#octapus analogies

[inspiredartstudent]

The Process of Great Ideas (Musings of an art student)

I am beginning to appreciate the process of coming to great ideas.  Perhaps this is the one most valuable lesson I’ve learned this first month of the school year.

We can have great, awesome sparks of inspiration at any time.  We can have “great ideas” in an instant.

But when we go to put that into a complete, fully rendered drawing or painting, we can’t translate that idea perfectly from the get-go.  This is so frustrating!  Even if I can technically draw the thing that spawned from my head, what ends up on the paper typically isn’t as epic, as beautiful, as detailed, as intriguing or as visually interesting as the vision from my imagination.  I take a moment to stare at what I've drawn and I wonder, ummm so how could someone look at this and feel the same excitement about it as I did when I started this? Because it sure don’t look as epic as I imagined.

In part, I realized this as I was copying other artists’ work that I deeply admired (not to steal it of course, just to learn and study their work).  When I saw their artwork, I felt a rush of excitement.  :D BIG GASP “OH WOW THAT’S BEAUUUUUTIFULLLLL!!! I lovvvvvvvvvve it I love it!!!”  And when I did master copy of their work, I found I could recreate much of that same feeling.  But otherwise, when I flip through my own sketches, I miss that feeling. :/  Part of that right now is because much of my own drawing is focused on improving my technique and my skills observing from life, so I draw a lot of people studying or looking bored, and random objects and plants I pass throughout the day.  But I still have plenty of my own imagined, conceptual types of sketches.  And although they were all sparked by some intriguing idea, they don’t command any viewer’s attention.

So.  Then we go to the present reality in which I am starting my first real illustration classes, and I have to come up with 15-30 thumbnails for each project.  For whatever reason, this does not sound like very many at all in my mind, but this is still a huge increase from the 6 thumbnails I had to come up with in high school.  However, let me tell you that 30 thumbnails takes me a couple of hours of deep brain work, and at the end I feel like I maybe have 2 or 3 fairly good ideas.  And even at the end of 30 thumbnails, I feel like there’s something better out there I have not yet uncovered.  And whatever that idea is taunts me.

(Here are a few of those ugly thumbnail pages.  It’s not always about looking pretty, but exploring and getting ideas onto paper-therefore eliminating a lot of ideas that just ... don’t ... work.)

Is there anyone else out there on the interwebs who has felt similarly?  I have loved art for a long time, but it’s only been recently that I have experienced this strong push, or this nagging.  For whatever reason, the only analogy I can visualize is octapus tentacles (they’re pumpkin-orange in color) reaching out and taunting and tugging at me (not violently but firmly and persisteringly(?)).

It must be the Octapus of My Artistic Aspirations.  Come, young art student, do or do not, there is no try.

(That’s the Minoan Octapus Flask from c. 1500 B.C.E.  One of my favorite ancient art objects.)

But back to the point!

The lesson I’m learning right now is that creating a work of art that is inspiring, that’s engaging, that people can really latch onto, and that you can say honestly communicates the vision you started with, is a process.  It takes time, it takes nurturing, it takes energy and revision and work.

Nurturing.  I like that word, instead of just simply saying “work”, because nurturing has the natural diligence that comes along with love.  Nurturing is passionate work, and it does not force or push too hard or too quickly.  It’s persistent and diligent.  And nurturing is a very rewarding kind of work.

For me, right now, nurturing my artwork is about taking my sketches and loving the ideas which inspired them whilst treating them more like sticky notes, simple, quickly jotted-down ideas.  Then I go into a great exploration and revision process.  The exploration and the revision are simultaneous.  They must be for at least a while, or my work will become static and boring, lifeless and dull.  I can’t be too hesitant to try something even if I think it’s crazy, as long as I am in this stage.  Next I evaluate.  Am I staying true to my vision, or better yet, am I creating a better vision?  If so, I can make whatever small tweaks I want to my thumbnails and then start the “comps”/final piece (”comp” is design school/industry jargon for an art piece that is much more developed than a thumbnail, offers a good depiction of what the final piece will look like, but isn’t yet the finished product).  At my present state, I generally do not think my thumbnails are aligning with my vision, so then I dig in real deep, figure out why it isn’t working yet, assess whether I am realistically capable of making those alterations, and then I do my best to improve what I’ve got.  At some point, I just have to move forward and finish what I started whether it lives up to my hopes and dreams or not.  But I do my best, and I do my best starting out in the idea/thumbnail/development stages.

That’s my plan for here on out, at least.

Just remember to be practical and use good judgment.  Even the artists I most admire admit that their end result is typically different from what they envisioned.  Some artists, I’d say especially young and developing artists, get really frustrated when they don’t achieve the results they hoped for.  My suggestion is to remember and appreciate how far you’ve come.  If there’s one thing I’ve learned in all my life, it’s that I’m ALWAYS learning.  So I have the potential to improve.  And so do you!  Just keep nurturing those skills.  Little by little you’ll improve.  There’s up days and down days.  We all do.  Just keep trucking along, and never forget why you first loved it.

(This is really long. Should I add pictures?  Would that help your eyes read this textbook of a post?  Haha, I’m so great at tumblr, guys. xD) **Goes back to add pictures :) **