Well, I thought that I’d talk briefly about something to remember when you’re having uninspired days and churning out the sort of low-quality art that you’d have considered “mediocre” even five years ago. It happens to all of us, for one reason or another, every now and then.
Case in point, before preparing this article in late May, I made a quick original semi-digital painting. Well, I say “original”, but I’ve made very similar paintings to it before. I was re-using ideas. It was also inspired by nostalgia for sci-fi genre fan-made “Doom II” (1994) mods, themselves inspired by ancient Central American buildings – like “Ancient Aliens” and “Temple Of The Lizard Men V“. The first-person perspective also meant that I didn’t have to draw people either. Win!
The gloomy lighting, as well as being inspired by everything from Caravaggio to “Blade Runner” (1982) and allowing me to use contrast to make the limited palette of colours look bolder, also meant that I only actually had to add detail to about half of the sketchbook page too 🙂 This painting was one I made when I was more interested in other stuff, and treated original art as an afterthought. I was also feeling feeling a bit unenthusiastic too. Not my best painting. Here’s a full-sized preview:
(Click for larger image) This digitally-edited painting will hopefully be posted here next November.
Anyway, the thing that helped was watching some “Big Nibbles” cookery videos, the ones where the presenter tries to re-create mediocre food from around the world – like school dinners or prison food from different countries. And these videos were fascinating because they showed a real person making soulless mass-produced institutional food, using good ingredients. And there was something weirdly reassuring about this.
And it made me think about art because, even when you’re having a bad day and making terrible or mediocre art, you’re still actually making something. It’s a piece of real human creativity, something you made. Even if the – normally relaxing – process of making art felt like a chore, you still sat down and made something. Even if it was rushed or basic, it was something that you made. You didn’t just get an A.I. to do it for you. You didn’t rely on a soulless machine, you actually put the effort into making something – even if it wasn’t very good.
Not only that, even on unenthusiastic, rushed and/or uninspired days, parts of your own unique imagination and sensibilities will still shine through. It might be something subtle, like how you handle colours or lighting. It might even just be what you choose to draw or paint. Whatever it is, some small part of your own uniqueness will still show up in your uninspired artwork. Not to mention that, as hinted by my description earlier, you’ll also eventually end up working out clever techniques to make your uninspired art look less bad (and there’s something satisfying about using these).
I don’t know if I’m describing this well, this entire article was literally just inspired by an emotion I felt after watching those cookery videos and looking at the low-quality painting I’d made earlier. It was a warm, reassuring feeling. Yes, the painting wasn’t perfect, but it was something I’d actually made. And I’m not sure if I’ve really gotten this feeling across here, but it’s literally the perfect feeling to experience after you’ve made a low-quality piece of uninspired art 🙂
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Anyway, I hope that this was interesting 🙂
