Drawesome

[amberdreams]

This month's drawesome challenge is creating art without intent. You're meant to stop thinking and see what happens - which is both hard and easy!

I've got two offerings, though the second did have a purpose so is kind of a cheat.

I did this one first, starting it with a Ohuhu alcohol marker but switching to fountain pen after a few minutes because the way the marker ink was spreading out from the lines was annoying me and defeating the whole not thinking thing.




Then a few days later I was trying to get some sculpture trail designs done, and had an idea about doing a doodle design. So I picked up a Pentel brush pen and doodled this one.
I think I can count it towards this challenge because though the end result has a purpose, the process of just putting brush to paper and seeing what happened was the same.


I think the original automatic drawing idea isn't supposed to end up with anything recognisable but my hand to brain to hand is programmed to make shapes into things so...shrugs.

Comments

[mekare]

>>I think the original automatic drawing idea isn't supposed to end up with anything recognisable but my hand to brain to hand is programmed to make shapes into things so...shrugs.

I don't think that is a hard and fast rule.

I love both of these!

[amberdreams]

Hee! Thank you!

[mific]

I like them both a lot, and the second one is cute! Also the main article goss linked to has three examples where there are recognisable figures or objects in the details. I guess like with anything there's a spectrum of how abstract it can be, and how controlled, or not.

[amberdreams]

Yeah, brains are different, after all. Nobody's going to come up with the same things... Cheers!

[goss]

Awesome results! \o/

Yes, just agreeing with mific and mekare. From my understanding, Automatic drawing was a strategy that some Surrealists used as a springboard for their final result. So it would start off intuitively, and then they would take control and direct the visuals to create a unique-looking piece.

And I totally get you about the brain needing to make sense of the shapes! I had to struggle continuously to redirect my mind's eye from wanting to creating realistic looking things out of every line or shape I started.

[amberdreams]

yep, I think the first one was probably more in keeping with those surrealists, the second more my brain doing its thing, but both were fun. It's interesting to see how the different mediums affect what you draw - I might try it with pencil next time.

[goss]

Yeah, I think the medium definitely plays a part in the outcome. In using pencil, I found shading gradients to be soothing and satisfying, so I'm curious to see what I'll want to focus on using a pen or marker instead, for my second try at the challenge. :)

[goss]

ETA: Hey, don't forget to post these at drawesome - It's great seeing the wide variety of mediums being used for this challenge, and different styles too. :)

[amberdreams]

Oh yes, I was forgetting to post in both places 😂

[senmut]

I like this.

[amberdreams]

Thank you!

[minoanmiss]

I love these agglutinative dream architectures!

[amberdreams]

Agglutinative is a lovely word too! Thank you!

[tally]

Love these! So lively!

[amberdreams]

Thank you!

[midnightsilvers.livejournal.com]

These are wonderful. The first one in red gives me a sense of stairs and climbing up into a world that becomes more and more fantastical with every step 😄
And the second one I find an absolute delight. Everywhere my eye travels I find another creature peeking back at me unexpectedly from some charming tucked away spot. I love that what looks at first to be a beautiful random pattern is so full of happy little creatures 😄 (except for the fish 😂 I’m not sure they are having such a happy day but 🤷🏻‍♂️😂) — absolutely love it! 😄

[amberdreams.livejournal.com]

Fish never look happy, do they though... 😂
If you're on Dreamwidth you might like to join Drawesome — it's a very small art community but all the folks are really nice, and you might enjoy the monthly challenges.

[midnightsilvers.livejournal.com]

I’m not on Dreamwidth unfortunately and I can only mentally process a couple of social media platforms at a time but it’s awesome that there are great art communities out there 👍🏻😄 this looks like a really fun challenge. I’m glad you are enjoying it 😄

[amberdreams.livejournal.com]

I hear you. I wish people would return here but sadly we are scattered all over now. I can't be doing with Tumblr, Twitter is a dreadful hate-filled rage pit and DW is a clunkier version of LJ. The main advantage of DW is that if you post on there it automatically cross posts to LJ, so the effort is minimal. And if you post to LJ you can then import your whole journal to DW automatically.

[midnightsilvers.livejournal.com]

Oh that’s tempting about the cross posting but I’d still have another site to check for comments and to follow new friends. Still very good to know tho. I’ll definitely keep it in mind👍🏻. And yep it’s pretty quiet over here. I had this account about 6 yrs but only started using it recently because Tumblr just gets worse and worse. Twitter I canned entirely because you are very right. but at least the small community over here still doing challenges etc are really friendly. I’m sure DW is the same, it’s just the thought of chasing over loads of different platforms for a few notes each makes me tired 🤷🏻♂️😂 I’ll just stick to the few treasured interactions I get 😄

[amberdreams.livejournal.com]

That's actually the main reason I like LJ (and DW) best — not only do they have the same format in terms of conversational comments but both have email alerts — I love that. I'm no good with platforms that require me to be proactive and remember to go look. I need that push. 😂

[midnightsilvers.livejournal.com]

I’m with ya there 😂👍🏻

[kalliel]

What a neat experiment! "Not thinking" is so hard, even though half the time I'm just like "no brain no thoughts" anyway. There's a difference between not thinking and thinking badly LOLOLOL. I love the whimsy of both of these pieces--utterly intriguing to look at.

[fireheart13.livejournal.com]

those are both so cool!!!

[beelikej.livejournal.com]

I like these, especially the second one, that feels like an association game (also, because of the skull, because I love skulls:) What a cool challenge!