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Why Draw from Life? 

Writer's picture: Joel KlepacJoel Klepac
Three Men Talking in Bolivian Airport 5"x8" pen on paper
Three Men Talking in Bolivian Airport 5"x8" pen on paper

You are Not a Cyclops. I guess you didn’t need to be told that, but functionally when we draw from a photograph we are reproducing an image that has been created from a single lens. The end effect for anyone who knows better is that all of your images become flattened. They may have gorgeous details and be very complex and yet they are in the end flattened versions of life as we experience it. With two eyes just a few inches apart we see around curved objects just a little more than a single lens can. Once you see the difference you are ruined forever, the subtle flattened affect is clear and makes the image feel sterile and dead. Some people can pull it off, but I guess not without knowing these things and morphing the photograph slightly based on their experience of drawing from life. 

. Telos: The Energy that Turns a Sapling into a Monumental Tree, 2024 3.5' X 5,5'
. Telos: The Energy that Turns a Sapling into a Monumental Tree, 2024 3.5' X 5,5'

Life is Amazing. I have spent many hours outside with the mosquitoes and non climate controlled air and breezes that want to lift my drawing paper. You have to narrow down from 360 degrees of views, distance versus close up objects, and settle on some kind of frame that will end up being your drawing. Branches move, bugs crawl through your page, and one time I sat drawing at the side of a river a huge washed up stump. As I was nearing completion of this gnarled mass in the river a boat with two fishermen floated into the scene, tied up to the stump and stood untangling their nets just long enough for them to be part of my perfectly composed drawing. The downside is we give up control of the outcome to some degree when venturing into the wild unknown, but the upside is risking experiencing the magic of the living world. Sun peaking through the clouds at just the right moment, animals entering your space because you are sitting so still, wind whistling through the trees, and of course, birds of all kinds. I never regret a drawing session outside. Even if I don’t love the resulting drawing, I feel more alive. 


Pears 10"X10"
Pears 10"X10"

Drawing from Life is a Thin Space. When I first was introduced to mindfulness meditation it was curiously familiar. As I reflected on this I realized that drawing from life, sitting silently, relatively still, focused on becoming all eye (or two eyes), is in a sense just a different anchor than the breath, but no less effective. Many ancient spiritualities create activities which tie up the mind with mantras or focus on the breath, or attention to each step when walking. When thought of this way, drawing can be a spiritual practice, an attunement to the present moment, the only place where the sacredness of life is experienced, here and now. Many times during a drawing session, the inner spaces of mind and heart settle like a jar of pond water. By the end of the drawing, while focused intently on the forms in front of me, my inner landscape shifts from wherever it was toward more calm, more perspective, more detachment, or simply more peace. In the light of the bug, the grass, the tree, the distant hills, the clouds and sun and even a day-visible star, my life and worries have a context. I am small and I am connected to it all. Our drawings will at most end up in a museum and eventually be forgotten in a vault, or never make it out of a sketchbook, but the encounter you have with the wild, mysterious sacred universe will mark you forever.  

Telos: The Spirit Tugs the Invisible String, 2024 18"x 48"
Telos: The Spirit Tugs the Invisible String, 2024 18"x 48"


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Mary Lowell
Mary Lowell
4 days ago

If I could say something meaningful about your reflection: "Why Draw from Life," it would only be a quote or two taken from the text itself. "The downside is we give up control of the outcome to some degree when venturing into the wild unknown, but the upside is risking experiencing the magic of the living world." Very lovely essay, you have my respect, Joel.

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