You’ve probably heard the quote by Picasso that goes “It took me four years to paint like Raphael, but a lifetime to paint like a child”.
I find it strange that this quote is so well known and a celebration of childhood creativity and everyone nods and agrees with Picasso’s wisdom, meanwhile comment sections across the internet are filled with “My kid could do that”. Sometimes they replace “kid” with “monkey” when they want to be particularly cutting.
A lot of it has to do with money, like when a Pollock sells for 50 million dollars or whatever. Its a round about way of saying “this isn’t worth that amount of money/praise”. That’s a whole other discussion that I don’t really want to focus on today. What I find interesting about this topic is the idea of the artists values vs. the viewer’s values, and how you can use it to boost your own confidence in your work.
When I’m drawing, I’m often thinking “will this impress other artists”. A lot of what I do is to impress other people. But when you’re surrounded by other artists and start focusing on what they think, the bar gets higher and higher. You start to put other people’s values above your own. It’s extremely good at killing fun and creativity. I spent so much time trying to reach this bar of realism so I could impress people (which equals my work being worth something), even though the stuff I liked wasn’t realism. I needed to remind myself of my values.
Lauren’s List of Stuff That Makes Drawing Fun Rather Than a Chore (AKA her values):
1. Atmosphere – using light and color is how I create immersive illustrations. I get really happy when someone says one of my pieces invokes another of their senses, like they can feel the wind or smell the flowers.
2. Relatability- Using texture (like brushstrokes) and simplified shapes reminds the viewer this is a drawing, and hopefully spark a desire for them to try drawing too. Getting down to a child’s level so to speak.
3. Speed- This is purely for me, but I like when I can get a drawing done quickly. Some artists love to spend months on a single painting, but I’m the type to get bored. This is another reason to simplify.
4. Readability- I want my illustrations to be able to be read quickly so they better serve the text in picture books, while also having enough detail to gives the viewer lots of things to look at.
In an attempt to be truer to my values, here’s how I’ve started thinking about it:
This is a house. If I asked the average person to draw a house it would probably look like this. Your 5 year old daughter/son/niece/nephew/cousin/neighbor etc. could draw this, or could at least copy it pretty successfully.
This is a painting by James Gurney. Great painting, but way more intimidating to replicate. He’s clearly spent years and years developing his skill.
Neither is bad, they just serve different purposes. The first is using shapes to quickly communicate “this is a house”. It doesn’t care about the weather, the colour of the house, who lives there. The second does care about all those things, the artist wanted you to know the time of day based off the shadows, and that it’s probably later in the year since the trees are brown.
Now the question I can ask myself is: where would my values be? Since I illustrate for children maybe I want my work to be easy for kids to copy and understand, but I also want to show the time of year. Maybe I don’t care to be so specific about the time of day, it’s enough just to communicate “it’s daytime”. Maybe I don’t even like drawing houses and want to get it over as quickly as possible.
We’ll do a little exercise:
This is an apple tree straight from my mind as quickly as possible. I was taught that tree = trunk + green lumpy shape+ red circles for apples. Do apple trees actually look like this? No. Does it deliver the message anyway? Yes. It’s so simple and effective it’s stayed rooted in my brain my whole life.
One of the best things about this tree is you know it’s an apple tree immediately. The power of abstraction and simplification is that it can communicate information really fast. Kids are good at understanding simplification because they see distinct shapes and bright colours well. Since this I drew it quickly it’s already been broken down into it’s core parts that will communicate “this is an apple tree”, and I can use those elements.
But, I’m not totally satisfied with this tree. It lacks something for me. It doesn’t hit enough of my points. I can spend 100 hours painting a super realistic tree, but then it loses the abstraction and ability to communicate quickly which is something I value. It also looses it’s ability to be copied. I don’t want kids to look at my art and be intimidated, I want them to use the template I’ve made so they can draw it too (to a point anyway, it’s a delicate balance to satisfy everything I want a drawing to be so even if it’s not the easiest picture to copy, it at least hits that point in some way)
Using a photo reference, this is my apple tree:
Using reference I’m reminded that apple trees are cute and squat and have fun twisty branches. I’ve kept the leaves as mostly green blobs, and the apples stay bright red circles. I’ve kept and elevated certain elements to try to keep the readability while also showcasing the things I think are visually interesting. This process is where I get a lot of satisfaction. This is how I show the things I value, which will be different from the things other artists want to show (I’m sure you’re all making the connections to style by now).
I often have to remind myself this this is where skill comes in. This is what artists spend years and years honing, and it’s something to be proud of. I don’t need to agonize over whether the perspective is right, or if all the shadows are falling in the right place. Those aren’t the things I value.
But I’m sure there is someone out there who has different values, and they might think it is bad or unimpressive, that “their kid could draw that”. But now that’s a good thing, because that’s the point.
Love this breakdown and reminder to stay true to yourself!
This is EXACTLY what I needed today! You put into words what I had a difficult time expressing when it comes to my own art and practice - as well as illustrate it! I adore the way you conveyed the apple tree; it feels very Lauren to me, and evokes illustrations of my childhood. And those textures! Absolutely delicious ♥