Draw with no Lines

One of the lessons I had in art school was to look at a still life set up and use graphite pencil and draw no lines. I thought my teacher was kidding! I had always drawn with lines! I really had a struggle with this task because it was a matter of looking at the shapes, and the light and dark pattern of the objects in front of me.  I really didn’t think I could do it, but made a dot here and there indicating where I would place the objects and little by little it all came together in a way I had never expected.  I don’t believe I ever did this kind of drawing ever again because I like my own lines, that is, Dixielines!  There is something about how things line up, and to put it bluntly, I like the flow of paint rather than making things stay in line.  I guess I was a kid who refused to stay within the lines in my color books and thought there was  something else to express beyond those lines.  This is one of the reasons I always felt fatigued after doing tole painting (one of my first attempts at using oil paints).  I had to stay within the lines and that goes against my grain.  Art has a way to detect who we really are and what we are made of.  And then, one thing I read was that what an object is, is not as important as its shape and value.  This was a good lesson for me and one that taught me to not look at just lines.  I love teachers who challenge me as Dotty Billiu often did.