Creative Drawing: Get Crazy!

Let's face it. Sometimes learning the basic techniques of drawing and art can seem boring. Just like in any skill or trade, there are moments and subjects that you would rather glaze over. Creative drawing is most likely not one of those subjects.

Learning art philosophy and color theory sounds like taking courses where you're in an old dust-covered room with a teacher just reading through a textbook and putting everyone to sleep. The movie "Ferris Bueller's Day Off" comes to mind. When I think of creative drawing, I think of the part where Ferris and his friends go out in the town and explore new and great sites and experiences, as opposed to his sister who is stuck in class trying not to fall asleep.

"Finding new ways to see and experience the world around you is what creative drawing is all about."

It is what makes art fun. It opens you up to new possibilities and new ways of thinking. It does exactly what the term describes; it gets you creative! It gets you on the floor looking through the eyes of a baby or perhaps on your back with your feet in the air wondering what it would be like if the ceiling were the floor. (Makes that fan look a lot more dangerous.)

Play with different angles and look at things as if you were looking at them for the first time.

The biggest challenge is to change your own perspective.

Tip: This is an easy test you can use to realize that you've become numb to everyday things. Next time you are driving or riding in a car on a street you know very well, notice what you look at. Do you look at everything as overwhelmingly as you did the first time you rode down it? How about when you go to a new place that you begin to frequent?
You don't look at it the same after a while. You become "numb" to the things that you have come to realize don't really serve a purpose for you. If you look at them again, things may have changed.

Just refocus your eyes and you'll see everything you were ignoring.

After a while, that "new car feel" goes away, but you can get it right back and you don't have to buy a small pine tree to get it.

When we go somewhere for the first time, we don't look at specifics. We look at everything and take it all in. Next time you go to a place you know very well, step back and take a look at the whole picture again. Refocus your eyes as if you have never seen the place before.

This will give you a new picture or at the very least reveal some things that you just passed up without thinking.

How do I do this, you ask? Instead of focusing on the sofa in the coffee shop, sit down and try to look at everything. Don't look at any specifics. Look at everything as a whole.

It's like looking at everything with tunnel vision as opposed to looking into a fish bowl.

It will make you more aware of the space and mood. It naturally opens your spatial vision and view of the "space and setting."

The part that makes creative drawing fun is just looking at everything and anything in new ways. Look at the clouds and look for patterns. Look at wood grains. Anything can produce a creative spark, even a crack in the sidewalk. It is all about how you are looking at it and what frame of mind you are in. Don't be afraid to tilt your head or do something crazy.

It's okay to cross your eyes or hum loud enough to blur your vision. Do whatever it takes to get those creative juices flowing.

That is what creative drawing is all about. Being creative! So go crazy. Get that angle that no one sees but your 2-year-old nephew, or the morning sunrise from the perspective of a bee sitting on a flower petal. The more open you are, the more creativity you experience and release. Bring back your curiosity and look at everything with big eyes again!