A Simple 3 Step Creation Process

Explore * Express * Create

I took close to ten years off from Art. Through my late teens & early twenties. Not because I didn't still love doing art but because I felt the need to finally explore my world. I got into retail management & thoroughly enjoyed business marketing as part of it. It opened up another side of art to me. The art of business.

My daughter is kind of in a panic about not knowing what she wants to be when “she grows up”. As I explained to her, your late teens & early 20's is the perfect time to explore who you are and what you want to be. I've always known I was an artist an wanted to be one but since I didn't have the money to go to The Institute of Art in Philadelphia or Minnesota. I took my general college classes at the local community college Rock Valley an explored work. I took odd jobs: like part time printers assistant at the local Newspaper. I worked in restaurant management. I worked in bars as part of the local scene. Explored opening my own business as a painter & stainer in residential construction. Found myself really interested in business: Taking accounting certification. Then took a full time management job as a Cstore manager. An a couple of years after my child was boring opened my own business as a Daycare provider.

I didn't get back to ART art, until I was 26ish.

One of the reasons being, is I didn't see the need to spend a lot of money on art college if the jobs where not there to make a living doing it. I was interested in marketing because it was practical application of art. It which one could make a reasonable living. When home computers came out: Then I knew what I wanted to do as an art career. An through myself into it. I returned to college, in my late twenties. Learned everything but the kitchen sink that was available in computers. I learned a lot of hardware stuff, I wasn't really interested in. An harder programming then just the self taught html. But the what I was most interested in was computer multi media graphics & interfaces: Which they really didn't have degrees for back then.


An this is why I'm telling my daughter to explore for a few years.


Find out what you are interested in most. I didn't know that I'd be so interested in business. I just knew I wanted to be an artist. An I'm thankful I took the time to explore other things out in the real world before I settled down into art again. Because the truth is, being an artist can be hard without business skills. I'm glad I learned retail. Management. Business. I take it a lot less personally when someone doesn't like my art or buy it.


An the truth is: Explore has always been my first step in art to begin with.


It's the first step I always take in any art piece. You have to know what your wanting to do, learn or teach yourself to do before you even embark on a project. When I was very young, it was just wanting to be able to replicate my favorite cartoon characters. So, I would draw them over an over until I could do it perfectly. When I was 7-8 years old I couldn't wait for my next Disney book so I could read it an redraw everything in it. I'd explore the book fully. Then set out on a mission to replicate everything in it. I spent one whole summer just learning how to paint on tshirts, an would explore what I wanted to put on them.


Making a colleged portfolio of ideas.
I started this habit of collecting ideas from magazines & clippings early on. Which later on, professionally was told to do. That it's a great habit to be in. Exploring & putting together inspiration for my own work. I use to have a full size file cabinet of nothing but clippings that would remind me of works I wanted to do.


It wasn't to copy another work.


But a collection of things would remind me of something I wanted to draw or paint later. For a completely different piece of work. An example would be me saving the way a arm looked in a photo, to be able to draw it in a painting doing something completely different later. Every piece of art I've ever done has started off with exploring.


I spent one summer just exploring calligraphy. Font.


Until I could sit an draw different type of fonts on my own off the top of my head for different work. I spent a year exploring how to come up with my own cartoon type characters. Another year, just exploring animals. Drawing those. Another just working on faces & the human form. A couple of years painting in acrylics. Oil. Watercolor. Ect.


It always started with exploring a topic or medium.


Around 11-12 my art expanded with the realization that what made one drawing of an animal stand out over another I had drawn was Expression. I remember it pretty clearly that I was drawing a monkey that had a certain laugh in his eyes. They had a shine to them. Clearly conveying happiness. An up until that point, my drawings of say horses kinda had a deadpan look in their eyes. I worked on this moneky for a week, making sure I could reproduce that expression an finally had it perfect. It was perfect. His expression I managed to convey. An people reacted to it deeply. That's when I knew:


Expression is important.


Art is emotional. It's to express emotion. Convey a feeling. Elicit a response. Make a person do a double take. In photography they use the term: Making it “pop”. Really grabbing another's attention. I worked with a lot of folks, if your familiar with Sears Portraits that really would push proper posing. Which don't get me wrong is important: but not near as important as being able to snap someone authentic expression. Expression is what makes the difference between a simple photo and a portrait. Expression is what makes art good or great. It has the ability to pull from it's viewer a emotional response. My studio sales went up 30K a year because I would take expression over posing someone to death.


I once watched a senior photographer spend 20 minutes posing a family. The family was so sick of her by the time she got her proper pose; they had dead pan eyes. The whole shot looked great other then that. They didn't buy it. The experience was enjoyable. An it showed. Photography is a interactive art form. Folks, aren't just paying you to take photos they can take on their own. They are paying you for the experience as well. You have to be part clown, likable an enjoyable to get those precious expressions worth buying & printing. An it doesn't just have to be just smiles. The expression can be serious, sad, curiosity: you name it. But without authentic expression photography just isn't as good as it could be.


Expression is important to me. It's a part of my process.
No matter what kind of art I want to do, I learned early on expressing something is what makes it stand out. So I tend to think about what it is I want my art to express. Joy? Sorrow? Anger? What you want is an observable verbal and nonverbal way to communicate an internal affective state. An you want it conveyed so well that the other person doesn't even have to be consciously aware for it to registrar with them. It sounds like magic, but it's not.


If you think about it ahead of time, what your wanting to express.


Growing up, I wasn't really allowed to verbally express myself a lot. So I found fifty million ways to through art. Either by subject matter, color, texture ect. Artist are here to communicate: Even if it is non-verbal. We express our selves in numerous ways. You want to leave a impression. You do that by thinking about what you want to express. What expression would one's face & eyes make? An then go about giving off that “feeling” in what ever art style or material of your choice. It's easier to explain by talking about my photography but it's just as important in traditional & non traditional art forms.


I see a LOT of art daily.


It's always the one that expresses a feeling or mood well that stands out. So, Express is an important step in my creation process. I think about what impression I want to leave my viewer. What emotion I want to get out of them. Do I want them to feel joy? Then I'd make sure the monkey I'm drawing conveys his. My family subjects I'm photographing are having a good time. So their eyes smile. Or in my fractal art uses colors that the mind process as that.


It's not enough to just be good at drawing.


I see lots of younger folks drawing anime characters. A lot of them, while drawn well lack. They are just kinda blah even though drawn well. Why? Because they lack depth in expression.


So Express is part of my creation process an motto.


My last step is to actually create the piece.


In fractal art I would spend a day just going down the “rabbit hole” of a software program to get inspired. I'd explore. Think about what is I wanted to express with different snap shots: then go into photoshop an create it using color, light & enhancements. In drawing or painting, I've spent years studying spirituality, mythology, folk lore, symbolism an color to convey meaning. With computers I spent a lot of time just exploring how to do technical things so I could get to the point of doing art well with one. So, expressing with one is second nature to me. Just as I had studied calligraphy once upon a time on paper. I studied it & collected them on computes.


I just tend to pick a subject, explore it.
Think about what I want to express.
Then create it.


Even in my portrait studio, the process was the same.


It's a simple effective system for getting really good at any art form. It works with traditional art, caricature, font, writing, photography, programming, computer art. I haven't really ran into an art form it doesn't work with yet. The creation process no matter what art form you choose get's better each time you do it. I wasn't the best portrait photographer in my area when I first started my process. But by the time I had done over 3000 photo shots, I was 80th nationwide. All using this process. So, you if you keep creating with this process in mind. Your creations improve. Your art improves.


It's what makes art stand out.

Explore * Express * Create