Do you recognize the itch 'to art'?
The urge to create
I’ve lost count of the years since I became aware of a certain itch inside to create art. It has had its ups and downs and I even lost it completely for a while I believe. Lately, however, the itch has gotten more intense. Like a buzzing feeling that slowly but steadily has been and still is spreading out over my entire being. Waking up nooks and crannies I didn’t even know belonged to my very being. Such as the urge to explore intuitive drawing.
So I decided to listen and in stead of scheduling ‘creating art’ all the way at the bottom of my priority list, I’ve put it on top right after getting dressed and having breakfast.
It’s not the first time I have had that intention though. Hence the name of my business: ART Sound and Medicine Woman.
I guess with the buzz becoming more intense, my aspiration is growing bigger as well.
To art or not to art?
It worked! Since I made that decision very consciously about half a year ago I have created considerably more art and I enjoyed it thoroughly. It feels so nourishing, so enriching and very inspiring. While creating one thing, ideas for many other paintings, drawings, sculptings and even music and songs dance around me as if we’re having a crazy party.
To art or not to art, does that even exist? So far, it isn’t a generally accepted verb but those who know, know…IT IS 🙂
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Whenever you’re in doubt, it’s always better to absolutely art!
Show me ‘how’ then
Clearly the intention to prioritize art alone wasn’t enough to decently deep-scratch the intuitive drawing itch. Up until now my art has mainly been very detailed and precise, and requires a slow and calm approach. This is reflected in both my drawings (mainly with black markers) and acrylic paintings (see this example on instagram, or this one).
Mixed media seriously caught my eye lately. I definitely have so much more to explore there. As winter tends to get cold and windy, so does the space I usually occupy for painting with acrylics or working on larger pieces.
Therefore, I started to play around with my childhood watercolors in my cozy and warm studio corner at home. The fact that I still have this Winsor & Newton student grade box both warms and breaks my heart. It shows I care a lot about my materials and it also reflects that I have not been ‘arting’ quite as much as I should have throughout the years to keep my soul satisfied.
This unintentional playing led me to discover a beautiful way to use my precious watercolors combined with shimmering watercolors, black marker and colored pencils. I’ll dedicate a future blog on that. But it didn’t fully satisfy my longing to discover an even more freely intuitive drawing or painting style.
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The freedom of scribbling
The deeper I got into my search of finding an adequate medium to liberate this increasing urge-to-create from its itchy chains, the bigger it grew. I watched a ton of artists on Youtube, subscribed to a few on Domestika, took some free online classes and I started to see patterns:
- even though many mixed media artists make a huge mess before beauty rises, many of them use colored pencils somewhere along the way
- the wonderful effect of layering, layering and more layering, in any medium
- an awful lot of jaw dropping paintings start out as a bunch of toddler scribbles made with…pencils
And that’s when the magic happened!
It just clicked, I took my sketchbook out, picked up my colored pencils and started to scribble.
I swear….the freedom!
The liberation! Intuitive drawing in action!
If your into quick sketching without too much of a mess, you should definitely try out this type of intuitive drawing.
Intuitive drawing & the art of creation
Oh this is just the beginning, I’m sure about that because creating art only just began to teach me the principles of the Art of Creation. Not only have I found much joy in creating drawings and paintings, I’ve also discovered a new way of expressing how Life runs through my veins by making Art Vlogs on my brand new Youtube channel!
My very first full length video is entirely dedicated to the creation process of one of the drawings in this blog. It’s a combination of ASMR footage and speeded sections with voice overs where I share my thoughts and comment on what I’m doing and why.
Lots of creative love,
Frouke
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