Ink pen and water, 2019, on 7x10 paper 

The figures above are sample results of an intuitive drawing style that I picked up from 23rd Street Studio in San Francisco. For me, the approach resembles a meditative practice and yields continual learning.

Questions

What determines the minimum of markings that can clearly convey the human form to a viewer? Are we more readily able to recognize a human form or face in abstract lines than other objects? How does our ability to visually distinguish a full human figure differ from our ability to distinguish faces or trees? Why are did we evolve in that manner? What does our ability to recognize the human form from relative abstraction tell us about the process of perception?

How is a figure drawing influenced by non-obvious / non-visual attributes of the artist, model, and larger context? How do non-obvious attributes such as the mood or personality of the model, the state of mind of the artist, state of the world affect what is drawn? Could these be consistently tracked and patterns distilled? How consistently (or not) are such attributes represented in the work of a given artist - among artists in general? How consistently are those recognized by other humans? If systematically tracked and compared, would we discover consistent principles behind visual representation of psychological states (of either the artist or the model or both)? Could one use those principles to build a semi-standard visual language of state? See post on aesthetic research