Nurture — Day 12
Prompt: Share a behind-the-scenes look at your creative process. What tools and techniques do you use, and how do you develop your ideas?
I’ve been spending a lot of time recently reflecting on the intentions that I encode in my work. In an earlier post, I wrote about three separate times that I decided to pursue creating art. It’s not surprise that in each of those periods my art reflected who I was at the time: in childhood, I mimicked other artists; as a student, I concentrated on developing skills; now, I feel free to experiment. However, throughout these many years, my general method of creation has remained the same, as has my intention in using art to communicate.
I want to tell stories….
I don’t pretend to understand how writers practice their craft. Sure…I can string words together to form a coherent sentence. Given enough time (to edit, correct myself, and adjust), I can even string enough sentences together to craft a passable narrative. But, I don’t accept the label of being a “writer” any more than a sparrow would accept the label “dragon”. I simply don’t have the…practice…to lay claim to that label. Instead, I craft (or hope to) stories with imagery. Oddly enough, I think I follow many of the same conventions that writers use—as I understand them:
include a strongly identifiable subject
present some tension in the environment
ensure that the final piece illustrates (possible) resolution between the subject and the object of tension
“Muad’Dib”
Muad’Dib, the desert mouse (subject), faces an oncoming sandstorm (tension). What will he do? His posture gives us clues: his relaxed tail, his forepaws caught mid-cleaning(?), his gently drooping ears. All of these tell us that Muad’Dib is unafraid in the face of this storm. He knows that he can escape to his hidey-hole (resolution) should he need to.
He is, after all, a desert creature.
All of the above was information that I knew prior to deciding to make this piece. I knew (from having read many DUNE books) who Muad’Dib was, how he operated within the wider narrative, and why Paul Atreides chose this creature to be his public face among the Fremen. I knew what my intention was before even sketching out the basic composition.
I had the answers…
That’s where every piece begins for me: the answer(s). Once I know the answer that I’m illustrating, I can begin crafting the questions I believe will be most likely to result in that answer. The composition, the colours I choose, whether I decide on watercolour, inks, or pencils, even the size of paper that I choose…are all questions that I fit against the answer that I have in my mind. This piece would provide a very different answer had I chosen a woodland scene (with deep greens and light filtering through treetops). It would, again, have been different had I chosen a more monochromatic charcoal (using shading, mark-making, and hatching for the darker tones). Even the same piece rendered in alcohol markers (while similar) would have resulted in a more “static” frozen final piece; it may have conveyed a sense of caution that I didn’t want. I chose Japanese Gansai Tambi watercolours because they allowed me to ask the questions, that would (hopefully) guide the viewer to the answers encoded in this piece.
I tend to judge whether any of my pieces have been “successful” by how well I’ve matched answer(s) to question(s). I can flip through any of my sketchbooks, my collection of “finished” pieces, or doodles I’ve done on scraps of paper and immediately identify which were successful based on whether I find myself asking questions that lead to the answer presented to me. My very best pieces continue to surprise me; I find myself asking new questions of them, yet arriving at the same underlying answer.
At the end of the day, isn’t that what a “life well lived” is all about? Isn’t one of the grand gifts of life the ability to question, to wonder, to find answers? Isn’t that what our memories really are—a series of questions and answers that we’ve discovered? I believe that regardless of whichever faith tradition (if any) we follow, we are all searching for questions that unlock the answers we already have.
As always, be well, Gentle Reader…
…keep asking Questions!
Gryph
