Floodlights and Goalposts

An online commonplace book

Christoph Neimann’s Drawing Manifesto

  1. The only relevant artistic talent is the ability to deal with frustration. Most of what I produce is not good enough. It’s too complicated, too simple, or has been done before (by myself or others). This is and always will be frustrating. But I can only survive as an artist if I can constantly brush it off and start over again with childish enthusiasm. That is the most important superpower.
  2. Be reckless. A piece won’t be great unless you risk it being terrible. By that I mean sometimes a drawing starts out nicely, but then I’m so afraid of ruining it that I become hesitant — which inevitably ruins it. That’s why you should…
  3. …Deliberately ruin a drawing! This is liberating (and incredibly difficult) exercise. Make a drawing using your usual tools, then step on the gas and drive it into a wall at full speed. Make it pompously, unapologetically, irrevocably ugly and wrong.
  4. Be less precious about your art. The benefit of this exercise: you remember that if you don’t like it, you can always do another one.
  5. Draw like nobody’s watching. Nobody sees what you’re doing in your studio. You can make 97 bad drawings, and three great ones. As long as you only show the three good ones, people will believe you’re a great artist.
  6. Trust the drawing to have its own life. I start with an idea from my head. By default this is derivative and predictable. When I start putting it on paper, it starts having its own agenda. It is only when I manage to let go of my original intentions, that something interesting begins to happen.
  7. Accept that only a fraction of your work is “great”. (Whatever “great” means)!
  8. Walk away, The come back. Wait a few days before deciding whether a piece is “great” or not. Drawing is hard and requires all your attention. Thinking about the merits of a piece is a waste of energy. You’ll be a much better judge tomorrow.
  9. Don’t count the hours. Art is not efficient. Sometimes a good piece is born in minutes, but even then it’s usually surrounded by days of seemingly fruitless poking. Accept this and you’ll be much happier.
  10. Sitting at my desk is always right. I’ve spent a lot of time thinking how to make good work. There are millions of tips and tricks and manifestos out there. But at the end there’s only one single truth for me: sit down and start drawing.

Really what Christoph is saying here is, loosen up! Get in front of your drawing board daily and draw!

h/t Kottke.org – https://kottke.org/23/11/10-rules-for-drawing-from-christoph-niemann

, , , , ,

Leave a comment

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.