What is the history of sketching? – Colored Pencil Landscape Drawing Tutorial


This is going to be long to post, but it’s not necessarily for the reasons you might think.

A few times back in the past, I’ve seen this quote: “What you think you understand only scratches the surface of what people are trying to tell you.”


There are several reasons why this observation holds true when we consider how we think in relation to how others see us and the context in which we work. It basically makes us fall within the trap of thinking, “I understand something so poorly.”

For any of us, it’s easy to start thinking, “If someone had been a doctor, they’d have understood just how much better you were doing, ” or, “If someone had just been good at painting, they wouldn’t get all this recognition for their art.” What we can realize is that our knowledge of things (how) they’re done (how) matters too.

I’ll be getting into the details of how this applies in a lot more detail in regards to the idea of how humans think and why in a future series, so I’ll refer back to the quote, but it should be stated that these comments (like, “If everyone else’s sketching was this bad, then they must not know about drawing or the art” etc.) just aren’t that true.

In terms of what people are saying…

Here’s a couple of points that I think are really valid:

“Most people don’t consider the context of the work they’re presenting to be important. I like the ‘don’t look at it like a picture book’ principle but it’s pretty much the same with most things. If I paint with my tongue in my cheek, then everybody’s not going to see that, because it’s so much harder to think about a piece in context than you might think.” -Ralph Waldo Emerson

“The problem isn’t the sketching; it’s the viewing. There’s no room for art in that atmosphere.” -Benjamin Booker

“When your friend gives you a sketch, and you’ve never actually done it, you assume that it was never done.” -Catherine Lacey

And that’s why I always try not to think about the context of the person giving you the sketching in regards to sketching. What’s more, in most situations, what you know about the “context” you’re in (or should) have absolutely nothing to do with how you should interpret the work

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