THIS CREEPING THISTLE is growing from a crack by the wall. The spiky, empty
seed-pods of a small weed of the mustard family stand beside it.
I try to do some writing as I wait for the car to be repaired at Bowett's
in Hunslet, Leeds, but I prefer drawing in such situations as I'm more alert
as to what is going on around me than I am when I'm writing. The thistle was
in a corner of the forecourt, just a few feet from where I was sitting
in the showroom. Like the dragonfly which I drew at the weekend, I find that
the
line
seems
rather
stilted
- self-conscious,
perhaps - when I start the drawing in the top left but it somehow gets more
relaxed and varied as I go along.
I keep Ruskin's advice in mind when I draw that 'any attempt at penmanship
is bad'. I'd always rather do an honest drawing than achieve the fanciest of
filigrees with my line but I do prefer the slightly more flowing line in the
lower half of the drawing.
