Learning to Sketch Again

My 6 year old's first drawing on the iPad.  My drawings on there aren't a great deal better at the moment!

One of the reasons I was keen to get an iPad was to use it for drawing and sketching. I've read that quite a few artists are using them to create artwork on, perhaps most famously David Hockney, and the idea of using it to create artwork on the go was something I wanted to be able to do.  I thought it would be great to be able to paint and draw without having to cart about large quantities of art materials when you travel.

So, having downloaded a free drawing and painting app, I have been experimenting with what I can do.  However I've found that using my finger to draw with is actually quite restrictive.  While in theory I know that you can select any brush size you want, and scale up or down so that you can get more control, I find that I really want a tool with a point on it, so that I can see what I'm doing, without having to constantly scale up and down.  It seems that I am not alone in this, as I discovered when I went looking for what was available in terms of a stylus.  Apparently the way that the capacitive screen of the iPad is constructed, means that it is designed to react to something fairly broad, like a finger, so all the stylus' that are available have a fairly broad tip.  So far so bad, the technology needs to improve on that score, but I did find a Styluswith good reviews that has a broad, see-through nib with a dot on it to show you where you are drawing, and this seemed to offer a way round the problem, at least in the short term. Once it arrived it seemed to do the job reasonably well, but I didn't find it that easy to use - you had to keep it at a certain angle which was a little restrictive, so at the moment I've gone back to using my finger.

Drawing and sketching on the iPad, is a very different experience even to using a drawing tablet with a computer.  I like the fact it is so direct (and so do my kids). I find it difficult to create drawings which are at all precise on there, though in some ways this might actually be a good thing, encouraging me to sketch with more spontaneity and giving my drawing more life.

Aside from drawing, I love the way web browsing is so much easier on the iPad, but though I like to take it to bed with me, I'm going to have to stop doing so, as browsing through creative blogs and inspirational sites, I have found is a sure route to insomnia - it just stimulates the creative part of my brain which is really the last thing you need when you want to get to sleep, so I'm going to have to stop doing it!

Creative Resolutions

I don't normally make new Year resolutions, but this year I have decided to make some creative ones. Over the past year or so, I have increasingly been trying to find my creative roots again, but although I have I think made some progress, I've been quite frustrated at the lack of time to really get stuck in - it just feels like I'm dabbling the whole time. With this in mind I recently bought myself a new book: Creative Time and Space: Making Room for Making Art

Again, I don't usually buy art books of this kind - you could spend your whole life thinking about art without actually producing anything.  There's a lot of navel gazing going on amongst artists, and although I'm probably guilty of it too, I try not to over-indulge. Sometimes I think a lot of creative people are just in love with the idea of being creative, and think about 'being creative' a lot more than actually being creative, so I try to avoid that.  Anyway, the title seemed to hit the nail on the head for me, and although having read it, it's not rocket science, and is mainly common sense, it has at least spurred me on to try and make a few changes this year.

So my creative resolutions for 2011 are:

• To sort out a more effective 'studio' space.  For the last 2 months, our office/studio/gym has looked like a bomb has hit it. You can barely enter the room let alone do any work in there, as it has become a dumping ground for the rest of the house. My aim is to sort this out as soon as possible. Get some hard flooring put down (I've already trashed the carpet, so hard flooring where I can easily clean up is a necessity). Get rid of all unneccessary junk, put up lots of shelving, paint the walls white, and see if I can get hold of a plan chest.
• To organise my creative time a little more effectively.
• To go on the occasional course - for example I've recently discovered that there is a print workshop locally that runs short courses, and where you can use their facilities really cheaply if you are a member.  I've always loved prints, and would like to explore that a little more, so a short course might spur me on.
• To look at actually producing some personal work for sale again, rather than just playing and experimenting.
• To approach some galleries.
• I got an iPad as my Christmas present this year and I'm really keen to learn to use this to produce artwork 'on the go'.
• To get back into the discipline of sketching and drawing more.

Not quite sure how much of this I'll achieve, but my younger son starts school in the autumn, so hopefully I should have a little more time by then at least.

After the Feast comes the Famine

Following on from my recent fever of creativity, everything has come to a grinding halt as family life, Christmas and business gets in the way. It's all deeply frustrating, there's so many things I want to get on with, to try out, experiment with, and I've got lots of half finished projects around that I'm longing to finish. Maybe I'll get some more time after Christmas, but in the meantime I thought I'd post a few of the journal pages I created just to remind myself that I have achieved something, and as an inspiration to do more....

 

You may notice that they all have the common theme of 'trees'.  This wasn't planned at first, but my first pages all happened to feature trees in some way, so it has now become the theme of my first journal.  Only a few pages left now.  I quite like the idea of each one having a theme, so I might give the next one a theme too...

Is Meaning Important?

I've been thinking about this question a lot recently.  I've come across a couple of instances where an artist has said that the meaning of their artwork is not important - they have chosen to eschew any artist's statement, because they feel their artwork should stand on it's own two feet, that it's visual appearance is what it is all about, and that it has no intellectual meaning.  Any meaning ascribed to it by themselves as the artist they argue, will inevitably be personal and is therefore irrelevant to it's consumption. 

Something else that I read in a forum recently, speculated on why it was that the artist's statement which often accompanies an artwork, is frequently poorly written,  using the most obscure and language possible, so that it is difficult to extract meaning from it  - turning off all but the most committed art lover, and certainly making it inaccessible to anyone without a good education.  Some of the reasons suggested for why this is were:

• Artists are not writers - they do not deal with the written word, their language is visual, and there is no real reason why they should be expected to be skilful with the written word as well, though some will be. It is also particularly challenging to communicate complex and often abstract concepts.
• Other artists are doing it, so most artists feel that they should too.
• Art departments in colleges and universities feel somewhat insecure about the academic rigour of their subject, and feel the need to compensate by making sure that their artwork deals with complex concepts, making it as difficult to understand as possible.  I know from my own experience that there may be a certain amount of truth in this, certainly Fine Art was never taken that seriously as an academic subject by my fellow students who were studying the sciences.
• Arguably, meaning is what distinguishes Fine Art from the 'merely' decorative. However it is a distinction which I think is often somewhat elitist.  The boundaries between the Applied, Decorative and Fine Arts are often blurred, and I hate the whole idea that one form of art is somehow less 'worthy' than another.

From my own point of view, overt 'meaning', has never seemed that important for my own artwork - what inspires me are the visual qualities along perhaps with some intangible ones such as atmosphere, and while some conceptual art does appeal to me, it's normally the kind which has a strong visual element as well. Does that make my art superficial? Or is that apparent superficiality actually superficial?  Does it really matter? 

Having said all this, it is perhaps impossible to create a piece of artwork without any meaning, though the meaning it has for an observer may be very different to that of the artist who produces it.  Even if the artist does not consciously intend their artwork to have meaning, it's production will be the result of unconscious thoughts, experiences and influences. 

Maybe my feelings about this will change - I was reading about another artist recently for whom meaning is much more important in his artwork now than it originally was, even though for me as an observer, the meaning that he ascribes to it doesn't add anything.  There are other cases I can think of though, when understanding the background to a piece of artwork has made my experience of it much richer, giving it additional 'depth'.

I suppose what I object to is the idea that to be taken seriously, a piece of art has to have a deep intellectual basis.  No-one should feel obliged or pressured to force meaning on something that perhaps isn't really there, just as an artist should have equal freedom to impart personal meaning to their work if they wish to.  After all,  artists work in very different ways, for some the practice of art is almost a kind of therapy, or form of meditation, a way of working through issues in their life. Others use art to express their opinions or feelings about something happening in the world, bringing attention to an issue, or creating a fresh perspective and different way of seeing.  Art is also very personal - and that's the beauty and attraction of it both for practitioners and users. At the end of the day though, for me, the best artwork is able to stand on it's own merits without needing any 'translation' or 'interpretation' by the artist in order for it to be appreciated.

Abstract Sparklers

I took this photo on Bonfire Night using a tripod and the 'Firework' setting on my camera.  It's the first time I've attempted anything like it, and I love the result, so I thought I'd share it here.  I also couldn't resist messing about with the colour in photoshop!

Getting it Right

I'm currently going through a 'driven' phase with my artwork.   It's rare that I get so badly addicted. It's rather like when I'm reading a good book that I can't put down, so that every spare moment I get is devoted to reading, only on this occasion its artwork.  Our kitchen has now been taken over by painting paraphernalia so that I can paint for 10 minutes in the middle of preparing a meal, or whenever, it's got that bad.

It all started when I decided to just mess about and have a go at producing some decorative papers.  It helps that I have a really inspirational book devoted to the subject, which gave a starting point, but it was an excuse really to play with paint and different media, purely for the love of it.  From there I moved on to decorating or painting an old book I had.  I've long been a fan of artists books or journals, and of altered art in general, but have never really successfully got to grips with them myself.  But this book has now become my 'trying out new ideas for the fun of it' book, sort of like a sketchbook, but also something of a sampler, for different techniques as well as ideas.  Because it is just somewhere to try out ideas and have fun, I'm not getting too hung up about it, and am letting myself go a bit more.  It doesn't matter if it's not very good, because it's the learning that counts.  This is something of a release for me, in spite of the fact that I have always instinctively believed that there is no right or wrong in art, and that it is mine so I can do what I like with it (somewhat self indulgent, but then I think a lot of art is fundamentally self-indulgent by its nature).

However, doing what you want can require strength of character, particularly if you have the kind of personality that seeks approval all the time, and especially if what you want to do is not especially 'fashionable' or is different to what others are doing.  Again, personally I think that different is good, in fact I often feel that if what I produce isn't different, then it's not good enough because it should be, but it wasn't something that my formal art training really encouraged, where instead we were under some pressure to work in whatever style of art was in vogue at the time.  I also suffer from feelings of guilt when I am doing something that is purely (from my own point of view) for enjoyment - where does that come from?

All this is I find very inhibiting - that internal dialogue about what I should be doing -  so anything which allows me to put that to one side feels like a huge release.  Maybe I'll develop some of the ideas a little further at some stage, maybe I won't - it doesn't really matter, but at the moment I'm very happy to be experimenting, learning and having fun.  Hopefully, I'll be able to share some of it in due course - if I can prise myself away from creating long enough to take photos.

Just experimenting...

I've not been here for a while - life's just been getting in the way unfortunately.  Compared to the time I had when I was young, free and single (and more to the point without kids) I have so little time to be creative now, and quite often even when I manage to make the time, I end up feeling a little guilty, because there's always something else that I feel I should be doing instead (usually housework or other chores).

Still, over the last couple of weeks, I've managed to exhibit my landscape drawing at the local arts festival, dropped off my miniature building for the Crafty City project, and sold a couple more paintings online.  I also found the time to experiment a little more with some cyanotypes.

Those of you who also read Artful Adventures may start to notice a pattern forming here - I will do an activity with the kids (usually one that especially appeals to me) and as I'm working with them I begin to see all the potential and possibilities that the activity offers, with further inspiration being provided by what the kids themselves are doing with it.  I am then fired with enthusiasm to further experiment with the activity by myself, and see where it leads me as soon as I have the opportunity. So I originally tried this activity with my boys (you can read about it here).  They really enjoyed it, but I suspect I enjoyed it even more.

The lack of sunny days meant that my opportunity to experiment with it further was somewhat limited.  But I still had quite a stack of paper left and lots of ideas, so as soon as the weather allowed I dug it out and had a go by myself.  I now want to get hold of some of the specially treated larger sheets of watercolour style paper you can get so that I can create some larger images - I quite fancy having a try doing some mixed media compositions with these.  I have no absolutely no ambitions to work with negatives  - what appeals to me about this technique is directly taking an object, such as some lace or plant material, creating an image from it, and then adding to the print in some way to create something unique.  However unless we have a particularly sunny winter I suspect it may be next year before I get round to that.  In the meantime I can perhaps make use of some of the experimental prints....