Experimentation

Observational sketches

After studying my childhood drawings I wanted to work on freeing up my drawing style from the technical restriction I have developed over the years. I want to replicate the crude, spontaneous and expressive nature of the children's sketches.

To help loosen my technique I will experiment with a variety of methods:

• Drawing just the outlines
• Drawing with my eyes closed and from memory
• Not removing my pen from the page
• Using my left (weaker) hand
• Not looking at the page

I found that drawing the outline and using my left hand were the most effective at replicating children's style. This is because my left hand is weaker and I have not developed my artistic skills with that hand, so it has the immaturity of the child's style. By drawing just outlines and not taking the pen off the page restricts my sketch by stopping me from shading and creating tone. These are elements which are lacking in children's work.

Consequences

After experimenting with freeing up my drawing style, I wanted to practice getting into the headspace that I child is in when they draw. I remember playing consequences as a child and I thought it would be an important game to play again because it involves clearing your mind and tune into your automatic thoughts and images. This process comes readily to children because they aren't preoccupied with thoughts and have the ability to really live in the present. By playing this game it can help me approach my designs and drawings the way a child might. When I create my set I want to use this approach.

Rules:

• Minimum 2 players
• Start by drawing the first image of a head that springs to mind, fold it over at the neck and then pass it on to the next person.
• Then draw the first torso that you imagine in the middle of the paper, then fold it over and pass it on.
• Finally draw the feet. Once completed unfold your paper and see the consequences of the game.



This game involves more than one person so I will experiment with playing the game with people of different ages, this will help me see how imagination changes over time. Some examples of the results:

After doing a practice game with each participant we played it properly, this gave them time to get into the right head space for spontaneous and silly creativity. Surprisingly the results were very similar in terms of how imaginative they were,  at all different ages. It seems that imagination is not lost with age but a skill that varies from person to person. The results were humorous, abstract and playful. This experiment has shown that anyone can access their inner child when the pressure of judgement is taken off of them.