BACK TO SCHOOL



My daughter finally started school last week, leaving me to draw all alone. Since the start of lockdown life pretty much all my drawing - well, everything - has been done with Echo and I'll miss this a lot.

Drawing urgently, often to her precise instruction and added 'advice', sometimes with odd materials (wax crayons, cheap brushes and poster paint), all at the same time as dealing with the usual random demands of a three year old, was surprisingly liberating. 

She is better at picking a subject to draw and just going for it. Often we would draw the same thing, like the portrait/self-portrait above, but her pictures are always more joyful and fun. 

Picasso once said he spent a lifetime trying to draw like a child, and I know what he meant; it is impossible to capture that purity that just flows from their pencil. It isn't just innocence or naivety, I think it's more that thoughts of who will view the picture, it's purpose or final destination, are absent, as is any pre-conceived idea of how it should look. Drawing just for the hell of it. 

I learnt quite a bit from these sessions so I'm planning on reviving my stagnant Instagram with our drawings. To chart Echo's development and as a reminder for me to continue this re-discovered habit of quick doodles, without worrying about the quality, maintaining the spirit of Echo and drawing purely for it's own sake.



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