TWO
DRAWING FROM LIFE!
WHERE DO IDEAS COME FROM?
Are they handed down or given?
Do you need to search carefully, dig deep, leave no rock unturned?
Might they be stumbled upon, found by accident, by happenstance?
Are they just around the corner, just out of sight, over the next hill?
Do they slip away, fleeting, hard to see, or fade away soon after they appear?
Are they from your experience, your life, the past … the now?
Maybe they’re something you’ve noticed, observed, or seen?
How would you recognize them?
show, tell, and create
It’s easy to become so focused on the act of making art that the act itself becomes the art – art for art sake as the saying goes. But for visual communication the visual is only the first word, communication is the second. Perhaps it’s because learning to make art is straight forward, we put in our 10,000 hours of critical study and we’re good to go.
But creativity seems more ephemeral. Harder to identify, and to grasp a hold of. But what if the art of coming up with ideas is perfected the same way as making art? Through critical study, and practice. Achieved by a straight forward process of learning to make ideas from what we see, feel, and experience in our everyday living.
The video below is an example of this creative process. (5 minutes 25 sec)
critical practice
Critical study is a term you may be familiar with from your academic studies. A variation on that concept which, from the perspective of a practicing professional is perhaps more relevant, is critical practice.
Becoming familiar with the concept of critical practice – and putting it directly into … practice, can be a defining factor in transforming the dream of making art as a profession – into a reality.
The video below discusses an example of critical practice. (3 minutes)
Warm up Exercise
Divide a sketchbook spread (2 pages) into panels of any format.
Sketch storytelling environments using primary shapes such as cones, cylinders, spheres, pyramids, boxes, etc.
Sketches can be based on observational drawing from life, from photos, scenes from tv/film, and your imagination.
Include line, tone and volume.
Drawing environments can be difficult to get jazzed about. One thing that has freed my imagination is eliminating gravity, I let things float or exist by their own rules.
Exercise should be done in under an hour, with coffee or some other calming ritual. (but you can do more if it’s fun)