Drawing from Imagination

[PMMurphy]

Hey i am new to this site and after reading many posts here am really being opened to a lot of things about art. I am mostly a self taught artist although i did art in high school, my teachers let me do my own thing as long as i followed their curriculum and did their assignments.

Then i met a teacher who didn't give assignments and simply had us create art. She would watch us as we progress and give feedback along the way. Every now and then we would do portraits or still life drawings but alot of it was imagination.

Then i graduated and just kinda messed around for a while joined some art websites on the internet and learned on my own. There are lots of things i should do and i plan to. I have never really sat down and seriously practiced and it shows in my art. I usually take an idea for practice and toy around with sketches and concepts while doing that particular practice. At one point i planned to try to be an artist and i wanted to get into Cooper Union, i worked hard for about 3 months to improve my work including some fundamentals. But then i hit someone who would give me lots of feedback on all my work on a website who was a very talented artist. Eventually he told me that "You may be able to fool other people in thinking your art is good, but I know and any other good artist would know its not." So that really hit me hard (i wrote it nicer then he did) and i decided to pursue a different career. Stopped drawing for 2 years and now im picking the pencil back up again. I am regaining that passion i had before and really enjoying it and now i am enjoying it even more. All my past awards i've won and scholorship offers really mean nothing now as that comment he said is really proof to that. I need to stop worrying about success and focus on art.

But basically the question is this, lets say your having a period of time where your imagination and ideas for art is surging. Should you simply ignore that and not draw from imagination to capture your visions to the best you possibly can given your current talents as an artist and go back to doing studies and life dawings. Or should you sit down attempt to the best degree you can, make notes on what could be done better and get critiques at the same time. Then plan a practice regime that suites it to help you be able to present your imagination better?

I think drawing from imagination really helps me discover what i'm bad at or could be done better. If i have to redraw a cube 1000 times to get it right then its obvious i have to go back to drawing shapes. Just my thought on it, what is your opinion?

[sone_one]

do both.

[JFierce]

Your over thinking it. Do both. I have not seen many artists do only studies and life drawings. Everyone draws from imagination. In fact it's probably fairly important to draw from imagination regularly and try to apply your observations and what you've learned. Don't just draw from imagination though obviously. If you want to get better still force yourself to do studies of all shapes and sizes, quick studies, long studies, gestures, refined pieces.

[Farvus]

The balance between studies and imagination work varies from artist to artist. I know some that never really did much studying but paint some great illustrations and continually progress by learning as they go. There are others that can't live without life painting and do well too.

For me personally, the ideal I'm striving for is doing plenty of studying but twice as much imagination drawing.

As for being in the mode where you have lots of ideas. There were moments when I used to think that I didn't have any ideas and my imagination got dead. However later after trying to analyze the problem and being more introspective I found the brain has this one weird characteristic. It becomes imaginative when you least expect it. For example I could visualise things when going home back from work. However after coming home I get distracted by other things and forget I had some good idea. In other words I could have several ideas during the day but when I sit in front of drawing board suddenly the mind goes blank. Solution to this is keeping in your pocket small piece of paper and something to write and collect thoughts before they go away.

[marion74]

You shouldn't have let someones criticism stop you creating, you have to realise that there will always be someone better and that not everyone will enjoy your work. My harshest critic was from my own Dad mainly because he doesn't like abstract or surrealism which is my chosen art. I did feel down about it for a week and after a while he actually asked me to do a painting for him.
When I was a teenager I gave up art and wish now that I hadn't done that, but good luck to you practice hard and enjoy watching yourself grow, and remember that there are lots of fantastic artists on this site who are willing to share their experience.

[hitnrun]

Indeed, do both.

It is my opinion, however, that the work you create from your imagination is one of the more adequate tools to measure how much you've learned.

Drawing from life keeps the information in your head fresh, while drawing from imagination is your mind practicing to recall that information. I definitely do both, because imagination, in my opinion, is more fun!