18 Views of Verrocchio's Putto

This is a page from my newest notebook. (If you click on these images you get a larger view).  I moved around the wee putto fountain in the courtyard of the Palazzo Vecchio here in Florence, stepping in a circle to capture the figure from all around.  These are quick gesture drawings, no more than five minutes each.  The idea was to get to know the general conformation of the figure in order to carve a similar figure on the peghead of a dulcimer.  Instead of the fishy thing this one holds, my peghead putto will hold a small lute-like instrument.  The sound holes will be the traditional hearts; the sides, back, peghead, and fingerboard are all walnut.

You may wonder why I would draw this instead of take a picture.  Perceptual drawing has many uses beyond capturing an image.  It can be a meditative activity.  It can be used for more expressive imagery.  But most of all it changes how you see.  To draw or to paint is to alter the structure of your mind.  A friend in graduate school experienced a good example of this.  She used to be very bored driving up across the midwest between the university and her home, especially in winter, so she would read novels while driving.  Do not do this!  Anyway, one year she was forced to take three terms of a studio or performance art.  She had never done anything like that.  She chose painting.  Soon she no longer needed the novels for entertainment but she reported seeing colors in the landscape she had never seen before.  The more she painted the more riotous the erstwhile dull grey view became.  Then the three terms were over and she stopped painting to make time for more pressing obligations.  She reported that the colors began to fade, and after a few months she was back to seeing only dullness, but now with the sad memory of having seen something marvelous that she was no longer able to see.

I must be addicted to those colors, and the effects of light and shadow, and the character of lines and textures.  I can't stop drawing and painting and if I'm prevented from doing so I get anxious.  When I can't be wielding pencil or brush, I draw and paint with my eyes and the whole world is a dazzling display of beauty.  I can stare at a glass of water or a shadow on an old wall and be content.  Let me now apologize to anyone I may have stared at a bit much -- I am merely drawing you in my mind.