Play to your strengths
Playing to your strengths or avoiding challenge?
I was chatting with a buddy this week about art practice and something crystallised for me.
When life drawing I use a piece of willow charcoal (the soft, smudgy stuff) and some compressed charcoal. Aside from a couple of erasers, that’s it. One colour, one medium.
A few life drawings. (Models are Johnny @johnnyposes, Anjelica @azlifemodel and artist Paddy Lovely)
Working in watercolour on the other hand might start with some drawing in pencil but then the painting part kicks in. Now I have to consider a myriad of things including: tone, hue, viscosity, drying time, paper, brushes, ever-shifting lighting as well as the more esoteric stuff about affect, narrative, composition etc. Obviously this is a LOT to keep in mind.
Now, while I’m really not saying that drawing is any easier than painting (they can both be eye-wateringly difficult at times) but with a reduced number of physical tools, when I’m drawing I find I have more bandwidth for the mental skills of seeing and amending.
Watercolour still life
We all know that honing one skill at a time can be very helpful. Concentrating on tone for example can do a world of good for your art, but doing this for too long could set you on an unhelpful path. You could unconsciously fall into the trap of using it as a way of keeping ‘safe’ which at best stops growth and a worst creates stagnation.
It’s a lot like learning to drive. In a controlled environment like an empty carpark you could get really good at perfect turns and seamless parking. But after doing that for a while, you need to get out on the road. You need to navigate the streets, account for a changing environment, react to the movement and frequency of other traffic.
In other words, in order to get somewhere worth going, you need to consolidate all those skills in the real world.
So, although it might be tempting to stick to what you’re good at or what you find easiest, the best place to gain some traction is to go somewhere where you’re not in control of the environment. Class projects and client briefs are great for this.
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Interested in commissioning or working with me? Get in touch via email at hello@tanyacornish.com
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