I've been really into contemporary drawing this year - reading books, looking at drawing exercises, looking at work in museums. Okay, not much time for the latter, but I do love to look at drawings from all periods lately. I'm fascinated.

Is it because I primarily draw, not paint? I think I used to aspire to great painting, but somewhere along the way I think I returned to drawing and wondered why I left. Maybe this is something I can primarily do for a while. Start using up that hoarded drawing paper.

I'm trying to produce my own work too, but it just still feels amateur. I'm realizing that what made my work feel amateur before is that it only involved the subject - maybe sketchy, against a blank white paper background. The more I look at other drawing, the more I realized how filled in it is. The background isn't left invisible, transparent, letting the paper show through. White paper. Blank white paper. It's more complete, more layered. Contemporary drawing seems to often involve many layers.

Well, I have some instruction books with a lot of good drawing exercises in them, so I will give it a shot this summer when I finally seem to have more time to myself. I haven't had a day off since the semester began!