In a quiet moment, take time to recall some memory that you find interesting or enjoyable. Perhaps this was a story told by your family, or some moment that formed an idea of yourself or someone around you. Maybe a photograph, smell or object will help bring back your recollection. As you sit, pull out the details and events from the narrative before and after that moment. Jot down everything you can remember. How old are you? Where are you? Who is there? What is around you? What is happening in the story?
For this memory, you can draw from any viewpoint, with elements out of realistic proportion. Perhaps forms are simplified and important elements are larger. Most people don’t remember every piece of a scene, so allow some elements to float without context, or layer pieces that shift and overlap in your mind. You have the option to draw what was before and after your moment, to tell the story. Once you have drawn elements of the narrative or scene, let the drawing be unfinished. There is no need to fill in pieces that you don’t remember.
“One of those family photos that always prompts a narrative, you are the subject of it but have no recollection of the events that everyone else recalls. In this case it was my first birthday and always accompanied by the story of how I ate the fruit from the cake while the adults were not looking. What i find curious about memory drawings is how childlike they are. The child in this drawing is not a one year old as in the narrative but seems to be more at the age I would have understood the story. Drawn purely from imagination no visual reference to the actual photo though i had seen it in the past. The lady with the huge hands is my grandmother, she had as I remember, huge hard-working hands with long nails as thick as hooves.” – Laura Hudson
If you have time, watch the first 12 minutes of this Art 21 video featuring Susan Rothenberg in “Memory.” Watch how she paints!
Artist Piotr Szyhalski’s COVID-19: Labor Camp Reports are a daily series of poster designs inspired by news events; the first posted on March 24, 2020. This prolific series can be …
Exercise your creativity This SAL Challenge is a vocabulary based creative challenge every day for January. Materials are artist’s choice. You can draw, paint, sew, collage, sculpt your food, anything …
I’ve been talking about how to use hands as expressive elements within a drawing. I love this idea so much, both for technical practice and for powerful personal expression, that I made …
[image_with_animation image_url=”9675″ alignment=”center” animation=”None” box_shadow=”none” max_width=”100%”] Topophilia (From Greek topos “place” and -philia, “love of”) is a strong sense of place, which often becomes mixed with the sense of cultural identity …
30SAL Challenge: Memory Narrative
In a quiet moment, take time to recall some memory that you find interesting or enjoyable. Perhaps this was a story told by your family, or some moment that formed an idea of yourself or someone around you. Maybe a photograph, smell or object will help bring back your recollection. As you sit, pull out the details and events from the narrative before and after that moment. Jot down everything you can remember. How old are you? Where are you? Who is there? What is around you? What is happening in the story?
For this memory, you can draw from any viewpoint, with elements out of realistic proportion. Perhaps forms are simplified and important elements are larger. Most people don’t remember every piece of a scene, so allow some elements to float without context, or layer pieces that shift and overlap in your mind. You have the option to draw what was before and after your moment, to tell the story. Once you have drawn elements of the narrative or scene, let the drawing be unfinished. There is no need to fill in pieces that you don’t remember.
Below is a memory narrative by Laura Hudson:
“One of those family photos that always prompts a narrative, you are the subject of it but have no recollection of the events that everyone else recalls. In this case it was my first birthday and always accompanied by the story of how I ate the fruit from the cake while the adults were not looking. What i find curious about memory drawings is how childlike they are. The child in this drawing is not a one year old as in the narrative but seems to be more at the age I would have understood the story. Drawn purely from imagination no visual reference to the actual photo though i had seen it in the past. The lady with the huge hands is my grandmother, she had as I remember, huge hard-working hands with long nails as thick as hooves.” – Laura Hudson
If you have time, watch the first 12 minutes of this Art 21 video featuring Susan Rothenberg in “Memory.” Watch how she paints!
https://art21.org/watch/art-in-the-twenty-first-century/s3/susan-rothenberg-in-memory-segment/
Please share your work on Instagram and tag us: #30sal #seattleartistleague #memory #memorychallenge #memorydrawing #drawingchallenge #drawing #art #illustration #sketch #artchallenge #drawings #artist #draw #artistsoninstagram #sketchbook #instaart #drawthisinyourstyle #artwork #drawingoftheday #dailydrawing #inkdrawing #drawingsketch #artoftheday #pencildrawing #drawthisinyourstylechallenge #creativity #creativechallenge
Related Posts
COVID-19: Labor Camp Reports
Artist Piotr Szyhalski’s COVID-19: Labor Camp Reports are a daily series of poster designs inspired by news events; the first posted on March 24, 2020. This prolific series can be …
SAL Challenge 11: UGGLE
Exercise your creativity This SAL Challenge is a vocabulary based creative challenge every day for January. Materials are artist’s choice. You can draw, paint, sew, collage, sculpt your food, anything …
Drawings of Hands: Charles White
I’ve been talking about how to use hands as expressive elements within a drawing. I love this idea so much, both for technical practice and for powerful personal expression, that I made …
SAL Challenge: Salish Sea Map
[image_with_animation image_url=”9675″ alignment=”center” animation=”None” box_shadow=”none” max_width=”100%”] Topophilia (From Greek topos “place” and -philia, “love of”) is a strong sense of place, which often becomes mixed with the sense of cultural identity …