Intuitive drawing? - A question for artists of Actualized.org

[rNOW]

I've been labelled an artist ever since I was a kid because I was/am really skilled at drawing. I took drawing classes and have learned different techniques for it. And then I realized, that most of the time, what I have been taught was 'How to copy/imitate' and not create. Even when I created something seemingly new, it would be just a remix of stuff I've seen before.

So now I've taken up a new hobby: to draw intuitively. I open a sketchbook and I just sit and ask my intuition to tell me what colour to make or paint and where and how and when. I don't reason with it and I don't try to make it into a 'good' painting/drawing. Only made a few so far, but they are very different from my usual styles and also do not follow any particular style or colour combinations. There are moments while drawing/painting when my mind gets involved in it, and that point is like a blotch on the whole paper. For the rest of the time, it is very weird. It makes me draw things I have no idea what it is, just lines, blobs and shapes, but in the end, it comes well together, even if it is not 'pretty', but it looks cohesive. I even had a point once, when I wanted to keep drawing and my intuition (supposedly) told me it's enough. And I didn't stop and it got spoiled and overdone. However, I find it difficult to practice this when my mind is too distracted and taken up by things of daily routine. 

So my question to all who practice any kind of art - have you any practice that follows such a way of creating from the intuition? And if yes, how did you manage to do it, and if there are any other tips you have regarding this, or is just practicing more and more the right way to go about it?  I do this as a hobby to train my mind to shut up, and the moments when it does, are very blissful. 

[aklacor727]

I am a bridal hairstylist/make up artist, my favorite way to create is from intuition and that usually happens when I am inspired by say a particular picture someone shows me, but gives me artistic freedom as well. Those turn out to be the best, because I'm in the zone and my work is flowing more fluidly and freely, I think you get to that point of being able to create that way after you have had enough practice in the basics (and it seems like you have), then just allow yourself to be inspired, let go, and go with the flow, getting lost in the creation while at the same time being mindful of the overall end result.

[Hello from Russia]

I am the identity designer and graphic ideas\concepts for logos\identity often come in terms of insights for me when I am in the flow. I found, other than that, mind mapping helps a lot to have the creative ideas there and some other "logical" methods that usually use your association as a vehicle. Creativity by intuition is a very powerful thing, indeed, but it is more state-like. You need to cultivate certain states to be effective in it is what I found

Edited December 23, 2019 by Hello from Russia

[Codrina]

I have always drawn, ever since I could hold a pencil. I used to just draw without anything in mind, quite a lot in school, when I used to get bored in the classroom. I took drawing, painting, sculpture and ceramic lessons for 3 years in highschool, learned the basics of drawing static nature and Human anatomy. I then went on to study architecture for 4 years and went deep into geometry. 

I then got into just creating different things: lamps, restoration of old furniture and old lamps, miniature decorative painting, more recently jewelry and actual painting. I am now working on an autumn landscape - a gift to my father. 

Few things I've learned:

I always have an idea of what and how I want to create, but along the way the work morphs into something different and the end result is always better than what I envisioned - I let my hand go and trust the new vision as it unfolds. It is almost like I am the observer and not the doer. 

I didn't enjoy studying other artists. I think that helped me come up with new, original designs. I never had a lack of inspiration. I see everything around me as something to play and create with ( I often get lost into a creative project, ignoring everything else). 

In painting, I take an object and filter it through my own perspective. If I have to paint a cat, I can do it realistically, if I have to, but if I can play with the concept of the cat it might come out like this.

My last discovery, however, blew my mind. I visited the Reyna Sofia Museum with my mom a month ago and I got to see Dali's work. I realized I paint like him, although I didn't study him. Same style, same finness in the brush strokes and same cartoonish vision. It was a very strange feeling. 

So, my advice is start with an idea and let it grow.

 

[Angelite]

My arts(or design) needs to have a meaning or I simply won't do it. It has to be meaningful and functional. I stop doing visual arts years ago. 

My intuition would start in reason and function. Or (factual) story-telling. 

I can't create something out of nothing. I need an object or inspiration. 

(It is not possible to make something without anything prior. Your art is a reflection of what you've experienced & seen). It can't be otherwise.

I'm a realist. If I draw something unrealistic it must have been from my dream/imaginations. 

@rNOW you made me do this. 

(I haven't drawn randomly for a long time><)

@aklacor727 @Hello from Russia @Codrina love all those words♣

[MAYA EL]

@rNOW  I do many different types of art but the one type I was never good at ( and I mean terrible) was drawing but around the beginning of 2017 when I started my hardcore Awakening I one day just picked up a pencil and started drawing Now don't get me wrong I'm not a photographer with a pencil by any means but I went from drawing stick figures to drawing Landscapes people buildings things like that very clear jump in skill level overnight.

One of the things I had started doing was when meditating sitting in the dark I would draw not being able to see the paper I only did it a few times but surprisingly you couldn't tell the difference between the blind drawing and a regular drawing there's one point where I was drawing with both hands at the same time in the dark and you cannot tell the difference. The other interesting thing was how the seemingly random Landscapes would actually lineup with things later on throughout the weeks or months

[remember]

@modmyth interesting how automatic drawing and intuitive drawing, automatic writing and intuitive writing are not actually the same. it sounds a little bit as if you would have a different wording for what you might perceive as the same technique - at least it sounds a little bit like that, but what @rNOW writes about sounds like more of a self questioning/inquiring practice or a discourse with the inner artist than an automated process. if you talk about the same be aware that intuition is not an automated process per say. if it was automated it would be more a subconscious arising or a trained process in a more descriptive way. so it`s probably interesting to do two writings or two drawings one with the intend of automation and the other one with intend of intuition and then compare the outcome. (so well comparative techniques is one of my favourite methods at least until you have found the style you want to work with)

Edited December 27, 2019 by remember

[rNOW]

@aklacor727  and @Hello from Russia  I believe flow state is slightly different from what I'm talking about. I think maybe  what @remember  says might make sense? I'm not really sure, I hear these clear concise 'wordings' when I become extremely silent. Oftentimes it extends into other daily things as well. Like example, I was thinking of going back to my bullet journal after having given up so many times and the voice (or whatever it may be) kept telling me to check YouTube over and over and over again. I resisted it because I am trying to avoid looking at screens before bedtime. And I opened it and the first suggestion that popped was one video regarding a bullet journal method. Like right now, there is that voice again telling me I should be working on a particular project instead of being here on this forum. (But I'm ignoring it) 

@remember What is then the difference between automated and intuitive processes and what is the inner artist? 

@modmyth I practice something called 'morning pages' every morning, and sometimes this other voice pops in with words of its own, and I'm often baffled I could come up with something like that while just doing a sort of brain dump. 

@MAYA EL That is quite interesting!

@Angelite Yeah I know, intuition needs prior knowledge to function and it uses that knowledge as a tool. For example, I cannot suddenly start writing in French if I don't know French. What I meant was the style of drawings that it makes me do, is not something I would have thought of making. Also, good drawing, it is such a mind-calming activity to draw!

@Codrina That's an interesting journey. I've studied architecture too, though I find it often too technical and I find it hard to practice any kind of intuition when thinking in technical terms. I can however be more open to intuition in aspects of design that deals with colours and textures. 

 

Edited December 30, 2019 by rNOW

[Apparition of Jack]

This thread is very timely for me because I've been thinking about my own art and my own creative process Forgive me for rambling a bit here but I'd like to share some of my own thoughts about art.

I can't remember where he said it, but I remember Leo saying that what all artists are truly seeking, even if they're not consciously aware of it, is their own connection to Spirit/Truth/Love/Consciousness. I think this is why so much beautiful art has come out of the great religious traditions of the world - Buddhist cave paintings, Hindu iconography, Islamic geometry, and so on. Art can be one of the most powerful tools for getting people to appreciate / think about / experience the Divine, since it appeals to our most basic senses (sight sound etc.) without relying on too many years of intense personal study or direction from a teacher to do so. Not only that, but art does so in a way that appeals directly to the current cultural climate of any given time and place. Why do you think Star Wars was so popular when it came out in 1977? Because it managed to capture the feelings of both new technological abilities (computers, robots, etc.) as well as the legacy of WW2 (Stormtroopers, air battles, etc.) as well as a bunch of other things that people in the modern, post-WW2 70s were experiencing. Throw in some good old fashioned mysticism and non-duality (the Force, the Jedi etc.), and you have a bona-fide work of spiritual art that resonates with people so much they make two more bad trilogies from it

Right now there exists so many awesome works of art that haven't been put to paper yet, that capture perfectly the feelings of the issues that people are feeling about the world today. There's works of art that deal with climate change, multiculturalism, technology, sexuality, etc. that when they manifest will help people to awaken and become more conscious of their own lives and the lives of others. There are movies, video games, songs, drawings, and everything else that will come at just the right time when they need them, and if you're a conscious artist interested in self-actualisation and Love, you can be the vehicle for some of them

Another thing to point out is that art can also be used for very unconscious purposes too. Look at the modern advertising industry - there's so many (visually/phonetically) appealing ads, billboards, even websites (in a sense, Facebook is a visual art), etc. out there today, but because they exist to try and push you some kind of shitty product, the result is very damaging for the world as a whole, and it does disservice to the true purpose of art. This is also true of politics. Art can be weaponised to push a very unconscious political agenda. Look at the Nazis - Adolf Hitler was famously an art student before becoming a political radical, and he used his understanding of aesthetics to help push the Nazi's insane agenda. Throw a bunch of nice-looking swastikas and eagles on everything, call it a "national renewal", and suddenly you have people turning in their best friends to be killed because that friend had a Jewish grandfather. We have to be careful and conscious with art, not just our own but also the art that's being pushed into the world, because otherwise it can be used to animate people to do harmful things to themselves and others.

@rNOW I guess all in all I'd say just and use your drawing as a tool for Consciousness/Love/Awakening, in whatever way comes naturally to you. Let your intuition guide what you put onto paper - no matter how silly or out there it might feel at first - and just see how it goes. People LOVE an artist who can tap into feelings they didn't even know they had, and if you get good at this you could really do a lot of positive in this world

EDIT: Here’s a quick sketch of mine that I channel to represent Love/Wisdom/Creation in my own esoteric way 

Edited January 1, 2020 by Apparition of Jack

[remember]

On 12/30/2019 at 10:28 AM, rNOW said:

What is then the difference between automated and intuitive processes and what is the inner artist? 

in my understanding the difference is the awareness and attention in the process. the automated process is a program running underneath attention and awareness like a separated entity. the inner artist is probably the child that wants to explore and play with these different layers of the artistic personality and or tool box.

Edited January 1, 2020 by remember