‘I believe that the sight is a more important thing than the drawing; and I would rather teach drawing that my pupils learn to love Nature, than teach the looking at nature that they may learn to draw’. (John Ruskin, Elements of Drawing 1857 p.13)
Have just spent a fantastic day drawing items in the Ryerson University Fashion Research Collection in Toronto thanks to dress detective Ingrid Mida who had generously prepared a selection of 'forgotten' garments in the collection for me to draw. The Dress Detective by Ingrid Mida and Alexandra Kim (Bloomsbury,2015) advocates a 'slow approach to seeing' as a method of textiles research in which drawing becomes an invaluable tool. We agreed that there is maybe no better way to look slowly than by drawing. Here I am testing out their slow approach.