| 15 May 2000 *********************************************************** YouCanDraw.com's Insiders Communique ********************************************************** In this issue: 1) Getting into r-mode: Art, Science, and Accurate observation 2) Warm-up exercises ------------------------------------------------------------------- Suzy Voye from Tennessee recently sent me an email (and a beautiful realistic scan of "art brushes in a cup" - a drawing of hers - and made two insightful comments about getting into R-mode. She says: "I'm not able to get into the R mode at will yet. Most of the time when I try, I try by reading an art magazine or video, it absolutely zonks me out! I mean that I couldn't stay awake, if my life depended on it! Yet, when I do manage it, then I can't remember doing it!" Very honest observation Suzy. And very typical of the kinds of reports I get from students learning to draw. You could say the same about creativity in general. Drawing, getting into "R-mode", creativity - are mysteries to lots of people. Researchers in the field of creativity only exacerbate the problem by making it such a mystery: "Are artists so much more gifted than the rest of us?" I don't think so. Not in most cases. In my opinion researcher's problem is they spend too much time analyzing and not enough time doing. The big mystery of any art seems to be "where and how do they come up with that?" Great art, art with a capital "A" does seem to come from a different place. But "Great Art" and a fascination with it can get in the way. How? By always expecting great art to come out of your daily routine. We talked about those expectations a little 2 weeks ago. Where does great Art come from? Great art seems to come from at least two places - first it comes from willingness, from an openness to what's bubbling up inside. Second is having the skills to express what "bubbles up". "Bubbles up", what does THAT mean? Dreams, insights, tensions, little pictures that flash by and through your minds eye. In conversations you often times plow over subjects and issues that might be asking for attention. Sensations, emotions pass through your body. How often do we really follow up on those threads? You have dreams in your sleep - everybody does, right? Some people have made it their task to get inspiration from dreams - or nightmares - Salvador Dali did both. Somebody once asked Paul McCartney "how hard do you work to get all those great songs to come out?" To which he answered "How hard do you try to conjure up a dream at night? No more effort than that." I think he was referring to learning to listen to your own voice (whether it came at night or at the drawing board.) Bob Dylan once remarked about Lauren Hill (the 1999 Grammy award winner), "She looks at it, She says what she thinks about it, and she doesn't look back. She's an artist." There's courage in there. So paying attention pays dividends. Literally. Are artists the only ones who pay attention? Hardly. Scientists say that what they do is based on "pure observation". Sounds to me like artists and scientists have that in common - the observation thing. Drawing realistically - be it caricatures or mountain sides - requires the same honest observation. In fact, the "work" of drawing, or writing or learning martial arts - or science for that matter - is close, honest observation. And "observation" isn't as pure as it sounds either. Scientists have to ask always "how do I know I've observed without bias?" Artist's have to do the same thing. Flawed senses Add to that the fact our senses are "flawed", imperfect, limited in a way that puts us always a step away from the "immediate" real world. The outside world is nothing "but reinterpreted nerve impulses from encapsulated light data encoded by the retina" or something goofy like that. That's the sterile sounding but bare bones scientific interpretation of what's going on. Lots of people want more - they want to experience the world directly - they want immediate access - which is a lot more than what the Internet can give us. None of us it seems have claim to "immediate access". Immediate access And what's that, what's "immediate access?" It's sensing the world directly without your senses. Timothy Leary would want us to believe LSD could do that for you. Bhuddist's have their ways. Seeing the world by eliminating the intermediate step - the nerve impulse step, the hard wiring step, removing the interpretation step - between the real world and our brains seems to be what a lot of these "fringe" folks want to talk about. Those ideas don't work too well for me. (Maybe they do for you - I'm not judging.) Science offers the more mainstream, "acceptable" view of what the "real world" is. Or might be. The models they're coming up with in Quantum mechanics and all the "new science" is pretty fascinating stuff. In fact they paint a pretty "unreal" picture. Still it's a representation. A "one off" copy. I think Plato and Aristotle were right when they said "all art is a lie". Not in the mean, malevolent sense - in the "copy as a lie" sense. But then everything we comment on, record, observe, experiment on, think about, use language to describe, is a "lie" if you think about it. It's a representation. It's second hand - always at least one step away from the "real" thing. You can say exactly the same about science. Does that mean not try? Heck no. In my opinion that's where your own observations, your own experiences are the best barometer, the best measure of what's really out there - even if it is "second hand". And it's the funnest! Interpretation and style is why Al Hirshfield drawings look different than John Kascht's - or why Picasso's paintings were so unique.) We still know who they're describing. Are they any less "true" than a scientist's explanation? Heck, I don't know! Anyways, the key to figuring what seems right and real and correct to you brings us in a big loop back to the same starting point: honest observation. We don't observe very well when we're thinking. That much we DO know. And that's what artist's of all types have made their job, consciously or unconsciously: the most accurate recording possible. True to their own personal "bias" - (read "interpretation"). While in the "Artist's mode" it seems we're in the most open and honest frame of mind, the most "observational" frame of mind, the most "ready to take dictation" frame of mind - from whatever source we choose. I know, that makes the "artist mode" or "R-mode" sound like some kind of all encompassing, salvational thing. Is it? No. But it does offer a different opinion, a fresh opinion. Scientists CAN measure distinct brain wave patterns that are different from the "thinking" or language patterns when we're in the drawing frame of mind. Getting into "the zone" Heres' the real issue in today's communiqué: how do you as a caricaturist or as an up and coming caricaturist artist get into "R-mode", or the artist's mind or wherever the heck you're supposed to be when you draw? How do we stop thinking and get in to observing, in to perceiving, in to "the zone" as they say? Here's the Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain (DRSB) approach summarized: "present the verbal, linear side of the brain with a task it will avoid or reject, thus allowing the non-verbal, spatial-oriented part of the brain, (the right brain or mode) to takeover". With a paper and pen on a desk in a room with nothing but bare walls and a window, Paul Simon, the songwriter, on his feet, bounces and catches a handball off the wall. Bounce and catch. Bounce and catch. Bounce. Catch. For hours. Rhythmically. Repetitiously. Until out of no where the words start reeling. The ancient Romans walked. In fact they built covered walkways, kind of like strip malls without the mall. And usually in a place where there was a great view. Pacing back and forth for hours, in silence or in conversation, shoulder to shoulder. Or solo. Again: rhythm and repetition. In pre-christian times "Witch doctors" and tribal leaders lead long rituals that involved drumming and dancing hours upon hours. Again: rhythm and repetition. Julia Cameron, a contemporary writer, artist and teacher, promotes daily writing and daily walking as antidotes to a stuck mind. Ironically there's rhythm and repetition to bringing about something new. Athlete's tell you about getting "in the zone" and so will caricature artists. And so will comedy improvvers. And so will musicians. One thing observable in all of these is this: it (getting into r-mode, getting "in-the-zone"), seems to happen best while you're in the middle of the activity you've chosen. "In the zone" seems to be a little different than the great "A-ha!s", the "eureka" moments. But "Eureka" moments seem to come after long intense "in the zone" spells. And if getting into "R-mode" is the day-to-day, "in the zone", where-you-got-to-be-to-do-the-most-honest -observing, pay the most attention, non-spectacular brick-and-mortar of art, than that's where you want to be. So...To get good at drawing, you need to draw. Suzy Voye makes a great observation about getting into your drawing mind: "Yet, when I do manage it, then I can't remember doing it!" Like falling to sleep, the shift into the Artist's Mind is out of the conscious realm: like falling to sleep you know you've been there, you just don't know when or how you got there. Which brings me to the real point of what I wanted this communiqué to be about before I started THINKING about it. Just 3 or 4 short little tips on getting into your right brain: What can you do until you find your own method? Here's a few suggestions (you can do all of these in 10 minutes or less). On bad days: 1) doodling; just whip out a paper and doodle. Cross-hatch (like in lesson 9), let come out what wants to come out; 2) quick walk ten minute walk before you start drawing; 3) Keep a separate sheet of paper to the side to write a "to do" list - because for sure, your left brain is going to do every thing it can to keep you from the task at hand; 4) Do a "worst possible drawing" TRY to do a bad drawing - you'll invariably end up laughing and take the pressure off. On better days: 5) Do a pure contour drawing for 10 minutes; Do a drawing of anything with a complicated edge like: - a crease in your hand - grab a sheet of heavy paper. Tear it. Now, with the paper almost up to your face, or under a magnifying glass, try and draw the edge of the tear. Notice the tiny shreds of pulp that are pressed together like sticks piling up in heap around a turn in a creek, a log jam - whatever it looks like to you. - Suzy Voye says her grade school teachers had her drawing maps - pull out a map. Pick a highway. Pick just 4 inches of it. Make a photo copy of the map section if you don't want to draw a square on the map. Draw the same-shaped square format on a sheet of paper. Now draw the section of highway on your blank (but formatted ) paper. -See these links for maps: http://maps.yahoo.com/ http://www.randmcnally.com/ http://www.theodora.com/maps/ -take a string. Maybe two feet worth. Drop it on a paper with a square format. Draw the string as it lies on a blank sheet of paper. -Review lesson four, Pure Contour Drawing at: http://ycdinsiders.digitalchainsaw.com/InsidersArtistLoft/lesson4.htm These are quick, short, non-threatening warm-ups you can do to get into R-mode. Once you're warmed up, get into a good drawing session. What warm-ups exercises have you found? Email them to me and I'll post them here. Even if its "just" caricatures you want to draw, great art (i.e. ART) will come out of your daily discipline. Out of rhythm and repetition. And that's the point of this email today: not to try to do great art, but to do the daily tasks that lead up to it. The great stuff will come - if you're open and you've done your homework. Until next time, (and I promise the next communiqué will be much shorter :-)), take care and keep on drawing. Warmly, Jeff K.
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