative practise of the second type encourage a kind of openness of thought that can help with generating new frameworks and connections between ideas that might be elusively far apart . If both ways of being are cultivated, and particularly if one can cycle between them (such as in the physical method of Tai Chi that Vervaeke himself practises) one can cultivate the ability to let go of habitual frameworks and then generate new ones with a deeper connection to reality - in other words to have better ability to gain useful insight as one moves through life, gradually reducing self deception and self destructive habits.
It has occurred to me that the practise of drawing the figure has certain parallels to the states cultivated by the two practise models described above. On the one hand, seeking to draw in a more classical style, involves the continuous study of anatomy as it presents right now in the living human body, in the individual seen on the model stand and the notation of marks aimed at doing justice to the relations seen there. These are concrete, individual observations, but they must be placed into a broader context of anatomy knowledge - in other words the individual observed deepens the generalised knowledge of the anatomy a little bit each time, while this knowledge of anatomical structure allows one to emphasise or de-emphasise as appropriate to make the drawing read. And this is the final arbiter: does it read authentically? Can I honestly say there is a sense of being both generalised and also individual to the drawing?
Similarly, there are patterns of design as well as mass that interact at every level of resolution - from the bones of the wrist and hand, to the whole arm to the whole figure. There are patterns of lines counterbalancing, being in sympathy or opposition at each level. Further, in the poses that I find result in the best drawings, there is a certain overarching theme to the figure - a single central melody or gestalt, which is then tied to specific concrete relationships.
Drawing the figure from life involves the compression of information sensed at multiple levels, from the endless detail of the three dimensional experienced world into a series of potent lines on a flat surface. Practise deepens the information that is sensed - not only in terms of accuracy but in the depth of relation of mass in space, line, and anatomy, and the intention of the figure so that the power of these lines can likewise be gradually cultivated. And so, I don’t see life drawing as only rite of passage for the art student, or something to be attempted every now and then - it is an ongoing practise that not only can bring joy and flow in the moment, but is part of gradual cultivation of the ability to see both in terms of concrete specifics and deep connections.
In the video below, you will see some examples of drawing the figure that begin with marks intended to generalise the figure to its gestalt - sometimes this is a single line of action and sometimes it is a combination of a few curves that in relation to each other capture the most general idea of the intention/design/pattern of the that pose and particular body type. This is followed by marks that attempt to generalise the parts of the figure - the limbs and torso masses, also in relation to each other. The darker marks of the pencil lay in the contours (ie actual edges) of forms, but with reference to the hierarchy already established. In this way, the process is aimed at creating a harmonious hierarchy of relationships between observed concretes and felt, general relationships. It is this flow from general, sensed pattern to concrete specifics that can be so enjoyable and fascinating when drawing from nature, and that strikes me as analogous to the mindfulness training Vervaeke discusses.
So could it be that drawing as a practise is not only enjoyable but also good for your soul?
Do the topics or drawings above capture your imagination?
You might like to do my online figure drawing course at www.formgestureanatomy.com - it is a labour of love that is gradually refined and added to, and you will always have access to the up to date version.
Or, if you are in Brisbane, the in-person presentation of this course which uses the same online material, for more info and bookings go to www.scottbreton.art/book - next 10 session series starts August 26th 2021.