There seems to be two ways I make marks. The first way is ‘competently’. This involves multiple pencil sketches to mould/sculpt a drawing to get it where I want it to be. The lines are sketchy, the paper is often rubbed raw with eraser marks, but the lines are where I imagined them to be. It also means there is often a ‘stiffness’ in the drawing.
The second way of approaching mark making is ‘confidently’. A single stroke, no erasing, just a mark on a page. If that mark lands where I intend it to, great! But it often doesn’t. Instead of reaching for the eraser, the process becomes more about how I react to that mark. With a ‘confident’ approach, the next mark needs to be one made in relation to what’s already on the page because it’s no longer about what I can see in my head, it’s only about what’s on the page.
The ‘confident’ approach means a ‘less accurate’ drawing compared to what I imagined it to be but it also means a more free/open/unpredictable drawing and for me, a more interesting one.
Perhaps if I spend more time practicing confident lines over competent ones, the confident ones may increasingly land where I intend them to and the best of both worlds will appear on the page.