After yet another afternoon of mind-drifting, I found something I wasn't expecting. One thing over the years, memories are bound to forgotten if I don't recognise its importance in practice. In this case, it was a basic yet very crucial element for my dynamic pieces: curly lines.
Continuing from the "spirit" of that character drawing yesterday, I started early today with trying to draw the character in its updated form. Suddenly, I ran into a roadblock: I was unable to bring it to life. Running through nearly a dozen sketches, something felt missing.
A bit frustrated, I just lounged around the place and listened to some music played on my phone. Turning it off after a while to prevent the media distraction trap, I just started to let my thoughts wander and looked through different things, asking myself some things...
My work felt a little blocky lately. It almost felt like I was focusing too much using certain details as a starting point to improvise from. This results in me struggling to build outwards into a full picture. Often, I find myself losing track of the original concept, which frustrates me.
One thought then got into my head. It was something I enjoyed in the past years, which was the concept of "Flow". Suddenly, I felt signs of an answer. The original drawing "White Bird" came into my mind, reminding me of how I started drawing that important piece.
I still have a strong impression on how I started it. It started as flowy lines to carve out an outline, vibe, or energy, or whatever my mind finds to describe. Later, I would slowly narrow out the details and sharpen its precision, almost like carving a figure out of nothing.
And there it was. Sketching the core or skeleton of an idea, adding the main shape, before narrowing down the to details and precision. A very basic skill in drawing that I have forgotten, as dumb as a nitwit. If I had the core idea there from the start, I wouldn't have lost it right?
Putting it into practice, I saw its immediate effects. Curly lines were the only thing I used, and suddenly the White Bird was flying and "alive" again as it should be. Man, I have recorded these for years, within my personal achieve of sketches. Yet, I somehow forgot them like an idiot?
I am just speechless. It almost feels like I am back to square one, although there was a takeaway. I have learned the lesson of forgetting this basic practice, which led me astray for all these months. Seriously, I really have to remember how important it is.
Putting that aside, I have noticed that I have these 2 styles. One was that "start from a detail and spread out", and the other was the "start from the big picture and narrow down". I had instances of success in both, which gave me a slight dilemma on which to choose.
It is obvious that I can't limit myself to either, that would be falling for the stupidity of Duality. My own solution, would be to use either when the situation calls. I can't forget either, I just need to know when is the correct time to use it... ==
