“The trick is to develop a mark-making language with a set of tools that you can apply and alter to suit your needs.
You’ll be able to look at a subject and think through the stages of marks you’ll need, rather than thinking, ‘how do I draw trees again’.
By breaking down the subject you’re looking at into a sequence or series of particular shapes and abstracted marks, the drawing as a whole will begin to take care of itself.”
Kate Boucher, “Drawing with Charcoal” page 49
Once we’ve learnt the alphabet, and then what these letters placed in certain arrangements can mean (words), we create sentences. We don’t start a sentence thinking about the alphabet (though we might check spelling of a word). Mark making is painting’s alphabet.
