drawing

Shaping the creative brain

drawing, improv process, techniques

Drawing is one of the three creative techniques I use (quilting, photography and drawing). They influence each other.

In drawing I have a few subset themes. One is botanical drawing.

Botanical drawing has a long history, and I cannot practice it without referring to its ancient practice.

I visited three times the Botanical Garden of Padova, where historical botanical drawings are displayed in the museum. It is the most ancient university botanical garden of the world that preserves its original location. Founded in 1545, it’s part of the world UNESCO heritage, it hosts 6000 plants from 5 continents. A cradle of science and scientific exchanges.

During my latest visit the Botanical Garden of Padova I collected photos of plants, for my future drawings.

I made, in the past months, this collection of small botanical drawings, where I practiced a bit with abstraction, always starting from some photograph of mine. I’ve been abstracting, in particular, the shape, underlining the contours and subtracting colours. The infinite curves created by biology have always fascinated me. I published these drawings in my recently created Instagram profile @the_cult_of_ink.

My future steps in drawing aim to go beyond the abstraction by subtraction. I will continue with addition and composition: this is a method that I’ve used during improv quilting, when I practiced adding fabric pieces on the design wall. I love seeing how different media influence your brain in training you on some practices which can be transferred to other media.

Here below it is shown one of my most recent botanical drawing: this is started from tens of separate flower and petal drawings (ink on paper), recombined, drawing them again and again, choosing the final composition with pencil and eraser. The result is re united in an imaginary organic creation.  

The logo of the Instagram profile @the_cult_of_ink was made in this same way: selecting petal shapes and repeating them. Here below you can see the source (photographic details) and the resulting final drawing. Question to the quilting friends: does it look like connecting pieces of fabric?

New year explorations

drawing, Exhibits, techniques

The year started with a lot of exploration, and I want to share some interesting paths.

I’ve started a new year with a new focus on drawing. I’ve always been drawing but I’m now putting in order past work and dedicating more time to new work. The more I review past drawing, the more I wish to do new ones.

I’m reading a book by the graphic designer and philosopher Riccardo Falcinelli, Visus, and I learn that: my recent growing work is much line based and contour based, which is a technique consolidated in modern times by cartoon and comics; we use to be drawing what we want to be in contact with, and I like to be in front of nature, landscape and abstraction.

I’ve recently visited the gallery of contemporary art Naturae and I discovered the artist Macoto Murayama, who invented the term “botech”: botanical drawing expressed with the extreme of capabilities of nowadays technology, as a way to reveal microscopical beauties but also the way we think. Being myself sensitive to microscopy, technology and art, his work looks to me as a game changer.

I’ve read the book Wild textiles by Alice Fox, and her capability to use found objects and natural supplies changed my way of looking at my everyday material sources and even the apple peel and biscuit wrap are not the same under my eyes now.

I found a lot of inspiration… and we’re just at the beginning of the year!

The cult of ink

drawing

What is drawing?

Joe Cunningham said to me (during a mentoring session with him, which I had the pleasure to attend): “Drawing is a direct connection to the mind”.

My first drawings, at primary school, included roses from the home garden of my class mate Sara. This Summer I was in Oslo, in Norway, and I visited Vigeland park. The smell of roses I found there made me wish to draw roses again, as in the innocence of childhood.

I once displayed a drawing gallery “en plein air”, thanks to the arrangement of my friends Serena and Andrea, who made a concert in a natural reserve, in the Cona island, near river Isonzo.

I had the honor to illustrate Andrea and Serena’s CD “Laila”: it was a wonderful joint creativity experience, one of my best memories related to drawing.

I recently started drawing again.
Rivers, obviously.

Drawing is part of my identity.

At high school, I enrolled to specialisation on maths and drawing, both with pleasure. When the moment came to select university faculty, I had in mind options of architecture and engineering. I chose engineering. I am a full-time engineer, since more than 20 years: I am a microscopist, and I have a professional relationship with images, including technical drawings.

I decided to create a dedicated social profile for my activity related to drawing: @the_cult_of_ink.

I will collect there my drawing works, which have not been shown much in the past but, in reality, they are many. You will find the following themes: botany, architecture, cityscapes, dreamscapes, the magical presence of animals, technical drawing, texture, abstraction and maps.

I invite you to join me in this new journey, and to dream.