Almost didn't end up with a post this week as it's been a great day of hanging with my family, seeing some great art, and eating some delicious food. Sometimes the real world comes knocking and I'm always up to shift focus when the opportunity presents itself.
Nevertheless, here we are with another bunch of face doodles for this week. I've been thinking a lot about painting this week and have been sorting myself out to start on a new series. I'll post about it somewhere when I have something to show, but for now there's just a few thoughts rolling around in my head. There's no sense in talking about what's in the future, so let's stick with the current thought process.
With the opportunity to get back into painting on canvas, I've been pondering what sort of style and subject matter I'd like to start with. This has led me to the balance between pursuing a narrow sub-set of skills and styles, as opposed to trying out everything that looks a little bit interesting. Of course, I think experimentation is always welcome and should be encouraged if you want to get out of your own head, but there's also something to be said about sticking to what you're good at.
In the absence of having a clear idea about what I might be good at, let's rephrase that to be something that is comfortable and where satisfaction is easily attainable. It's no secret that many artists in various mediums tend to stick to the thing that brings them success. Hopefully this is also something genuine and fulfilling for them, but repetition and variation on a theme is extremely common.
Even looking at the heavy-weights of history who have changed the world; their art is often immediately recognisable. Obviously this isn't a bad thing, as it's so common place and means that there's a short-hand for any audience to know what they're getting into. Although, I haven't always thought this way and at times I've been really put off by the fact that you can easily identify someone's work, simply because it looks a lot like their previous efforts.
This leads me to the question of whether or not being recognisable and easily identifiable, is relevant when making art. I mean, no matter how punk rock we want to be; I would bet that any artist would take the chance of making a living from their work in a heartbeat. With all things being equal, of course we'd all like to live a comfortable and fulfilled life doing the work that comes most naturally to us. With that in mind, I wonder if randomly attempting different styles and methods all the time actually ends up holding one back in some way.
After all, if nobody can recognise you, then you might as well not exist (in that way). Plus you might end up being competent in a number of skills, but never grow to a master of any (insert idiom here). Then again, not everyone can create an entirely new style without years of experience and effort, so it's a bit presumptuous to chase perfection from the start.
In fact, you're probably better off trying to be as generic as possible in the first instance. Then time will allow a gradual drift into parts unknown, perhaps with a little originality thrown in to spice things up a little. Thus, understand that when I note how so many of my peers are recognisable due to a lot of work in a single style, I'm simply saying that they have their hustle figured out. I think I'd like to figure that out as well, but I don't think I'm there yet.
Doodles are all well and good, but this entire thing isn't a lot more than a way to ensure I put pen to paper regularly. I suppose it's also a way to formulate thoughts into logical streams with the intention of better understanding the ethereal elements more than when we started.
The thing I didn't plan on happening was discovering certain things that I am naturally drawn to and usually doodle more often than others. I think it's pretty obvious at this point (for those playing along at home) that I like drawing faces of all different shapes and sizes. Secondly, I'd throw in weird creatures and mixed human bodies. There's something about all of that biological stuff that really manages to hold my attention longer than other things, so perhaps that's where I need to let myself settle.
Thus, I think I might start painting some random faces to get the ball rolling, but you didn't hear that from me. Without talking about the future too much, let's just say that I think I might have found some kind of consistency to follow, which has never been clear to me in the past. Therefore I honestly think random doodling has actually helped a whole lot.
Keep on keepin' on.