Painting My Writing

I used to draw and paint when I was a young man. I have enjoyed drawing and painting since I was a child; and, when I was in the last two years of high school, I considered the possibility of becoming an artist, being inspired by the masterpieces of Picasso, Ingres, Degas, and Michelangelo. Even though I enrolled in the chemical engineering program at university, I have not lost my taste in art and I sketch something from time to time, always keeping in mind the basics of this art form, which I learnt while a student at the local art school of my city many years ago.

Nowadays, as I have embarked on keeping a blog in English, every time I prepare a new blog post, I have to go through the same process of writing—whose stages remind me of those of drawing and painting—that for me, being a non-native English speaker, may be more difficult than for those who grew up speaking the language of Dickens.

Writing is like drawing and painting in many ways. First, you have to decide what you will draw or paint. This step involves choosing the object or person that will be your model and setting up the scenery that will surround them. This is the composition stage. Then, you need to choose the materials that will best express your artistic point of view, that is, what you intend to say to the people that view your piece of art about the objects in it. If you aim to create a drawing, will you use chalk, charcoal, pencil, or ink? But if you decide to produce a painting, which will be the best choice: oil, watercolour, or acrylic? Perhaps it would be a good idea to mix materials. After that, one begins to sketch the picture. The artist may make as many sketches as they want until they do one after which their finished work will be produced. Many studies might be leaning against the wall of the artist's atelier at the end of this stage. Finally, attention to the details—light and shade, colour tones, brush strokes—is given, making sure every one of them adds to the original sentiment you wanted to express.

In writing, you first decide on a topic. Sometimes the topic brings the genre within itself and sometimes you have to choose the one that best suits what you want to say. The topic in writing is like the model in drawing and painting, and the genre is for a writer what the drawing and painting materials are for the artist. Perhaps a poem may say what you feel about the topic more appropriately, or a novel could depict your thoughts and show your creativity in a better way. In the end it will depend on you, your preferences, and your aptitude for the genre. The next step in the writing process is to jot down all the ideas that come to mind and make the necessary refinements. This stage is similar to the one where an artist makes their sketches. For instance, you may begin with five paragraphs when writing an essay and end up publishing seven paragraphs, or an author can cut a scene from the first chapter of their novel and include it in the third. The editing process ends when the writer is satisfied with the final work (yet some say they could have written something better), which relates to the attention given to the details in the drawing and painting process.

All of the steps described above, however, cannot be taken without the proper foundations in the art form you want to practise. How to hold a pencil and a brush, the way you must give a line its rhythm, the significance of brush strokes, knowing how to represent light and shade, in the drawing and painting case; and, knowing where to put a word in a sentence, the agreement of a subject and its verb, correct spelling and punctuation, among other grammar issues in the writing case; constitute a compulsory education you must acquire and the first step towards mastering the art form in question. In order for you to accomplish that, a lot of practice is required along the path.

When I started studying drawing, I realised I not only had to draw everyday but also study the works of the great masters. Similarly, it is well-known that every would-be author must read many works of literature and write copiously. I do not pretend to be an accomplished artist, nor can I say I am a published author, but I assure you I have learnt that an excellent ground in grammar is the door to creative writing, as mastering classical-style drawing justifies evolving into Cubism.

As far as the writing of an enthusiastic non-native English speaker is concerned, the major emphasis is placed on grammar; so I am aware of its crucial importance for a good command of the lingua franca of today's world. While being taught English as a second language, once a student learns to arrange the words in a sentence, they are already able to communicate with the world by speaking and by writing. As soon as they can write well, they attempt to write a composition and eventually find themselves editing their own works. My experience is no exception.

Reviewing every piece of writing I write is a decisive step I take in enhancing my style. In doing so, correcting my grammar is commonplace. Having nobody as my appointed English teacher, I rely on the best teachers a learner of English writing can look for: English-written novels. I remember I desperately wanted to have a copy of any of the English classics when I was in my last year of high school. My English teacher had required us to read an excerpt from The Call of the Wild, and when I opened it, I was totally fascinated by the articulation of the story and greatly enjoyed it. I decided I had to have, if not the same book in a complete version, another one. It was not until 2011 that I could afford an unabridged copy of a novel in English, and since then I have bought several of such books and have read the majority of them. (In this link you can see a list of the books I have read so far). In reading them, I have been convinced by the authors' mastery that grammar has been an essential component of their education. Fortunately, English grammar became one of my interests when I began to study the language.

Life has exposed me to art, of which, the forms I enjoy the most are drawing, painting, and literature. Despite the fact that I am neither an artist nor an author yet, I testify that there exist necessary foundations that aspirant artists and authors must lay, on which they can safely build their careers. Would Ingres have made such magnificent drawings, so that he is regarded as one of the greatest representatives—the greatest to me—of Neoclassicism, without having studied and practised drawing for years? Would Picasso have produced the astonishingly beautiful post-Cubism expressionist art he created if he had not already mastered figurative art? Would J. R. R. Tolkien have been able to write The Hobbit and the The Lord of the Rings novel series if he had not studied English grammar?