I got attracted to taking a class in drawing the Female Buddha. It turned out to be a quite rigid approach–complete with grids and even a sequence of when to draw what part (which I ignored completely). I was amazed at how many people were happy to follow this. I guess they liked the result. For my part I wondered whether to continue, but it was fun drawing for so many hours and being told to slow down by the teacher–which was something my Ashtanga yoga teacher had been telling me as well. I was so far ahead of the rest of the class that the woman next to me asked if I was a Ninja. I assured her I am. Meanwhile, it had only been months before I was asking the boyfriend what the heck a Ninja is anyway. The next day I received a package from the International House of Ninjas! Is that synchronicity or what? I also opened a magazine and the first article I came to was one about thangka painting–with the author defending against those who say most are the work of copiests with no originality. So even though it seemed like I was there for no reason, hmmm?
Related Images:
first i came across your image while searching for reference for a thanka drawing i want to do to hang on the wall of my training area.
you have a really fantastic quality to your lines. very flowing.
secondly the reason for the rigidity of the work is that the process is not meant to be on of self expression but more self exploration. one of the key elements of life is that there is no freedom in nature. by undertaking a specific process of creating such an image, the mind will naturally experience certain mental states that arise and pass completely on their own, so through this process, one can hopefully come to recognize that “I” am not my feelings, which come and go on their own, and thereby overcome them and not allow them to move the mind in one direction or another. this type of drawing is another form of meditation, or mindfulness practice, which basically flies in the face of our western concept of what art should be about.
Yes, I think I get that. But it isn’t my cup of tea–as it doesn’t interest me the way the other does. But I also see value in developing a more mindful approach to my art. I just don’t want to copy other people’s designs–and my drawing skills are more about capturing the “spirit of the pose” as one of my teachers calls it than rendering details using a grid. I don’t know exactly what you mean by “there is no freedom in nature” but maintaining rigid control during art is not really art to me. Thanks for stopping by and commenting.