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!
In early 1918 John Singer Sargent was commissioned by the British War Memorials Committee to document the war. Sargent originally thought he’d paint about the gallantry of soldiers, but after visiting the Western Front and seeing a field hospital full of soldiers who had been exposed to mustard gas, he changed his plans. The high society painter who …
Keith Pfeiffer trained as an illustrator, and recently decided to jump over the fence to be a professional fine artist. His observation based drawings are finely tuned and skillfully rendered, with a focus on line and tone. His sketches are posted on Instagram for very affordable prices. We had just hired him at the League …
Instructors at the League are encouraged to take each other’s classes. It is a fun way for us to continue our learning, get new ideas, and stay connected with each other. Shruti Ghatak has been taking all the League classes she can, and evidently she sketches our portraits while we are teaching. Ghatak received her …
Pricing Artwork Money stuff is really really really hard for me. Putting a financial value on art is weird, and if I were to leave it up to my heart to guide me I’d be wearing burlap and sitting on the street corner. So I don’t leave it up to my heart. I apply a …
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/
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