“simplify. then add lightness.” colin chapman

(british design engineer, inventor & founder of lotus cars)

inspired by those words, one of my favourite topics is:

“new forms of expression by drawing less - the fascination of leaving it out"

goals: 1. work less 2. see more 3. enjoy the discoveries:-)

how do we do that?

people. places. things.

everything we experience in the urban landscape:-)

don’t draw everything! :-)

look. carefully. what spontaneously attracts your attention? draw that!

• find the unique characteristics which make your subject stand out. accentuate those. shapes, colours, action, movement, graphics, objects, etc….

• specific details make simple lines become interesting, indicate what you’re really looking at, closely.

• there’s always a difference. look for the changes: in viewpoint, perspective, color- warm/ cold, value- dark/ light. play a game with it. what happens if you leave them out? what happens if you emphasise them?

• don’t repeat! no 2 windows, doors, eyes, headlights, sides of a face, are alike. (that’s an impossibility). why draw them that way?

• don’t separate what’s jumbled up. jumbled together is a natural state, well organised is less so. (sometimes we think too much:-)