I did something I haven't done in a long while today. Like an old friend I lovingly wrapped my fingers around a pencil today. Every few years or so I will pick one up and sketch. Today I sketched a little in a new approach for me.
See, I am not an artist in the traditional sense. I was a designer. Designers use the practices of "art" to reach the true art form for a designer, the final set, costume. Our art wasn't that until it reached the stage. Art for me was a way to convey directions. Yes I played with drawing other things. I would never call me an artist though. Artists own that right, they have a skill that many don't have.
Today I approached things differently. Usually I approach drawing in a couple of set ways. I love to do photo realism style of art, that for me is math, rulers, grids (Da Vinci used grids in his art, btw.) I would also use light and shadow, no lines just expressing and building using light to form the lines. Finally I would draft which can be an art form of its own. Drafting was a freeing experience for me. The flow of it. With music each precise line being drawn to the beat.
Today for me I did a couple of traditional sketches. Nothing new to others, but for me it was hard to pull myself from old habits.
You can see me fighting and losing the urge to use shadow below.
Looking at these sketches online they are so different in a way than they are on paper. I wish I knew a way to get them scanned or photoed in closer to what they are in a page.
If you draw, paint, sketch, etc how do you create? Do you create what you see in front of you or what is in your minds eye?