Draw that with your left hand, you have 10 seconds, go!  – By @nclrolly

By Rolly Ng

Draw that with your left hand, you have 10 seconds, go!

How would you draw the David sculpture if you only have 10 seconds?I had a 3-hour drawing session in V&A last Saturday. Did quick sketches ranging from 5 mins to 10 seconds with BOTH of my hands. I regained massive confidence in my ability to draw after the session.For a while, I didn’t believe I could draw. Art is just a subject that appears on my report card, pretty sure I had a D in senior school. The last time I enjoyed art was when I made a horse out of little tiles, horse-riding was my favourite activity back then. There was a time when I loved drawing myself in a rocket as I wanted to be an astronaut.In 8 sketching lessons before coming to SCA, I learnt about perspective, shadowing and how to express human gestures. When we did life-drawing at the beginning of term one, I was relieved that I had those lessons. I didn’t really practice after that.When I was scamping for the last few briefs, I realised my inability to draw well is holding me back from expressing my ideas. I had to rely on images on google to trace on photoshop. I couldn’t show how kids can have fun in Thorpe Park and zoom in to the roller coaster as I couldn’t draw one. Drawing courses look pricy when what I need is a space to be discipline to practice.I came across a 3-hour course in V&A on quick sketches of gesture, description: taught by a professional illustrator, seems helpful, let me give it a go.There was just 4 of us, perfect for me. The plan is to sketch for 5 mins, and bit by bit, go down to 10 secs. Ok, let’s see how I will cope this.We started with a head sculpture without a nose (which I didn’t realised interpret that bit as nostrils). I started off with a 3-inch frame as my keyline. It’s very small, resembles a head with a sad face, my strokes were light, I reminded myself to only draw what I see and not to overthink as I put pressure my pencil. Later on, the teacher suggested not to concentrate on the subject, put in the background in too. 5 minutes ended, It wasn’t as bad as I thought, I didn’t return everything I learnt back to my sketching teacher. I felt up for more challenges.I drew bigger and aimed to fill the A3. Then at some point, the teacher saw me changed the way I draw, I moved my fingers to the upper part of the pencil, this made me drew quicker, the strokes were darker and I can tell that I had a leap in confidence then.We moved to 2D paintings and drew the same character a few times in different duration. I was pretty good at outlining gestures. As it goes down to 1 min, I learnt that I should not to set expectations too high and should prioritise expressing motion.I drew stairs, the courtyard from the second floor, hallways, people looking at antique and their reflection. The day ended with Michelangelo’s David.Throughout the session, I was challenged to use my left hand. I didn’t really like the experience, the drawings were messy and I felt frustrated that I could not control how much pressure I want to create shadows. Eventually, I gave up and focused on shape and form. Looking back, some sketches do resemble the subject.I felt so drained after the 3 hours. I decided to give up going to Tim Walker. I felt that my passion for drawing came back. I went to look for art supply shops for more sketchbooks, and spent my night on discovering how Ohuhu is a great alternative to Copics.