Let Your Artwork Live Its Own Life
Hi all!
Art is amazing. Being able to make Art is even more amazing. If you’re an Artist then you belong to a fantastic subsection of society that should be heralded more than it currently is (grumble, grumble).
Recently, while working with a gentleman (Jim) who is actually well versed in the ins and outs of artwork and its creation, I was asked a question about my painting that seemed quite poignant. He asked, “Do I plan out a composition to the last ‘T’, or do I give a painting a bit of leeway to take on a life of its own?” Good question.
What he asked me really got my mind thinking about the artistic process and how I, as a modern artist, approach it and how others from the past have seemed to approach it.
In the history classes that I took at University, it always seemed that artists of all kinds, be they painters or otherwise, pre-planned all of their artworks down to the very last detail. Many artworks that now hang in lauded locations such as the Louvre in Paris or the Hermitage in St. Petersburg, Russia have a definitive background that can be traced through sketches and detailed drawings. Some of them even have stand-alone pre-paintings, a sort of warm up to the real thing.
Amazing huh? To put all that effort into an artwork, to jot down every detail and plan out every nuance?
As beautiful as those artworks were, the unfortunate side-effect of all that planning, as well intentioned as it may have been, is that those artworks had no life of their own. What life they have or seem to have had to be imbued in the artworks completely by their respective creators. When all elements of artworks are planned down to the most minute detail, they have absolutely no room to stretch or grow / to take on a life of their own, which in my opinion is very arrogant and very wrong.
Art comes in many forms: paintings, drawings, etchings, sculptures. These are the physical attributes of the work, the ‘look’ if you will. But Art is greater than the sum of its physical parts. For example, if painting alone was considered Art then every house and institution that had a coat of paint put on it would be a potential artwork and that just isn’t so. Art is more than that.
Art is also an emotional and intellecutal outlet. There are metaphysical aspects to all good artworks. These aspects are just as important as the physical characteristics of the works themselves. In fact, I’d say that all three have to co-exist in an artwork in equal measure for it to be successful. Without emotion and intellect artwork may as well be as progressive as housepainting (which is not very progressive at all) — and should garner like minded respect.
Don’t get me wrong. There’s nothing untoward about planning out an artwork in advance. I personally won’t approach a new canvas without some kind of thought-out intention beforehand. Unfortunately artworks that are planned out from beginning to end with detailed drawings and colour schemes and proportion and form etc., focus heavily on intellect and lack the emotional content that great artworks contain.
Let’s face it. We’re beings of many facets and one of those facets is emotion. Art, which is an extension of our humanity should also contain this facet. When we plan out an artwork with an overwhelming emphasis on intellect and making things ‘just so’, we find ourselves neglecting certain aspects of our beings which will give artwork the individuality it requires to take on a life of its own.
Emotion helps to guide our hands in this manner in an unconscious, unplanned manner. It helps to give life to our artworks in a way that our brains which, through the cool use of intellect could never possibly fathom. A flourish of brushstroke; an unplanned splotch of colour; an unforseen series of lines and details; the integration of a new and exciting form. It is these aspects that truly make an artwork worth looking at.
When Jim asked me his question, it made me think about my own processes. Yes, I have a tendency to plan out a composition. Yes, I’ll make sure that all the major forms are in place before I start a drawing or a painting and yes, I know where my characters are going to go, how they’ll stand, what their hands will be doing, etc. This saves me time and materials. I always have an over-all look for my artworks when it comes to composition. But is this the be-all and the end-all of my Art? No.
There are many details that I don’t plan out, details that I leave to chance. Most of the times my backgrounds and the textures of my characters are left to develop for themselves. As a painting or drawing progresses often there are times that I have a ‘happy accident’, some happenstance of form or colour that makes the work better and I’ll incorporate that too.
You can plan out exactly every last detail of an artwork. There’s nothing that says you can’t. If you do though you’ll only be disappointing yourself. By planning out an artwork with no room for improvisation or expansion, you’ll set yourself up for failure. You’ll build an idea of perfection in your mind; the perfect composition, the perfect forms, the perfect colours and your execution, no matter how good you are, will never live up to your expectations. You’ll be chasing an ideal of perfection and be doomed to catch it before you even begin.
Da Vinci has a famous quote that states, “A painting can never be finished, only abandoned.” It is my belief, based on this saying, that Da Vinci was constantly chasing an ideal of perfection and never learned to let his artwork take on a life of its own. Had he been a little bit more flexible in his execution, using a little less logic and a little more feeling he would have allowed his paintings to grow and stretch as they were produced, finding a common ground that felt comfortable. Fussing over them would be moot because they would have been truly complete. He could have safely released them into the world to live lives of their own like chicks leaving the nest rather than ‘abandoning’ them for the next unfinishable project.
Most paintings/drawings don’t happen overnight and you never know just what kind of ideas you’ll come up with as you progress towards a finished product. It’s good to leave yourself open to new options as they present themselves. Don’t shun them.
Personally, many of my artworks are set in a fictional world with a non-descript landscape type background. This includes sky and ground. Sometimes there are clouds, sometimes there are trees. I often don’t plan that kind of thing out in advance it just kind of happens as I go along. If I feel the composition needs a touch of green I’ll add in a tree /shrub / or grass. If a painting feels like it needs to lighten up then I’ll take out some clouds and let the sky peer through some more.
Many times I’ll find a composition unbalanced even after I’ve been careful to plan it out in advance. In these moments I’ll pop in a new visual element to round out my work. If I don’t care for what I’ve done I’ll paint it out and do something else but eventually, regardless of what I do the painting will take on a life of its own based on what feels right emotionally not what seems right intellectually.
Pre-planning an artwork in advance will give you a unified composition there’s no doubt about that. You can use geometry, mathematics and perspective to put everything it its place, make sure all your characters are just so and, through the use of form and shading get exactly what you’re looking for. You’ll come up with something that is pleasing to the eye, very logical and intellectual but in the end it will be flat and lacking the life that all Artworks need to take on to be truly great.
Don’t be afraid to leave a few details to chance. Let the composition dictate for itself exactly what its looking for. Give yourself some leeway to experiment and be open to new options and ideas. Your artwork will benefit from the flexibility and the freedom and so will you.
For now, that is all. Goodnight.
