Drawings & Sketches by Tom Rickman.

Drawing has always been at the heart of my work. I guess I have a knack for it. Since young I sided with images and the calligraphy of drawing than with words and lists. So really the use of it is a continuation into my grown adult life. I use it out in the field, a small sketchbook always in my pocket, to make small snap shot observations, ideas, quirks, doodles, jots of shape. This is how I materialise the thoughts of ideas, how to get them inside me, a few abstracted lines mean so much more than a photo. The scribble is open ended and ingested but remains exterior to the self to remind, more so than a worded description of photo. Though I use it all drawing is the hand felt experience of it – that which lets the visual sensation flow through the self. Life drawing is an exercise of perception. It is difficult, challenges my ability skill and it is always there. It is akin to learning musical scales. It is what it is – the matter of fact, a place to begin from.