"Dear Mom. I love to play in the pool." Logan, age 6

Many of us are focused on technique and technical ability in our art, but in that pursuit, we sometimes lose sight of the whole equation of what art is. Besides a technical pursuit, art is a form of communication. Like an orator who works masterfully in vocabulary and grammar without any actual point to make, one cannot capture an audience without meaning and message. This is the same for the visual arts, and we can reconnect with this concept by examining the most unlikely of sources: our childhood.

Communication is an inherent trait of humans. People are a complex working of thoughts, ideas, feelings, and expressions, and as social animals, we want to share with others of our species. Even before we are born, we are subject to the human need for communication. A child in the womb will learn to recognize its mother’s and father’s voice before ever seeing them. Once the child enters the world, if it intends to survive, it is imperative that the child is able to communicate its needs to its caretakers; almost immediately, crying becomes a major form of communication.

As we develop, we pass up crying as the main form of communication for more complex expressions, one of which is the act of drawing. Every child scribbles with crayons on sheets of paper or finger-paints. This form of sharing begins to develop even before speaking. The meanings behind the symbols and patterns in the drawings may be hidden from the perspective of adults, but at a rudimentary level the child is attempting to express its thoughts.

The development of art on an individual scale can be compared to the development of art for humans as a species. Paleolithic art, usually seen in cave drawings and bone carvings, stems from the desire to communicate in a manner that mere words or actions cannot. Prehistoric man created art using symbolic representations of the things, feelings, and phenomena in his world; his concern was not to directly replicate these things but to concisely express what he was thinking.

Storytelling is so inherent in our collective cultural upbringing that generally when a child sits down to create an image, they do not sit and consider what it is they should convey with their image. The act of creating the image is merely a means to telling their story. This may not be at the forefront of thought for a student who is focusing on the technical aspects of a work of art, but is just as important for the finished product. We are creating our works for other humans, and as other humans they will look upon the image expecting a story.

This does not mean that striving for technical excellence is overrated; rather quite the opposite. Greater technical skill allows the artist to more accurately and beautifully portray the point just as grammar and vocabulary allow the orator to express an idea clearly and pleasingly to the audience. It is important to not only strive for superb technical ability but to grasp it in a manner that it becomes our automatic repertoire of symbols and forms.

This discussion really drives home the importance of the thumbnail and preliminary sketch. Approaching an image with quick gestural drawings is akin to a child’s approach to drawing. Our concern becomes not with the technical excellence of the image but instead with how the action and players convey the story behind the image. Using basic shapes and quick lines, just as a child scribbles with a crayon, we tap into our innate storyteller. The trick is to keep the image loose and quick, and not to get caught up in the details. There will be plenty of time to scrutinize details as the image progresses towards completion, but only after the true essence of our story has been scrawled on the page.

Go Forth. Create!

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Pulp Magazine Art – March 11, 2012
D&D Mighty Mugg – March 25, 2012

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