Drawing Day

One afternoon I went out during the final period of the day with my kids to wander around town and find things to take pictures of. Things that they wanted to draw. So we looked for nice spots and found some good places and took some pictures and headed back to school. I figured they would use these pictures to draw the places around town. I was only partially right.

A few weeks later, it was what I have deemed Drawing Day. For the first four periods of the day, the entire student body went out with paper and pencils and large drawing boards to visit the location they wanted to draw. They had the pictures they had taken earlier with them as a reference I guess, but each visited the site and got to draw.

I got to participate as well. I had not taken pictures previously, so I didn’t have a spot picked out. I decided to head to a small temple and find a spot to draw there. We were worried it was going to rain as the day was very overcast and the clouds were pretty dark. But the rain held off and let us have our art time. I was nervous as drawing has never been my strongest talent. But it was all for fun and I was excited to be included.

I took a rather unconventional viewpoint, looking out of the temple, back toward the tori gate and the komainu, こま犬, which despite the inu meaning dog (犬) in its name is actually a type of Chinese lion, which to me looks more like a dragon of sorts. This gave me less details of the lion dragon guard thing to draw (no face!) and I thought the tori had a simple enough design that I could manage. I knew I had to limit myself with what I was drawing because I tend to get way bogged down by details. I tried to keep it simple and get the big stuff done, then I could use the rest of my time to add in important details.

One reason art is hard for me is that I am a perfectionist. And art isn’t about being perfect. But being able to sit there for 4 hours and just patiently try things, fail, erase them, and try again worked really well for me. There was no pressure to even finish at all, as mine wasn’t for school, it was just for fun and for me. I’ve never been able to just free draw, take something out of my mind and put it on paper. I can’t see how the lines work that way. I’ve had mild success with drawing from a picture or something I can see.

Being at the site, and seeing the lines and where they met and how they came together was really helpful. That rope took me forever to figure out. I had the straight little ends done, but I just couldn’t make that center part look like two ropes wrapped around each other and not one giant cylinder with sections. Finally, I did something right and it just popped! I still had time left and there weren’t any other big things I wanted to add (I didn’t want it to get crowded), so I decided to play with shading. I wish I had a picture unshaded because the change was dramatic. It added depth and a touch of realism I guess.

This may be the best picture I have ever drawn. I am so proud of it (I made the photo darker so you could see the pencil lines better). The kids were really impressed too. I think I learned a lot about art and lines and perspective and shadows, even in this short time. I can see why they want the kids to experience something like this. I’m by no means a great artist, but now I have a bit more confidence in myself.

Unfortunately, I know some of the kids didn’t get as much out of it as I did. While we drew, the teachers cycled around between the kids to make sure they were all on task and didn’t need anything. My JTE told me that some of the students had been sleeping. It’s too bad too, because I think it was a really good opportunity for them. And it was a day out of the classroom! But I guess nature was just too soothing for them. Most of the students worked very hard and the pictures were really cool to look at. The students later finished theirs by painting them and displayed them for the school festival.

The pictures I have of the shrine here are from over a year after the event in question (click on any of the pictures if you want to see larger versions).  As you can see, the bushes around the komainu are much taller than they were when I drew my picture, but it should still give you a general comparison.  In retrospect, it would have been SO helpful to have a photgraph of what I was trying to draw for scale while I was drawing.  You can see I left a lot of things out like powerlines and the buildings and the handrail and flag pole.   I suppose I was trying to concentrate on the more traditional elements.  I even attempted to draw all of the kanji on the base of the koaminu!

It seemed strange to me to cancel four class periods so the students could go draw pictures, but now I understand its worth and its appeal. Kudos Japan, kudos.