ABSTRACT
Chapter 8 describes how practitioners experience the presence of others while drawing; this can be supportive or inhibiting. At the hand of experiential accounts, I elaborate on some of the ways in which drawing practitioners support one another’s practice by working together. A shared studio offers mutual motivation, friendly critiques, and an exchange of ideas and manners of working. Out of doors and in classes are other ways practitioners choose to support one another by drawing together. In each of these contexts, artists, hobbyists, and students alike feel that their efforts are validated by the responsive look of friends, family, fellow students, or even strangers. In any of these contexts, however, someone’s look can inhibit or distract one from drawing. Referring to Sartre’s philosophical analysis of “the look” and using my own and others’ experiences, I describe what it is like to be the recipient of an inhibiting look.
