Studio Log #1 (working title)
Added 2025-04-28 08:46:32 +0000 UTCA feeling and an experience are not the same; your drawing’s progress and your emotional response to it expose this split. Feelings, while rich and immediate, often veil clear judgment, and when they dominate, they can blur your ability to perceive your actual work. On the other hand, experience—the slow accumulation of decisions, revisions, and marks left behind—endures beyond fleeting moods, offering a more stable reflection of your efforts. As an artist, you must learn to stand inside both at once: to feel fully while seeing coldly. This duality is not a flaw, but a necessary condition of artistic life.
Application: When working, pause occasionally to describe your drawing as if you were an outside observer. Name what is actually there—not how you feel about it.
Comments
Thanks for this Stephen, I have been recently wondering about the benefits of journaling to explore composition aesthetic, sensory response, etc. Thanks for the encouragement with these ideas.
John
2025-04-29 16:14:05 +0000 UTCAt a frustrating point with a drawing (been working on it for a week). I’ll follow your example and describe it out loud, also acknowledging what I’m learning. Your thoughts and reflections are resonating with me 🙏
Marion
2025-04-28 09:16:13 +0000 UTC
