The next exercise was focused on building ideas in a different way. I had to pick from a list of words, and instead of writing all the ideas I had in a spider diagram, I had to draw the things that came to mind. The exercise wasn’t about accuracy or whether the drawings look good or not, but creating a visual shorthand of ideas. I had to use different materials, and add swatches of colour and texture. I also had to be aware of the steps I was taking mentally to arrive at the drawings I was creating.
At the end of the exercise, it says ‘Note how your drawing evolves when repeating this exercise. Can you see a flavour in the way that you are beginning to document through these little drawings?‘. Because of this, I knew immediately I wanted to repeat this exercise at least once, to see how my process changes and perhaps improves.
When beginning this exercise, I was very hopeful. I had a lot of ideas immediately for many of the words listed. I decided to pick ‘Exotic’ as my word, as it brought up a lot of colour and diversity in my mind. I also decided, as it says to not focus on accuracy or prettiness, to use drawing pens rather than pencil, as it forces me to just draw and not constantly edit how things look. I got a set of intense coloured pencils to add colour, and started drawing.
I almost immediately hit a roadblock. Not focusing on whether things look ‘good’ meant I was struggling to look at my own work without being critical and disappointed. I regretted starting out using pens, and felt maybe it was too harsh for ‘visual shorthand’. I continued drawing, and then hit another block.
As I mentioned in my previous log about the spider diagram exercise, I am not a visual thinker. I think entirely in words, and struggle to picture things in my mind. After drawing a few things that seemed ‘easy’ to translate, I found myself just wanting to write. I got frustrated with the exercise, wondering what I was achieving by straining to put my words into purely images. I took a break from the exercise, hoping I could come back to it with a fresh mind and more ideas.
I considered writing the words and illustrating them, but felt it missed the point. I also considered attempting it digitally, as I have more control and options for design, but again felt it missed the point of quickly sketching out ideas. I also considered beginning with a spider diagram, and then working from there, illustrating the words I had written, thinking maybe the process of writing the words would help me ‘see’ what I could be drawing better.
I decided to just try again, this time using pencil, and focusing on just getting the ideas down without adding colour or texture. I picked a different word for this, as I wanted fresh ideas. This time I picked ‘Travel’.
I found it so much easier this time. I’m not sure why, whether using pencil and focusing on drawing rather than colour/texture simplified the task, or if my approach had changed making idea generation quicker. I tried to look at it like a spider diagram, drawing anything I could think of that related to the previous thing I drew. Then when I couldn’t think of anything else, I looked at the bigger picture again to find more ideas. This process was still very words-based for me, though. I consciously named what I was drawing/looking at and thought of the words that connected to it, and tried to translate it into pictures.
After drawing most of what I could think of, I did add some colour swatches. Red and blue to represent the London Underground, greens near the map, and various shades of brown/cream/yellow that I felt connected to the general concept of ‘travel’.
It was helpful drawing everything out, and it helped me unlock ideas I perhaps wouldn’t have otherwise. I like the idea of ‘deconstructing a scene’ as discussed in this exercise, and will use that in future when generating ideas. However, I think a combination of words and images is necessary, and I found it difficult focusing on just imagery. I may repeat this exercise in future, to see how my creative process has evolved.
Learning Log 