Dodson - Keys to Drawing with Imagination

Asked to describe the creative process, the painter Jasper Johns replied, It's simple: You just take something and do something to it, and then do something else to it. Keep doing this, and pretty soon you've got something.

Johns' comment succinctly summarizes everything I have learned about creativity in 60+ years of drawing. Having said that, we will use the rest of this book to explore what it means to take something and do something to it. In the process, I hope to deepen your experience of imagining and creating.

Keys to Drawing With Imagination takes a broad look at what it means to draw from your imagination. This might mean drawing the fantasy images in your head. It could also mean distorting, abstracting or simply doodling. Imaginative drawing may include making strange combinations, making connections between seemingly unrelated things or simply drawing from memory. It certainly involves making creative choices about the things you choose to draw.

We tend to think of imagination and creativity as qualities that people have. But in reality these qualities show up only in action as something you do. Simply put, imagining is what you do in your head; creating is what you do on paper. Are there rules for creating? Probably not, if a rule is something that you must do. But let's distinguish between rules and principles. I believe that there are useful principles that can help you create. Jasper Johns has already given us a first principle: Creativity occurs in action.

You don't need to be exceptionally clever to draw creatively. Certainly theories about creativity don't help much. You don't even need to have particularly good ideas. Often, ideas don't occur to you until after you've started drawing. So you should not wait around for great ideas. Just begin with simple ideas. Bigger things will emerge out of them. We can make this our second principle: Creativity begins with simple ideas.

The one indispensable quality essential for creating is engagement with the work. When you are engaged lost in the work you shift out of the future and into the present. This is where creativity thrives. Out of this comes our third principle: