DEVELOPMENT OF CREATIVE THOUGHT AND STRUCTURE IN ILLUSTRATION AND GRAPHIC ART

Developing Ideational Fluency

Artists are defined as those skilled enough to create what is considered a work of art. Art in turn can be a great many things, from a photograph to a sculpture and beyond. However, originality is what tells artists apart from simply talented drawers or amateur photographers for instance.

When looking at certain famous works of art, such as Picasso’s line art, it is easy to say: “Anyone could have drawn that camel with just one stroke of the pencil”. However, the artist is the one who thinks, but also does. He or she finds inspiration in the unlikeliest of places, and manages to make of it something extraordinary.    

This however is merely the result of Ideational Fluency. Art can be described as a language that, like any other, has to be learnt in order to be understood. Ideational fluency is the path to success in art; one allows ideas to be unleashed and allow all kinds of possibilities to surface instead of discarding options just because they may seem too basic or perhaps even idiotic.

Making lists is the simplest, most common way to create a train of thought, or train of ideas. As one makes a list, images and ideas come to mind that we hadn’t contemplated before. Nevertheless, being able to translate them into images and immediately generating visual ideas is what ideational fluency is all about. 

Jill Calder, an illustrator since 1993, always carries a sketchbook to record her thoughts whenever, wherever. She combines words and images to formulate her thoughts, which in the long run, may or may not be part of a final piece of work. 

Anything and everything should be recorded, however exceptional or banal they may be. In the end, ideas pop into our heads all the time, but we usually don’t take the time to put them on paper…for all we know, those ideas could have been the source of something amazing.

Managing a Creative Environment

Any type of work is always paired with a particular environment or surrounding. At his desk, the accountant always keeps his calculator and equipment close, the plumber carries his tools in a box, and artists surround themselves with just about everything. If anything can be a source of inspiration for an artist, then anything can be used to bring that idea to life, to attribute image to thought.

My own personal workspace during a project...
Tidying up is always useless in the end!

An artist’s environment is a reflection of that person: who they are, what they like, collect, hoard over time. It enables him or her to work without having to interrupt their creative flow because of a lack of materials for instance.

Generally, it is hard to find an artist whose working environment is perfectly neat and tidy. Most tend to find clarity and order in what usually appears to be a complete and utter chaos of a studio. Nevertheless, the clutter is filled with things that define us, they are there because we want them to be. At some point, that clutter will be a part of the touch that makes the work our own unique creation.

This photo is of Irish-born British figurative painter Francis Bacon's studio, filled with over 7,500 items. He said: "It's much easier for me to paint in a place like this which is a mess"