“Art does not reproduce what we see; rather, it makes us see.” ~ Paul Klee
In order to find wonder in the ordinary an artist must study their subject matter, some artist achieve this by doing countless quick sketches of the object, for example Leonardo da Vinci. So before an artist start creating their master piece, they first have to look around them and truly see – the shapes, textures, values and colours of an object. Their creativity and freedom of expression comes into play in how the artist arranges the chosen objects; what is place next to the object and subtle changes to the object to translate into new meaning.
Picasso said, “There is no abstract art. You must always start with something. Afterward you can remove all traces of reality.”
Thus, the artist starts from the known and by process of elimination removes the unnecessary details that might distract from the final message; the same way that a director will remove the background noise so that the argument of the main characters can be clearly heard.
Looking for reference material on the internet can initially be overwhelming and one can easily get side-tracked by all the images and new ideas to the extent that none of the creative ideas comes to be fully executed. For me, it helps to limit myself with say using only the first three images for my reference material. Starting to work immediately with my preparation drawings I can see if I need a different angle of the object or need to add an object to my composition. Just remember that in art – less is sometimes more!
