Morning Exercises
Like every skill, you must constantly exercise it to keep it fit and healthy. So today I would like to peer a little bit into my process for doing that.
For many artists, it can be daunting going into the studio every morning. So for that purpose, it's important to always go in knowing you have something specific to work on and get started. This is where my morning exercises come in to play. I like to do these small drawings as a warm up. They are about 4x4 inches square. I usually use a bit of charcoal and pastel. This particular set of drawings was done on handmade Awagami Washi from Shikoku. I visited the factory in person and was able to pick up a wide variety of steeply discounted paper. They make some of my absolute favorite paper.
The goal is not to have some great finished product, the goal is closer to what writers call free writing. The point is to just sit down for a moment and regurgitate some ideas to get your real work started.
I like to have something that I see as 'impermanent' to work on. When setting out on a larger painting, there can be a lot of holdbacks and reservations. These exercises are completely free of that. They offer a sense of clarity in their disposability. I can sit down without a sense of attachment. This is a great way to start the day.
For these drawings in particular, I was thinking about a machine learning algorithm I had seen going around. Similar to googles' deepmind, it was rendering scenes that at first glance, seemed like familiar objects in a photo. When you looked closer, you realized you could not identify any one object and it was all complete nonsense.
For many artists, it can be daunting going into the studio every morning. So for that purpose, it's important to always go in knowing you have something specific to work on and get started. This is where my morning exercises come in to play. I like to do these small drawings as a warm up. They are about 4x4 inches square. I usually use a bit of charcoal and pastel. This particular set of drawings was done on handmade Awagami Washi from Shikoku. I visited the factory in person and was able to pick up a wide variety of steeply discounted paper. They make some of my absolute favorite paper.
The goal is not to have some great finished product, the goal is closer to what writers call free writing. The point is to just sit down for a moment and regurgitate some ideas to get your real work started.
I like to have something that I see as 'impermanent' to work on. When setting out on a larger painting, there can be a lot of holdbacks and reservations. These exercises are completely free of that. They offer a sense of clarity in their disposability. I can sit down without a sense of attachment. This is a great way to start the day.
For these drawings in particular, I was thinking about a machine learning algorithm I had seen going around. Similar to googles' deepmind, it was rendering scenes that at first glance, seemed like familiar objects in a photo. When you looked closer, you realized you could not identify any one object and it was all complete nonsense.
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