Response to Ings

"Embodied Drawing: A Case Study in Narrative Design"

Welby Ings

This article explores the notion of sketching as a method to communicate and process ideas. Ings relates this back to the creation of the film Munted. He states that he was interested to see if a new method in drawing might allow him to open up the processes of film design to other ideas. Ings discusses how in film the director/writer's ideas are firstly translated into scripts and written proposals before any investors will even consider the work. There is an assumption that the imagined film will only work if it is first translated into the written word. So Ings used new methods of drawing to broaden narrative concepts in film.

"the pencil...is a bridge between the imagining mind and the image that appears on the sheet of paper." (Pg 2.3)

Ings notes that there are three primary uses of drawing; concept sketching, presentation drawing and drawing for manufacture. He then goes on to describe a method of drawing called enstasic drawing. This process is an immersive experience that allows the creator to slowly reflect on their work while they are submerged into that world. 

"The term enstasic suggests a standing within. It surfaces from the Indo-Greek roots ‘en’ (into) and ‘histanai’ (to stand)." (Pg. 2.4)

 

Drawing is a process that allows creators to think things through and try new possibilities. It's a way for someone to slow down and process what they are doing and explore their options. Enstasic drawing is not a form of communication, it is used to generate the creator's thinking. It is not meant to create storyboards or sketches, it is a method of creating. 

Rosenberg (2008: 109) refers to this process as a state “where one thinks with, and through drawing to make discoveries, to find new possibilities that give course to ideas and to help fashion their eventual form” (Pg. 2.4)

I like the idea of enstasic drawing, but I don't know if I follow this method. I go into drawings with a plan, and if I don't have a plan then it usually ends up really badly. I am not good at just creating. It's an interesting concept to allow the process of drawing to help generate new ideas and make new discoveries. It's just not my process. 

I also really like this quote, that pictures do not need to be pictorial. They can be abstract and still mean something too. 

"...abstract lines, and forms, and shapes, and colours can give emotional meaning and expression just as much as narrative lines, dialogue and characters." (Pg 2.2)