View from the window

Geometrical and vital shapes in relation to each other

Sometimes we spend a lot of time indoors. Maybe the days are grey; sometimes the blue shimmers through the fog a little and it makes us hopeful to see a little more light for once. With this experience in mind, I thought of an exercise that has to do with something we do every day without thinking about it. It’s one of the normal things we do without being aware of their aesthetic possibilities: The view out of the window.

I encourage you to look out of one of your windows. The window can be empty, with nothing at all on the windowsill, so it’s just the window and the view outside. Or there may be some objects on the windowsill; flowerpots, ornaments, vases, candles, cards, small sculptures, stones, snail shells, whatever it is.

Just leave everything as it is, don’t change anything. Become aware of how your window looks, from the inside out. It’s like a still life, presenting itself to you on your windowsill. If there’s nothing there, it’s just the view of the window itself.

The window has a geometrical shape. Unless you have very amorphous window shapes, but they’re quite rare. Anyway, you study this geometrical shape with its lines. Look closely at the window. Does it have a single pane of glass or is it segmented? What does the frame look like? How does the window open?

Can it be opened, or can’t it be opened at all? Where are the latches and handles to open the window? What do the hinges look like? Maybe there’s a recess, depending on how old the building is.

Buildings from earlier centuries usually have very thick walls and the window recess is very deep. Study the window very carefully. Is it a wooden window, or is it aluminum or plastic? Does the frame have a certain color? What distances are there, what proportions? What does the windowsill look like?

When you study an empty window with nothing on the sill, you’re initially only interested in the shape of the window with its frame. What’s also important is in what proportion you place this shape on your sheet of paper.

In the second step, you draw the window in a slightly opened version. Either it’s tilted, or the sash opens very slightly.
The third challenge is to integrate something you can see outside. Study your window and what you see outside. Is it trees, or is it a garden, is it bushes, or is it the street, is it other houses across the street, or is it just the sky? Integrate some of what you see.

Draw the window linearly, with vibrating lines, apply the sharpened pencil a little stronger and a little weaker. This linearity, use it in the same way for the vital forms. Study the vital forms in a purely linear way, by drawing the contour of these forms.

The study of these vital forms is not strictly realistic. Try to feel the vital forms and draw them freely in a linear way. Don’t try to erase anything in order to make it „better“. Just let the forms emerge. Don’t smudge, scribble or stroke or try to fill a surface, but remain purely linear.

This creates a beautiful composition. The geometrical shape of the window enters into a dialogue with the vital shapes of the surroundings. If you draw only the lines, the drawing becomes much more abstract, much more reduced, much more nuanced. But also more precise, so you can really find a beautiful, distinct and at the same time unexpected statement in the expression. That is the goal, these clear lines.

By looking out of the window, you create clarity with these lines. You create clarity for the viewer and maybe also for yourself. That is a very pleasant situation. This view from the inside out presupposes that you arrive at yourself.

You can only look out into the world from your point of view. From your inner awareness. From your inner being. And this inner being is something that you yourself explore, feel and observe.

This perception of how you’re composed, how you turn your gaze outwards through your window, what you notice, what you may have newly discovered or never seen before, or what you’ve never spent so much time looking at, that is today’s task. Looking from the inside to the outside; in this case: looking out the window.

I hope you’re inspired to try this exercise and you’re in a good state of mind to try this drawing. Prepare yourself well, shake off all worries and all the tension or inner restlessness that may accompany you. You don’t need any of that in the moment of drawing, even if you notice and perceive it. That’s all right.

But don’t try to make a good drawing in this restless state of mind. Instead, take a deep breath, come to yourself, be at peace with yourself. This moment is a very peaceful moment, a very, very peaceful moment. We need these moments to draw. And these moments lead directly to happiness.

I wish you good luck drawing this view out of the window, from the inside to the outside!