Wednesday, 28 September 2011

Critical Commentary - Drawing and the Creative Brain

The purpose of drawing has many different aspects, to communicate ideas, to record events, to help us remember, and to expand the ways in which we think. The process of mark making allows your creative side to develop and your ideas to flourish. The goal, depends on the situation; if you are explaining something, sketching is sometimes a simpler way to get your ideas across. If you are developing a solution to a problem, drawing can inspire new ways of achieving a goal. Unlike other mediums such as photography or writing where you are limited to what you can see or the amount of words you can write, there are no limits to how to convey an idea through pictures. With writing in particular, the difficulties lie in whether you can record an idea in such a why that another person can read it and visualize it in their minds in the manner which you meant it to be.
From my own experience, I can remember countless times when I'm unable to think of an idea, but as soon as you stop thinking and start drawing, your hand starts moving almost automatically and ideas start flowing freely. Once you have a source, for example, a basic sketch on a blank piece of paper, you can begin to work around that, and it develops naturally.


Here is an example from my own work. I had a theme in mind, 'Immortality,' but unable to think of anything to represent immortality, I began sketching a temple. It was the first idea that appeared in my minds eye. As I was drawing, more ideas came to me until I developed the idea of drawing multiple time-lines in one image, and thus the final product. The whole process that went into creating this piece, and any form of creation, was the cooperation of both sides of the brain. 






The two sides have vastly different functions that each contribute to the conception of an idea. The right side is playful and experimental, and the left is the oraganiser, it filters through ideas and questions them. The left acts as our inner critic, questioning everything. Being able to suspend this critic while we are creating and exploring ideas through the right hemisphere allows for more creative freedom, but there has to be a balance between the two, so that ideas are redeveloped repeatedly until we are happy with them.




A piece of mine that was produced purely on impulse, with no plan or structure. An example of work created through the right hemisphere, colour is usually dominant in works produced this way. Interestingly, the right hemisphere feels negative emotions while the left feels positive emotions. Analysing my own work while taking this into consideration, I notice that although at first glance it may seem light hearted because of the colours, there are scythes depicted as well as hooded figures, which both represent death, even the 'soul' has connotations to that theme. So being able to recognize which side is dominent in a piece of work can help us analyse on deeper levels.




An example of the left hemisphere, when work that requires accuracy is attempted the left side is dominant. The constant criticism is key, are the proportions correct? distance between each subject? etc
The left side strives for perfection whereas the right aims for boundless creation.
Although both pieces are fundamentally different, in style, and the way they were produced, both sides of the brain are integral and necessary for any type of work to take form. Ideas are formed through the right, and the left questions and filters them until a suitable idea is developed. Drawing is the most basic way to begin this procedure. If we are aware of what side we will be using when beginning a task, we can focus on the best way to stimulate that side into achieving our goals.

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