02/08/2009
tips for drawing (or tips for being creative)Permalink
i just found this old, old handout from a drawing class with Tom Cowette at the U long ago. it’s really great, so i am sharing it with you. i can’t tell if he wrote it or took it from something else and didn’t note it on the sheet. . .
“Painting a picture is the most difficult thing in the world to do–but only for those who know how.” –Edgar Degas
Pay constant attention to the whole picture (the effectiveness of part-to-part and parts-to-whole relationships)
Change what you don’t like–keep on changing what you don’t like!
Be patient, the picture may get worse before it gets better. Trial and error.
Learn to trust yourself; don’t second-guess yourself. If you get a notion, don’t dither, try it in the picture. Conscious calculation and planning play a role in creative activity, but, most importantly, intuition is the vital capacity. In making changes in the work, trust feelings, hunches, subconscious promptings, etc. This will not always lead to right choices, but it will more often than not.
Remember the whole picture. Give each part of the picture equal attention. Of course you can only work on one part at a time, but after each change, step back and try to see what effect the change had on the other parts and the whole. Remember, a positive change in one part could have a negative effect on some other parts which will present new choices, new possibilities, and at times, dilemmas. Problems can also arise from a change that has positive effects on the picture as a whole as it may present new and conflicting possibilities which may necessitate some hard choices. The process is one of trial and error, adjustment and re-adjustment.
Risk. The element of risk is always present. You must work to overcome fears of possibly ruining something for the sake of improving the picture.
Giving in to necessity. It is vital to revise things in terms of what the picture seems to need at the time. What you may very much want and what is necessary for the picture don’t always coincide. There is always an eventual “giving-in” to the evolving logic of the work itself which dictates and gradually limits choices. This often means sacrificing a part of the picture that you like very much in itself for the sake of the work’s continued evolution as a whole.
Often, the first impasse to the development of a picture is the picture itself; that is, once you get the initial image down, you may sometimes be at a loss as to where to go from there. Some suggestions for breaking through this impasse: Trust your feeling, do you get a positive response from some parts, negative from others? Even if you are not sure of the nature of the change, do something with the areas you don’t like. This can break the status quo and help to get you rolling. You may have no reaction, positive or negative. If so, simply make some arbitrary changes (explore). In this situation, any old change is better than nothing. Keep manipulating the picture until you do get some definite reactions. Using the concept of similarities-differences-monotony-confusion can also aid in arriving at some decisions. (Feeling at a loss as to how to move on a picture can reoccur many times during the work’s development. The procedure mentioned above is known as ‘disruption’ and refers to disturbing or teasing open parts of the picture–getting things out of the way which don’t seem to indicate any potential and replacing them with things that do. Giving the picture a ‘rest’ can also help. Put the work aside for awhile and don’t look at it. Coming back to it later, you will likely see potentials which you were not formerly aware of. This is one good reason to have more than one work in progress at any given time. If none of this works, ask the teacher for help.)
Awareness. Get to know your picture. It is necessary from time to time during the course of a work’s development to simply look at it in a non-judgmental way, in order to become more aware of what is actually there. It is very easy to overlook things particularly at the beginning, and the more you are aware of the actual contents of the picture, the more potential you will see for its further development.
Idea/Concept. A work of art can be viewed as being a fully articulated concept, in our case, a visual concept. The completion of a cycle from the first idea (notion) to the fully evolved idea (concept). The development of a work is evolutionary, entailing all that this term implies. In other words, the real idea is gradually revealed and arrived at. It is not what one starts with, but what one ends with and the final result may or may not resemble to initial idea.
Be wary of ‘ideas’, that is, preconceptions. While they may serve as a stimulus to initiate a work, attempting to stick with them can be deadly. Preconceptions more than anything can blind one to better options and stunt growth. Don’t stick yourself with anything. (See “an interview with Picasso” in “The Creative Process” by Brewster Ghiselin.
Detachment, objectivity, holding without insistence. Consider everything in the evolving composition to be tentative and subject to change right up to the very end. A work really contains nothing but potential until the final piece falls into place. This requires, among other things, an extremely open attitude, objectivity, astuteness, patience, and a certain amount of courage. Painting a picture is tricky business.
final note: Attitude: instead of What should I do?
Let’s see what happens if _____.
TRUST IN THE FORCE.
;)