this is what my collages look like before i 'put them down.'
sort of akin to a director's view box.
i play with scale, form, and color until it finally matches the puzzle inside my head....
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artworkslive- baby smith
- My Website-BabySmith.net
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Glad you survived the car incident. In my neighborhood it's the old men who wear hats.
I've been thinking a lot about process these days, and I'm wondering about yours. I'm wondering... how to phrase this... what percentage of your work has to percolate for a long time before you know what to do with it, and what proportion just goes "bleah" and it spills out of you in an almost finished form? I guess I'm wondering about subconscious processing. How things sometimess come out quick and distilled and wonderful, vs. other more slow successive approximations that can reach nice result (but often not as pleasing in my case).
I hope you don't mind me asking. Your new prospect still on track? Take care.
Owen
guh-reat question owen, i'd expect nothing less from an artist. it's oooooo-all about process, yah?.......the product?......well, let's just hhhhhope people buy it! :) but, i think you know we're both here for much higher reasons.
let's take the above shot. it's gone. no more. i cleaned the slate. that's the way i work. i was excited about it when i posted, and then i woke up the next morn......aaaaaaand not so muchy. sometimes it sticks, sometimes not. just like a painter. they can slap a fresh coat over the original and be off to the races. same with me. sometimes the collage puts itself together within a day, and i'm like paul mccartney writing 'yesterday' in his sleep, and other times i'm cursing and throwing my arms up in the air and it still never materializes. it's all so very relative.
i think the only thing that really manifests itself is the 'body' of work....the theme. and i try to adhere to that, follow it, nuture it. i stray at times.....but, know that the end result will have the same 'voice' and 'purpose.'
lemme know YOUR process....
you work in and OUT of illustration....dealing with commercial restraints, etc......how does THAT mess with your process as an artist?
-b
Sounds pretty much like other folks I guess. I do love hearing how people bring what's inside and birth it into their chosen medium. Thanks.
For my part I guess my process can vary a bit depending on if the given project is paying the mortgage that month or not. An ugly truth I'm afraid. On the commercial projects I'll frequently have a fairly well defined goal that the finished work needs to address, but how I get there - well hopefully that's why they hire me instead of some other person.
If the illustration is for an interpretive display somewhere, say a park, then I think about the subject matter - let's say termite mounds for example, and I start to think about all the things folks would wonder about when standing next to one of these things, and then I try and come up with a beautiful and dynamic illustration that allows for as many of these questions to be answered as possible in an elegant fashion.
It's a bit like a mural painter being given a commission to paint "X", but you just know a lot of the artist will end up in the work - way beyond plain old "X".
Commercial restraints for illustration usually mean (for me at least) I don't have much time to work through as many possibilities in the comprehensives as I'd like, before I'm commited to going down a certain path. I also usually can't fuck up and start over. I've got to fix it and move on; which the first few years I did this made for tremendous 11th hour anxiety.
All that being said, and going back to my earlier question to you, still some pieces just come out golden from the start. It's like they're fully realized somewhere deep in the subconscious, waiting for the day to come along when they get brought to life.
I've wondered a lot lately why this happens. People will go, " These are great, but that one... how'd you come up with that." So I wonder, what make some works just a whole hell of a lot better from the get go. It's definitely not always the amount of thought that goes into it. I think for myself anyway, many of the best somehow arrive fully formed. "Inspiritus" I guess - the divine spark. I guess every artist wonders the same thing fairly often. I'm just going through one of those months. Probably every speech writer wonders the same thing too.
With my non-commercial art things go way differently. It's a much more primal process. I'll paint a piece because I have to... NOT because I want to. I think things bubble along subconsciously for a time, lusts for certain forms or colors grow into appetite, and at some point it just has to happen. I can't talk, socialize, eat... anything until it comes out. It might be four hours, it might be twelve.
So that's both my process'.
Are you getting excited for Saturday? That's so cool. I hope you have a great time, and talk much great talk, and get lots of good strokes. Enjoy.
O.
thanks for opening up the door to your creative mind. i'm fascinated by the fact that you can compartmentalize two completely different modes of operation.
and yes, i'm excited about saturday....i have more than one opening to attend, so it should be fun filled AND exhausting. :)