hitsuzendō

Some of my most exciting drawings were made after learning about 'the way of the brush' or hitsuzendō, allowing the brush to lead, following your intuitive understanding of balance and composition. speed and energy, this zen Buddhist brushwork was a discovery quite far into my project but has become one of the most interesting inspirations for my personal artistic expression. I found it liberating the use my whole body to create marks and allowing my hand to lead without my brain questioning it. 

The idea of letting the brush lead is something that really resonated with me. Its almost like relinquishing control and after a while of focus it feels almost as though I am channelling some sort of higher creative power? IS THIS TRUE? IS THIS POSSIBLE? Am I merely a mortal vessel that some eternal transcendent artistic energy uses to create artworks ?! or am I just a moron making shit art? a stupid young boy making bullshit marks that mean nothing? Whats the point? why am I like this? why cant I just work systematically and ordered like everyone else? maybe because I AM JACK WILFRED GRIEVE..... ?

I learnt that Ralph Steadman uses a large energetic black splat brush stroke to start his drawings and decided from that mark how to turn it into the final drawing. I found this very interesting and this lead to me working back into drawings to turn the seemingly random marks into more figurative depictions usually of people. The element of chance is a very interesting component to drawings that I would like to explore further...

I think that following the brush, allowing it to lead the black mark around the paper is a nice way to start an image that gives it an exciting spontaneous exuberant feel but it is then important to take a step back and evaluate what shape it has created and how you can turn it into something that has more value than a scribbly mess.