Automatic Drawing-Intro to Drawing Bad Art

History

Automatic Drawing is basically drawing without thinking about it. It was popular with the early Surrealists of the 1920's and 30's as a way to express the subconscious mind. To "Free yourself for rational control."

Although it was made popular by the surrealists, it was first written about by Austin Osman Spare, a fascinating artist who was very ahead of his time on this approach.

Spare was a graphic artist influenced by art Art Nouveau and Symbolism as well as the Occult and Magic. Although he was technically trained as an artist, he believed there was something sacred about spontaneity in art. He first wrote about Automatic Drawing in 1913, at least a decade before the surrealists were talking about it, and he was practicing it as early as 1900. 

The surrealists used it to explore the subconscious mind, influenced by the theories of Sigmund Freud.

Technique

Technically, Automatic drawing is very simple. It's basically scribbling. It's more about a mindset of letting go of your rational or analyzing mind. Your conscious mind. Whatever you want to call it. That can be the more difficult part.

Some tips for Automatic Drawing

• Try doing it with music. I think music without words works best. Just try and draw along to the rythm of the music.
• Try drawing with your eyes closed at first
• Try drawing with your opposite hand
• Try holding the pen differently
• try flipping the page every few seconds
• Do multiple automatic drawings at once

Define now, later, or not at all

You can define the marks as part of the automatic drawing process. Draw automatically and put the marks away and define them later. Or you can always go abstract.

Define Now

For this one I defined as I went. 

I started with scribbles and and as I saw things I just drew them. Be careful not to think too much. If defining as you go you can start to think, "Is that a nose or a finger?" or, "is the light coming from this way or this way?"

When you notice those thoughts, retreat. Go back to scribbling, or move on to a different part of the drawing. 

Remember: A big part of this technique is keeping a free flow.

Here's an automatic drawing by Austin Spare. You can see how our different line qualities and sensibilities influence the result. 

Define Later

Automatic drawing is great for quick sketching. But you can also use the automatic drawing process as the starting point and then slowly build on top of it. 

For this painting, "Seduction and Chaos," I started with a quick energetic automatic drawing session using paint. Then I slowly built on top of the marks. A full underpainting, followed up glazes of color.

This method is more of a back and forth between conscious and subconscious. 

PSA for learning the fundamentals

If you define as you go or define it later, the fundamentals will be your friend. Austin Spare, as eccentric as he was, had an extensive background in art and design. He knew the fundamentals of drawing and design. So even when scribbling from that subconscious headspace, the fundamentals were available to him. 

In my opinion the real freedom is grasping the techniques and fundamentals on an intuitive subconscious level. Having them available even when you're just scribbling and not analyzing. For my art in particular, that's always been kind of the point of learning the fundamentals. 

But you can always go abstract.

Leaving it abstract

For this piece I left it more abstract. I was only interested in keeping the pen moving. Pure automatic drawing.

Andre Masson was a surrealist who left his automatic drawings much more on the abstract side.

Jackson Pollock's paintings are kind of an extension of Automatic Drawing.

I think automatic drawing is a great technique for a number of reasons.

It keeps you drawing and takes some of the stress about subject matter away.

It's a great tool to generate ideas.

Even if you don't buy into the occult magic stuff of Austin Spare or Freudian psychology, there is something to the idea of exploring the unconscious mind. We spend so much time in a conscious state, the top of the iceberg as I call it in the video, a state of "remember this, be on time, planning, money, etc." This technique allows to take some time and just go under the surface and explore our inner lives. 

Enjoy the Video!

Also Check out:

This video If you wanna get weird with the writings of Austin spare 

Automatic Drawing by Austin Spare

More work by Austin Spare

The book of Pleasure by Austin Spare 

The book of Automatic Drawings by Austin Spare

The Surrealist Manifesto by Andre Breton

In this video I do some Automatic Drawing and Painting. I talk about the history of automatic drawing, some tips, the subconscious, Surrealism, Freud and World War I, Austin Osman Spare,