Intentionality & Understanding
The Blot: Issue #3
Industrial Design
From the desk of Applied Creativity.
One of the art mediums that has caught the eye of social media recently is industrial design. It’s mesmerizing how the marks from a pen turn into physical objects right in-front of you. It calls attention to how important it is to understand the construction of your subject matter. Better drawing doesn’t always come from better art skills, it often comes from a greater understanding of how the world works.
Next time you want to improve your craft, instead of giving yourself carpel tunnel from hours at the drawing board, practice understanding why things look the way they look.
Artist Spotlight
From the Department of Style Shaping.
This month’s spotlight is on an intentional artist. Jake Parker is a mixed media artist, author, and illustrator that I have learned 3 things from.
1. Finished not perfect.
One of my favorite philosophies I’ve learned from Jake Parker is “finished not perfect.” I struggle with wanting to make something perfect before I send it out into the world. Jake Parker teaches that perfect is the enemy of good.
You are always going to be improving as an artist. If you wait for something to be perfect before you put it out there, you are never going to finish anything. Take Jake Parker’s character Missile Mouse for instance.
Over 29 years he has improved this character he created but didn’t wait until it was “perfect” to put it out there. Instead, Jake continues to make Missile Mouse better each time around.
2. Be intentional.
Jake Parker is one of the most intentional artists I’ve ever seen on social media. He doesn’t work for a company or a studio, but he treats his work like a professional and it shows. One of the tools he shows for being intentional is this pyramid:
Mission: What do you want to accomplish with your business?
Vision: What do you want your life to look like practically?
Goals: Tangible, measurable milestones.
Strategy: Steps and tactics to achieve those goals.
Schedule: Breaking down those actionable steps into your daily routine.
Habits: Actions that make it easier to stick to your schedule.
Creativity grows under limitations. If you set deadlines and boundaries for your projects you might be surprised at the creative growth that comes as a result.
3. How to add life to lifeless subjects.
If you didn’t stop to look closely at Jake Parker’s art, you wouldn’t notice that all his lines have a little wobble to them.
In a digital age where we have tools to make everything perfect, straight and clean, it is rare to see someone not hiding the “flaws” of their art behind a computer program. But without his human, man-made lines, I believe much of his art would appear cold and lifeless. The robots he draws have so much life to them. On one hand, you have a subject that is expected to be machine engineered, factory made and flawless, but at the same time, it is illustrated by a human hand. A hand that has micro movements and drifts with every breath and nerve firing. I say all of this to tell you not to be afraid of the “imperfections” in your art because that is what can’t be copied, and it will bring life to your art.
I recommend looking over Jake Parker’s instagram page to see what methods you can learn from his career to apply to your own.
https://www.instagram.com/jakeparker?utm_source=ig_web_button_share_sheet&igsh=ZDNlZDc0MzIxNw==
“Artistic knowledge is just knowledge made visual”
From the department of Inspiration & Motivation
You don’t need more practice drawing; you need a greater understanding of what you are drawing. If two people were drawing a person from a reference with no prior art experience but the first person knew nothing about human anatomy and the second went through eight years of medical school, who do you think would draw a person better?
I’m guessing the person with more time studying the subject matter.
If you spent the same amount of effort reading about the anatomy of the human body and how the different muscles come together, and what proportions and basic shapes make up the human body, as you did copying a reference, you’d draw a more accurate person and you'd be able to draw it more ways and without a reference. Not because you can draw better, but because you understand how your subject works. So next time you need a reference take one more step and don’t just draw what it looks like, instead learn why it looks the way it does.
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