Category Archives: Creativity

Working, or crawling, to the finish.

Posted on by Soulcraftcandyman
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It’s coming, it’s coming, although the anticipated sprint to the finish has somehow turned into a bit of a crawl. The third in the Cafe Racer series is nearing completion, though today my normal creative enthusiasm has seemingly been replaced by a dogged determination. A flowing ease has turned into a plodding grind, but ink is still hitting the paper at least.

Self imposed deadlines are often so hard to stick to, particularly when an images’ creation proves either problematic or the composition remains in flux, and such is the case in this instance. I wonder if this is down to a mood thing or whether I’ve just spent too long noodling away at it. The latter seems a more likely culprit.

What’s interesting about this, to me anyway, is that it occurred to me the other day whilst standing back and having a look at the image, that there is something out of balance with it. Like there was something not quite right going on. It took a while to work out and feels like a kind of line is being crossed, a line that stands between realism and caricature. It has always been a desire to err towards the latter of these two elements but, at the same time maintain a degree of detail borrowed from the real world. In this case, through injecting a high level of detail I have left an element of the caricature behind and the drawing has lost a certain character as a result. Personally I blame the rider figure, he made me do it. Whilst I’m perfectly happy with the way the bike is rendered and the overall impact of the image, some of the quirkiness and humour that should be there has wandered off somewhere. The rider figure is the key, he’s too lifelike. Not by much, but by enough to make a difference and this has been the reason behind my somewhat lazy approach to finishing it.

But it’s only by working through these problems that we learn and progress, so the push is now on to “ship” the final drawing. Below is where things are currently with the background. A simple horizon and mid-ground which places our rider at the side of the road while he awaits the arrival of his mates who are in the distance charging over the brow of the hill. Hoping to have it done very soon, I want to get on with the others as soon as possible.

Please excuse the darkness of the pictures in this post, it’s one of the perennial handicaps of snapping off a few shots of the drawing board only illuminated by the studio window.

Cafe Racer-hot off the press

Posted on by Soulcraftcandyman
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Cafe Racer 1

Hot off the press comes the first finished drawing from the Cafe racer series.

 

Having made the decision to work on a series of drawings, all connected by a core theme, there is a kind of flow starting to emerge during the process which has not necessarily been present before. Previously the completion of any drawing was quickly followed by the question of which sketch to pick up next and move forward. Despite working on several drawings concurrently it was always there in the background and served as a persistent distraction.

 

With a number of preparatory sketches clinging to the wall of the studio room an order is establishing itself as to what’s coming up next and this leaves the mind free of constantly needing to think of new ideas all the time. Focusing on concentrated idea generation sessions and then working through a series feels quite liberating in a way. It’s a much more methodical way of working as opposed to the rather scatter gun approach of before.

 

It is an inescapable truth that none of us work in the same way. Part of the journey that this blog hopes to chart is that bit which concerns finding the way of working, the methodology if you like, that best suits what I’m doing. It goes beyond being systematic purely for systematic’s sake. The world is ridden with systems and creative activities are no exception. If you ask any other creative person what the best way of working is, they will invariably enlighten you to their preferred ways of working. This is not a bad thing in itself but in most cases it’s the way that works best for them. The key is listening to their comments and adjusting your own approach incorporating those points you want to include. What you decide upon is never set in stone, and in fact should be able to evolve as you and your skills do. It should be all part of the fun, so if it’s not working, change it.

 

Finally, why cafe racers? In brief there are a couple of reasons that stand out from the field. The first is that to me they represent a very elemental form of machine. Simple, uncluttered and encompassing a purity of purpose which appeals to my sense of form and function being in balance. The second is perhaps a bit more romantic in nature. These machines in a way signal the birth of personal customisation in its purest form. English cafe racers and american bobbers could be said to be the first street specials of the post war era and as such are now the bedrock of all subsequent modifying styles from diggers to streetfighters, and choppers to street trackers. It’s a style that has endured and continues to do so. This is my way of celebrating that. The fact that I live only about three miles from the original Ace Cafe might have something to do with it too.

 

A short foot note. This drawing is going to be submitted for a public art show here in Ealing at the end of March. It may even be for sale, in which case it could be a first if it finds a happy owner. Fingers crossed.

 

Accessing embedded knowledge works.

Posted on by Soulcraftcandyman
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An early drawing using early knowledge.

Following the magnitude of the last post it feels as if my brain needs a kind of rest, a short period to recoup and spend some more time considering drawing from imagination, what is starting to feel like a very big subject area. This won’t be the last time it comes up for discussion but, a bit more thinking time is required to crystalise my thoughts further. More often than not, insights arrive at unexpected times and from unexpected directions and letting them do this randomly relieves the pressure of sitting down and trying to think of what they could be before their arrival. It’s a bit like having your best ideas whilst having a bath I suppose.

 

It can be so easy to get distracted from ones core activity, in my case creating my pictures, and this has been happening a good deal of late. The process of clearing the backlog of drawings for posting needs to come to an end and there’s only one way that’s going to happen, putting them up here. This posts title image was done just over nine months ago, and why it didn’t get posted remains unanswered. What’s interesting about it now is how different it is from the later drawings that have gone up over the last couple of months. In the previous post I wondered whether familiarity breeds more embedded knowledge that we can access subsequently. Looking at this drawing I would posit that the answer to that question is yes. Later drawings are much more detailed and intricate, partly through design but also due to the mere fact that I know more about the subject matter, and crucially can access that new knowledge without necessarily realising it. Result.

The idea wall in action.

One other aspect of this exercise that has caused some pondering is that of subject focus. Since starting this whole bike drawing thing I’ve quite happily jumped from one type of subject to another. A dragster, then a road bike, then something else etc etc. All well and good you might think, but actually it was starting to be problematic in the sense that it was becoming hard to separate certain specific thoughts and ideas for one image from another. In simple terms, details for one drawing were ending up on another and vice versa. This probably had, or has, something to do with my habit of having two or three drawings on the go at any one time. As an attempt at remedying this a different approach was needed. So now instead of multiple drawings of multiple themes, the latest project concentrates on a core theme with multiple drawings around it. It already feels a better way to work as there seems to be a greater cohesion in what’s being created. This first series is about cafe racers and I’ll explain more about it in the next post. For now here are some of the preliminary sketches that are currently adorning the small wall of the studio.

Messing with different views.Speech bubbles could make a comeback.