Having just created recently completed my first collaborative drawing with Barbara this reading was pertinent. I can identify with Milner’s interest in free drawing and the element of surprise (and alarm) in the outcomes. In her own reading about how to paint, one comment stands out: “the eye should find out what it liked” (Milner, 1950, p.3). This idea of honing your vision and developing a particular focus is relevant to me at the moment as I am trying to narrow down my interests, this is a useful phrase for me to bear in mind as I am mapping out my interests, influences and intentions.
Her use of automatic/ unconscious drawing as a starting point is an interesting one. Her assertion that you will communicate your mood at the time rather than the mood of what you are representing is also revealing. As well as free drawing, I think that use of stream of consciousness in writing would be a good exercise for me. Althought I enjoy writing, I find the idea difficult of writing in this way difficult and feel that it might be awkward, perhaps that is a good reason to persue it.
Claudia Dharamshi 