CHALLENGE:- PAINT WITH THE WRONG HAND
Accept a challenge.
”The seed of your next artwork lies embedded in the imperfections of your current piece.” ~ David Bayles.
I am a great advocate of the saying "failing to prepare is preparing to fail" however, whilst creative brilliance is often achieved through consideration and detailed planning there are few gains without risk, but this can be a hard thing for artists to come to terms with.
To take any kind of risk in order to develop your artwork is difficult once you have attained a certain level of success. However, as creativity implies the production of something new, you can see it is not always of benefit to have a clear idea of an end result in mind. Therefore, challenging yourself by taking risks should not be seen as something detrimental to creativity but rather, should be seen as an opportunity to be open to new possibilities and stop prior judgements being made about a works outcome.
”The seed of your next artwork lies embedded in the imperfections of your current piece.” ~ David Bayles.
I am a great advocate of the saying "failing to prepare is preparing to fail" however, whilst creative brilliance is often achieved through consideration and detailed planning there are few gains without risk, but this can be a hard thing for artists to come to terms with.
To take any kind of risk in order to develop your artwork is difficult once you have attained a certain level of success. However, as creativity implies the production of something new, you can see it is not always of benefit to have a clear idea of an end result in mind. Therefore, challenging yourself by taking risks should not be seen as something detrimental to creativity but rather, should be seen as an opportunity to be open to new possibilities and stop prior judgements being made about a works outcome.
Once an artist has become accustomed to painting in a particular style it is difficult to get them to risk letting go of that style in order that they may develop as an artist. The tendency is, having achieved a level of skill, to once again become over cautious and to protect that skill by deliberately not taking any risks thus not advancing any further.
The answer is to make a conscious effort to challenge yourself to take risks. Treat it as an exercise, if you like. That way you will have no preconceived ideas and will be more open to "going with the flow".
The answer is to make a conscious effort to challenge yourself to take risks. Treat it as an exercise, if you like. That way you will have no preconceived ideas and will be more open to "going with the flow".
I have made a list of challenges and I set my weekly class the task of completing one at the end of each month.
Here is one example:-
Painting with the wrong hand.
This works on the premise that as most people cannot paint very effectively with the hand that they are not used to using, being forced to use this hand will prevent them from relying on the safe "tricks" that they may have developed.
You will find it harder to paint with the wrong hand, forcing yourself to accept the crude marks made. In doing so you may become momentarily freed from your usual style and you may actually stumble across a whole new way of mark-making that can be incorporated into your style in the future.
I will post other challenges in the coming months. Perhaps you could take up the challenges yourself? If you do, please re-visit and let me know how you got on, what you learnt from it and whether you enjoyed it.
Here is one example:-
Painting with the wrong hand.
This works on the premise that as most people cannot paint very effectively with the hand that they are not used to using, being forced to use this hand will prevent them from relying on the safe "tricks" that they may have developed.
You will find it harder to paint with the wrong hand, forcing yourself to accept the crude marks made. In doing so you may become momentarily freed from your usual style and you may actually stumble across a whole new way of mark-making that can be incorporated into your style in the future.
I will post other challenges in the coming months. Perhaps you could take up the challenges yourself? If you do, please re-visit and let me know how you got on, what you learnt from it and whether you enjoyed it.
RSS Feed