Often students deep in the role of tortured artist will not turn in assignments. When asked what the problem was they say they have a terrible case of artist block and can't come up with good ideas or effective renderings. Of course thats bullshit. Not the inability to come up with ideas but, being unable to make effective renderings. Artmaking as a process is conceptual and technical. Concept deals with your intentions, the strength of your ideas you wish to communicate and I have found the more life experiences you have had the richer your conceptual landscape. You got more shit to talk about. The Technical aspect is the thing we can always do something about. If you can't translate wht is in your mind then excersize your muscles. And drawing is a muscle. Drawing or rendering from life is a skill you can improve.
I look at my mind as a compter with all this potential knowedge space. The more things you know the more things you have experienced the more things you can access to tell stories ( interesting or boring), negotiate problems, an yes draw pictures. So whenever a student says the can't think of nuthin' to draw I say draw from life, draw what i infont of you. if you can understand and master the language of the visual world you can create a language where your conceptual world meets the natural world or communal world. I took the last three years focusig on the female figure and styles in additiond to my other visual interests.
Once you findthe common visual lagauge you can play with it and evolve it. Playing with colorfields...
Or primary colors...
or complementary color relationships.
So draw something in front of you to improve your technique and turn natural ability to a powerful skill. Cause you gotta learn to mke correct sounds before you make sense. You got to understand what you see before you began making symbol marks.
