Tuesday, May 30, 2006

Do you ever sketch in public?

"About Painting" has a very interesting poll which asks "Do you ever sketch in public?"

At the time of writing it has attracted 581 votes as follows:
  • 28% sketch anywhere and everywhere
  • 13% sketch - but only somewhere they won't be noticed
  • 18% sketch sometimes
which means very nearly 60% of the respondents do sketch in public and more than a quarter are happy to sketch anywhere and everywhere

However:
  • 16% don't sketch at all - because they're too intimidated
  • 9% have thought about it - but haven't started yet
  • 2% used to sketch in public - but had a bad experience and stopped
Which makes just over a quarter of respondents who don't sketch in public - and lack of confidence would appear to be the main reason for the majority of these.

Finally 6% don't sketch and 5% had 'other reasons'.

Are you surprised by any of these percentages? Is there any one result which stands out for you?

For me, there were a couple.
  • Firstly, that 60% of artists and would-be artists are already sketching in public, which I personally think is an excellent result.
  • Secondly, that only 2% of artists have actually had a bad experience while sketching in public. Fear of 'something awful happening' (which might be a variety of things depending on an individual's perspective) has been suggested in other places as being one of the main reasons why people don't sketch in public.
I hope that the results of this poll provides some reassurance to all those feeling intimidated about sketching in public or those who are still thinking about it - and that they all have a go sometime soon.

And thanks to Marion Boddy-Evans and the people at About Painting for hosting this very informative poll.

3 comments:

  1. Mostly dogs can be a problem in the country side here. In the city I always look for a possibility to have a wall in my back.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Amira - glad to hear you're going to be joining to the Wet canvas class which starts on 5th June. I'm sure you'll be part of the other 60% in no time at all.

    If anybody else would like to join Amira watch out for Drawing 102 - Class 3: Sketching which will be posted in The Classroom here http://www.wetcanvas.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?s=&forumid=335
    by the 5th June.

    PLEASE NOTE: This class is NOT about teaching people to draw but rather about helping people who have already studied drawing to sketch in public.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I'm in the 60% too, but not as frequently as I'd like to be. I'm hoping that will change soon!

    ReplyDelete

COMMENTS HAVE BEEN CLOSED AGAIN because of too much spam.
My blog posts are always posted to my Making A Mark Facebook Page and you can comment there if you wish.

Note: only a member of this blog may post a comment.