There are a thousand things you'll never see that an artist does to get good at what they do. While I show pretty much everything I produce, last night I tried out a type of practice whose results you'll never see. And you know what, I think it's the best thing since sliced bread. Sure, I could take a pic of every finished sketch from this technique, but the point isn't to exalt what's been drawn, but instead to revel in the knowledge of progress.
What I'm talking about is getting a sketchbook, some vine charcoal, a chamois, sitting down and sketching figure after figure after figure until your hand gets a little numb. My friend Rachel tossed this idea at me the other night when we were talking about the painting she commissioned me to do. A common practice for artists who go to classes, I've of course never heard of it since I haven't taken an art class since high school. Which is completely cool. This being new to art thing gives me such energy when I talk to other artists, finding out what they know. The tips, tricks, knowledge, whatever. It's all amazing to me. As long as you keep an open mind, understand nothing is personal (at least it shouldn't be), and are focused on improvement, the skies the limit on pretty much anything.
I admit, I did take a couple shots during the process, of course for marketing purposes. The life of an artist nowadays revolves around media. You always need to be posting something, talking about something, engaging with people. It seems like a 'duh' kind of concept, but it's easy to fall into the Field of Dreams mentality. 'If you build it, they will come.' Which is completely bullshit. You gotta be out there all the time shouting from the rooftops to compete with the noise that fills our ears on a daily basis. The most successful artists realize this and in one way or another are always doing that. Even established artists are always thinking of the next way to get attention within the scope of what they do.
Last night was all about figures. I've been focused on portraiture lately, mostly of the skull kind, so it was unbelievably freeing to not only get to work on something different, but not work under the onus that everyone is going to see what I was doing. I could just figure things out by giving them a try, legit erasing them without guilt, and doing it again...and again...and again.
One of the key things was setting a timer. For the life of me I thought my friend had said 1 minute. So, for several hours I sat with a one minute timer hitting the START and DISMISS (stop) button flipping through dozens of pictures of dancers, warriors, people sitting, people standing. It was really exciting.
When you're forced to rush through something you're forced to focus on the parts that matter, rather, how everything fits together. Over and over again I found myself focusing on one small part versus thinking of the figure as a whole. The timer would ding and I'd have like maybe a quarter of it done. I'd take care to think of the whole figure for the next one, do pretty good, then screw up on getting over-focused on the next one, hehe. As frustrating as it sounds, it was a blast.
This path I've chosen is both deeply frustrating and deeply satisfying. When you remove all the variables from the creative equation and the only thing left is you...what you learn about yourself, how you work, what you like, what you can do, slowly reveal themselves. There are so many miles you need to traverse in order to get anywhere, but, the more you do the faster the time between each destination becomes. Don't get me wrong, I know there will be peaks and plateaus like when you learn any skill, but, that's anything in life. That is life. Once you've found your calling, that doesn't matter anymore. Once you have that solid vision in your head of what you want...nothing will keep you from it.
This was the picture I was going to end with...
But then I noticed that I forgot to erase the last figure I drew last night, hehe.
Thanks for dropping by and checking out yesterdays progress on my creative journey. It wasn't glamorous. There were no gorgeous pieces of art created. But there was progress. And that's all that matters in the long run. Remember that when you're working towards any goals you have. Everything you do helps build towards where you're going. The good and the bad. As long as you learn from your mistakes and focus on what you got done. Be well everyone!
Wessel
Previous posts:
My Creative Journey 44
My Creative Journey 43
My Creative Journey 42
My Creative Journey 41
My Creative Journey 40
My Creative Journey 39
My Creative Journey 38
My Creative Journey 36 + 37 + Watch me Paint! Ep. 16
My Creative Journey 35 + Watch me Paint! Ep. 15
My Creative Journey 33 + Watch me Paint! Ep. 14
My Creative Journey 32 + Watch me Paint! Ep. 13
My Creative Journey 31 + Watch me Draw! Ep. 7
My Creative Journey 30 + Watch me Paint! Ep. 12
My Creative Journey 29 + Watch me Draw! Ep. 06
My Creative Journey 28
My Creative Journey 27
My Creative Journey 26 + Watch me Paint! Ep. 11
My Creative Journey 25 + Watch me Draw! Ep. 05
My Creative Journey 24 + Watch me Draw! Ep. 04
My Creative Journey 23 + Watch me Paint! Ep. 010
My Creative Journey 22
My Creative Journey 21 + Watch me Paint! Ep. 09
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