I have a confession. I hate making thumbnail sketches. At least, I did.
I recently downloaded an app called Zen Sketch. As a drawing app, it is the bare minimum. As a life sketching app, I couldn't use it. At my age, most media needs to be a little bigger than an iPhone to be useful. Before I deleted it, I thought I would give this a shot
For demonstration purposes, I have flipped these images vertically, but honestly, they would be useful to just sit on a table and walk around for a while. If you have ever looked up at the clouds and tried to pick out formations that looked like something, then you are familiar with what I am making. The official term for this is Pareidolia.
This is similar to what I am doing with all the smeared paint I did on my old paintings to create an abstract grouping to stimulate my imagination. I have no idea if this will be a habit, but it is an interesting thing to do other than social media while waiting on something. I do think I could make this refined enough to do a proper sketch later, if I wanted to.
Just because I don't have any of the tools I normally use to art doesn't mean I am willing to stop my daily practice, even if it is just letting my imagination run free for a moment.
I don't know about you, but I see figures and monsters and oceans in a couple of these. I will let them sit on my phone and check back with them every so often, just to see if one speaks to me and calls me in to discover what it was that made me make these shapes.
It isn't going to do any good to drill the basics if I don't work on my imagination and keep the end goal in mind. Just doing drills without the ability to perform is a demotivator. I don't just want to paint what is there for everyone to see. I want to paint the world in my mind so I can invite others to share the view.
0 Comments