A good example of stretching your abilities as an artist can be found by experiencing my life drawing classes. In these classes which I’ve run over many years now, I ask the students to begin to draw for a certain amount of time a still life set up that I put into the centre of the room.
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After half an hour or so, I then add an item, then again later I add another item, etc. etc. until the finished still life barely looks anything like what it had started like. At this point I usually give them a break, everybody is usually very happy with what they have created, and then we go back and I begin to take these objects away again systematically, so that by the end of the class, which may go on for a couple of hours or so, there is left standing the original still life composition, which may have been simply a bowl or a vase.
The above drawing exercise has proven to be one of the most amazingly transformative processes that I have taken students through. It helps them to let go of preciousness. It helps them to really go with the creative flow and opens them up to other possibilities like abstraction for example, when they follow this exercise. Of course some students face the issue that they are confronted with their own limitations.
This is part of the reason why I run this type of drawing class, which I call dynamic drawing. Admittedly I have had some students in tears because it really causes them to have major shifts in perception and consciousness. That said, I must also add that all of these students have come to me at a later time and have said how much they appreciated my taking them through that process. It helped them transform their approach to creativity and their work went on to reach new highs.
Major risk-taking can bring about amazing positive shifts in your creativity. It can throw up new results and can teach you to simply not be so tentative and careful. So bare this in mind in your journey as an artist. I have no doubt that by following some of the above suggestions, it will help you to find your way and everybody’s way is entirely unique.
It will help you to find the confidence in your work that is necessary for you to then go on to want to market your work. This part takes a tremendous amount of confidence. It doesn’t mean that you need to be arrogant or egotistical. It simply means that you must be at a point inside yourself where you feel confident that what you are doing is worthy to be presented out there in the world alongside the work of your peers.
