Quite some time ago, before Covid… my drawing teacher asked us to do what he called Goya Squares. The premise is that he cut of (photocopies) of famous Goya etchings into 1″ squares; we were to take between one to three of them, place them on a large white sheet of paper and draw outwards from them with the goal of making the original square disappear into the drawing. We did this with ink pens and ink wells, to practice the use of the tool, but could also make more with fine tip pens and markers.
Note: we weren’t shown the actual etchings and asked not to look for them… just let the imagination build up a whole new visual narrative.
I’ve been wanting to do this again ever since, but just never made the time. As I am planning projects for my Summer break, this felt like the right time to start. I found three etchings I like for their weirdness and printed them out during one of my marathon To Do lists, so that I could try to forget what I chose. A few days latter, I cut them up, face down, so I wouldn’t see the full images again. I turned over the pieces one by one and made a selection odd ones to make my drawings. I then placed my choices in an envelope and will draw them out randomly to challenge myself with drawings. I even have a new sketchbook to do them in & a new batch of fine tip Pilot pens to use.
Wish me luck and stay tuned…
The New Renaissance Mindset 