sketching & photography

An ex-student wrote to me recently, with these kind & interesting comments :

“….I really loved –and was inspired by–seeing the drawings you’ve been doing of your children (and the musicians too). Bravo! There’s nothing like drawings for putting the hand of the artist into the work (I say that because I’ve been so into photography lately, so when I return to looking at art I re-learn how beautiful a handmade line can be). I know that I’d better off to put the camera down and take up pad and pencils instead. No question cameras are great but I see that artists’ indiscrimminate reliance on them as substitute for constant sketching and visual memory building results in a huge degradation of key skills ….. “