Wheres my creativity?

[Pete Hidalgo]

Ok so real serious question. I want to draw and be great at it. Not just as a past time or anything. I have put in serious study time and have recently learned a lot of different things.

Not when I go to draw I am seeing more and more of what I have studied than what I am imagining. So much to a point that I when I want to draw I cant think straight. My mind is all over the place. thinking to my self "Do I draw a skull, perspective, still life, photo ref, character, shapes, values" and the list goes on.

Now when I finally get my self to say ok i want to draw "This" and begin to draw it. I start thinking about other things that I will have to do like value, shape form, etc, then switch to practicing on an element I wont even need until I get there.

Am I over thinking to much? If so HOW DO I STOP IT! My girlfriend said a quote to me yesterday "The more you learn the less you know" which is sort of how its starting to feel ha ha.

[HarbingerofIllRepute]

Make mistakes, lots of them.

[bcarman]

This is the difference between having knowledge and mastery or wisdom. Book learning is only good for Jeopardy unless you have courage and a strong work ethic. Focus is something that is impossible to teach. You can get tricks and hear others' stories but in the end you have to work enough to develop your own focus.

Maybe asking other people what they do will help you in some way but in the end you have to find your own focus or not.

[Pete Hidalgo]

Well Bcarman, my issue is not being able to focus hard enough to push through one thing.

[Kamber Parrk]

You don't get to jump around on stage and be "creative" until you've played enough scales and can competently understand/reproduce the work of real performers.

[JFierce]

Practice things until they become second nature then you don't over think things. What's probably the most common question an artist gets from strangers? "How do you do that?". Whats probably most artists reply? Something along the lines of

"I dunno.... .... practice?"

[HarbingerofIllRepute]

Sometimes "understanding" something isn't enough, sometimes you need to make the right mistakes to fully grasp a concept. Value, shape, form, light, etc, these things are almost second nature to a lot of professionals from what I've seen of them. Just like anything else, these things take time to develop and set in.

[Pete Hidalgo]

Very well put guys. The studying shall continue then ha ha, I guess I was just over thinking what I should be studying. After all there is just so DAMN MUCH to know that I have a life time to study it ha ha.

[dpaint]

Ok so real serious question. I want to draw and be great at it. Not just as a past time or anything. I have put in serious study time and have recently learned a lot of different things.

Not when I go to draw I am seeing more and more of what I have studied than what I am imagining. So much to a point that I when I want to draw I cant think straight. My mind is all over the place. thinking to my self "Do I draw a skull, perspective, still life, photo ref, character, shapes, values" and the list goes on.

Now when I finally get my self to say ok i want to draw "This" and begin to draw it. I start thinking about other things that I will have to do like value, shape form, etc, then switch to practicing on an element I wont even need until I get there.

Am I over thinking to much? If so HOW DO I STOP IT! My girlfriend said a quote to me yesterday "The more you learn the less you know" which is sort of how its starting to feel ha ha.

I have to say that you probably don't have what it takes to be an artist of any degree. Art is made by doing it and if you can't focus and get about the business of painting thousands of paintings to get good you won't go anywhere.

There is no magic bullet or advice to help you focus and work. Either you have the passion to do it or you don't. If you can't do it without incentive or reward then you will fail. It takes years to acquire the skills needed to be successful. Are you willing to do it for ten or maybe fifteen years or more? If the answer is yes then do it and quit talking about it.

You can't trick yourself into motivation. Just because you don't have it now doesn't mean you won't change later.

[Pete Hidalgo]

Ouch. Harsh but I understand where you're coming from D. Incentive/reward is not what I am looking for.The only thing that will reward me is knowing that I truly understand and can perceive reality enough when I am drawing an imitation of it on paper or a canvas or on a computer. More over I am willing to draw in this life and the next (Whatever it may be) and as long as I can hold a pencil I will draw.

Maybe I chose a poor set of words when I posted this. But focusing on art itself is not a problem. It is not being to critical of when I am not drawing what I see in my head. (to a degree).

For example when I see that I am off with my perspective before I even finish drawing I feel i should stop and start working on perspective. Maybe that's what you were talking about. But to me I feel I was just over thinking it. Any way man thanks for the advice.

[Shahan]

Hey noticing a lot of threads like this and I mean... They're never going to stop. Up and comers are always going to feel the need to ask questions like this , I know I do/did.. Anyway I was thinking of making a thread that would be titled

"what you wish people would've told you when you were starting out"

Or. "what you know now, that you wish you knew then"
Something along those lines... I've read manley's post and Noah Bradley's and others. And motivation and flourishing as an artist comes different to everyone... So I guess it is just communication.
For me ... I learn from reading the responses in threads like this. Clearly dpaint and (and others) are experienced and give good advice. Thank you guys a lot.

I need to start studying artists and try to reproduce works and start trying to get a better handle over my "portfolio" and read up on some art history.
Drawing from my mind constantly just makes me repeat mistakes in a frustrating dumb cycle of nothing.
Anyways thanks guys.
Nd I will keeping an eye on your SB Pete.

[vineris]

I have at least three different working modes. One is where I'm practicing something specific to improve it. Another is where I'm trying to finish something to the best of my ability on deadline. And a third is where I'm just farting around drawing whatever comes into my head with no real intent to finish it. That last one is where all the creativity is usually hiding.

[Uziel]

Creativity is probably right in front of you.

if your troubled by to much thinking, your probably afraid of making mistakes. Go at it step by step and you shouldn't care too much about everything at once. Most of the time you can correct it anyway and if it doesn't work out, find out why, learn from it and go to the next.

If your creativity is bothered when doing the actual sketching/painting.
Go deeper in the creative mind before starting putting it down. Making notes what you want to show visually, what story lies behind the picture, what colors you want to use.
Looking for references in books, magazines,...can help with inspiration.
Writing down/sketching dreams can be fun.

For complex paintings:
Making small rough sketches/ thumbs will come more natural without thinking to much about the technical luggage. Your mainly looking for the right mood and composition.

Next you can do sketches smaller studies. First shapes (proportions perspective) then volume (values).

When you have the subject in your fingers you can go to your final drawing (can be a copy or collage of your studies) and build up your final from that.

Once you become better and better you can merge the steps more and more.

[Shorinji_Knight]

It sounds like you're your having trouble because the technical aspects of art are sucking all the joy out it. Relax, make up a story and draw it.

[Black Spot]

Wheres my creativity?

I ate it. The only way to get it back is to strip naked, cover yourself in paint, throw yourself at the canvas repeatedly and post the video here. Trust me.

[Shahan]

I ate it. The only way to get it back is to strip naked, cover yourself in paint, throw yourself at the canvas repeatedly and post the video here. Trust me.

@Black Spot ..This is off topic, but... question... is it 'correct' to think of you as your avatar? I mean because I don't know if that's a self portrait ... or someone else that you painted, and I always sub-consciously find myself thinking of everyone as their avatar which is almost always erroneous. As you see mine is Billy Pilgrim from Slaughter House 5 and obviously not me. But your avatar might be you, I ask mainly because...
I just read that last post in the voice of the lady from Looney Toons who owns Tweety Bird and Silvester, y'know the one? aand just had to ask.

[Black Spot]

Yeah! That's me. I started it after a bottle of wine and finished it off the next day.

[Pete Hidalgo]

BLACK!!!! Ha ha ha! That would definitely be interesting.

[Mossi]

Shahan: you are correct.

I am Hillary Clinton.

Pete: don't overthink it, dude.
Don't think of the rules as rules, think of them more as guidelines for you to spot the mistakes.

Have yourself a sketch session,where you just bash out thumbnail sketches. Don't think, just let it flow. Then you take those sketches and develop them further.

[meth]

He he, i always like when OP start with "I want to draw and be great at it".
One question: "so WTF are you doing here"??!!

M

[Mr.Delicious]

Well Bcarman, my issue is not being able to focus hard enough to push through one thing.

Thats not an unstoppable thing. When you say that you're making it a thing. Decide not to walk away when something is hard, just sit and do it. If you can't do that then its probably not important enough to you yet. But everything changes when you push yourself and decide not to make excuses for why you don't have discipline yet.

[Pete Hidalgo]

Mossi Yeah I realize I have not actually sat down to just sketch and let loose. Everything has been study study study. That was something I did earlier today and a lot came from it. was definitely over thinking and pushing to study forgetting that sometimes I need to have fun. That was what sparked my interest in the first place. having fun.

MatejaPetkovicWell OP is here to surround himself with very inspirational people. Like minded individuals who enjoy art and enjoy doing art. As for "wanting to be great" I have my own personal definition of great when it pertains to art. To me a great artist is one that understands what he is drawing and can turn around and convey it on paper, a canvas, or a computer. So in that sense I want to understand what it is I am drawing and why. But more than anything I want to do it because love art period.

Mr.Delicious Been watching some of yours and dans streams while drawing the last few days. Lots of good info in there man. Thank you for that. And this comment. I know my weakness is finishing when something becomes difficult and I have pushed more through it than I ever have before. And your right. There will be no more excuses.

[-Tragedy-]

Try not to think about it... Just draw... Difficult, I know...

My best advice it just mash things up and go from there, look up Mr.Squiggle on YouTube... A kids show who drew squiggles and made pics from them... Try this as an exercise to loosen your mind...

[p sage]

Motivation is a growling stomach
Dedication is getting up and fixing dinner when you're motivated.

You need dedication, like Mr. Delicious says.

[Raoul Duke]

This is something that helped me allot is draw whatever the hell pops into my head and then figure out what I need to study to make that image come to life. Do a few studies and directly implement them into the work.

I actually picked this up from Mr. Delicious aand Dan Warren's study group crimson daggers

Just start by drawing whatever the fuck you want. Don't hold yourself back because you suck at it. You can figure everything out as you go along.

[seetsy]

If this is a problem thats stopping you from progressing then recognising it is the first step and perhaps the most important part. The next step is to address it. It sounds like you are just being overwhelmed, focus on what you want to learn and tailor your study around this area. Ive found setting a few weeks on a subject and studying it through various exercises helps. Get specific as well, focus on subjects like gesture, weight, form etc. rather than 'figure drawing'. This way you can target things easier, ignore other areas, if you see something else you need to work on and its distracting you, write it down and address it later when you are finished. If you are just starting out, focus on the fundamentals first before targeting specific areas.

Also setting time limits for how long you are going to work on something might help. This can help you push through on a piece, instead of giving up when you start to doubt. In my experience, doubt happens alot throughout the creation process, especially when you are trying new things, you have to push past it to see what happens on the other side. Setting a time limit and meeting it will help you to push through.