Rules Meant to Be Broken

Picasso: "Portrait de la mère de l'artiste" 1896.

Learning and mastering what it is to be an artist, or designer – it's a lifelong process and this cycle of what I can only describe as "learning and un-learning".

I was lucky to hear the owner of knockknock.com speak at the local art college a couple weeks ago. And she said a lot of great things that I really took to heart, but one in particular really hit on the thing I have been mulling over for the past month or so. She quoted Picasso:

"It took me four years to paint like Raphael, but a lifetime to paint like a child."
- Art quote by Pablo Picasso (link)

Picasso was an amazing artist, and perfect in execution, even before he explored cubism. To the untrained and uninformed, it looks like the man didn't know how to paint (Jackson Pollock, anyone?).... when in fact, the opposite was true.

He was a master because he could take all that he learned, and then do something completely different.

Sounds really easy in theory, but it's a concept that so few of us can really get beyond, and even fewer have mastered.

It's hit me personally in my efforts to master what I called "lineless painting". I struggled - for years, trying to find a way that worked for me to paint digitally without depending on my original sketches and lines. I found myself confined by the lines, and my final pieces felt a bit stiff and regulated to me.

I had finally learned a comfortable way to paint just a few months ago. It was like a revalation to me... like a fog lifted! I felt a great amount of creative freedom and a whole new set of challenges.

And now – now that I've become more comfortable with the approach, I find myself coming full circle again. "How can I take what I now know about painting, and bring my lineart back into my work to give it more character??". Ironic, isn't it? :)

My hope - or rather, my plan, is to further look at the examples of what I think my art is missing - immersive composition, action, movement - and literally "Learn to paint like Raphael" (in my case, the artists that are doing it right) - so that I can in turn, take everything I learn from the process and turn it on it's head and make it my own.

Whew. :)

Things I'd like to remember:
1. Always ask "why?". I want it to not only be beautiful, but to always mean something.
2. Don't skimp on the sketch. Don't skimp on the sketch. Refine refine refine. The sketch is the soul of the drawing. If it's wrong, no amount of skillful painting is going to fix it. Fix and refine first. :P