I don’t copy anything faithfully when I draw. Certainly not when I paint. How could I?
The time it would take. The furrowed brow intensity of trying to depict something exactly as it appears to be.
Might as well take a photo.
Of course I’m invested in what things look like but for me, I use the thing I’m depicting as a starting point. A cliff to jump off. I’ll hold back from improvising until something goes a bit awry. Then, it’s a different story.
The way I see it – every mistake is a gift.
That’s not to denigrate the process of working from nature. Putting in the hours. It’s a fantastic discipline. Improving your craft. The hand, eye, brain coordination. Learning to look. Intently. It is a rite of passage that every creative has to go through.
However, if some strange little misstep occurs – I’ll seize on it because I want to be in the zone. That’s usually where I’m headed. It’s a bit like returning to when I didn’t know anything – when I was a nipper.
I still don’t know a lot now. Conversely, I know too much….
It’s a precarious situation to be in to be honest!
Often I’ll find myself creating adversity: in order to dive deep into an activity – so I am attempting to block out the thing I initiated in the first place.
To get to a better place.