Focus of Study: Qi(Chi) and Creativity

Chi and Creativity  Vital Energy and Your Inner Artist

Elise Dirlam Ching and Kaleo Ching (Blue Snake Books, 2007)

[from the back cover]

The capacity to create is part of being human - whether that means making art, writing, teaching, cooking for friends, gardening, giving a massage, nurturing relationships, or following a spiritual path.  Nourishing and maximizing your vital energy, or Chi, is an essential part of fulfilling your human potential.  In Chi and Creativity, authors Elise Dirlam Ching and Kaleo Ching present a wide range of strategies to harness the power of Chi and cultivate the inner artist.  They offer an integrative process that includes exercises in Chi awareness, Chi Kung, art, journaling, guided imagery, and meditation, to generate inspiration, awe, and energy for living a creative life.

A little knife music....

A facet of trusting the creative process is recapturing a sense of wonder, play, and discovery.

Using a pad of Strathmore Wet Media multipurpose paper I allowed myself the freedom and intention to play with color and the dynamic tactile variations of marks and strokes made with a palatte knife.

This simple, direct, kinetic exercise felt like a bold, uninhibited, spontaneous, dynamic dialog between the viscosity of the paint, the loading (and double loading) of the knife, and the movement and pressure of the stroke to paper.  Within the session I began to explore the relationship of my breathing, posture, and intention to the transfer of paint into kinetic marks onto a variably thirsty paper.  The resulting marks are fluid, dynamic and visually interesting.

This intuitive sketching process of exploring color and mark making feels wonderful (ask any 5 year old), and yields surprising insights both visually and into the nature of the materials themselves. This exercise points the way towards a process for building  experiential breathing/muscle/intention memories to inform future exploration and compositional applications.  Endless possibilities for exploring the infinite variability of dynamic marks in paint... It's like practicing my handwriting, but with absolutely no right or wrong, good or bad....just Is.   :)))

Focus of study: Trust the Process

Trust The Process:  An Artist's Guide To Letting Go

Shawn McNiff (Shambhala, 1998)

[from the back cover]

Whether in painting, poetry, performance, music, dance, or life, there is an intelligence working in every situation. This force is the primary carrier of creation.

If we trust it and follow its natural movement, it will astound us with its ability to find a way through problems—and even make creative use of our mistakes and failures.

There is a magic to this process that cannot be controlled by the ego. Somehow it always finds the way to the place where you need to be, and a destination you never could have known in advance.

When everything seems as if it is hopeless and going nowhere . . . trust the process.

Getting to the Heart of the Matter

In observing the ebb and flow of engagement with this blog, and it's "Urban SketchHunter" theme, I've noticed a pattern and insight into why a steady momentum of engagement with the blogging process has ebbed as much, or more, than it has flowed.   This blog is a medium for self expression and exploration of creative ideas, efforts, results, and process. The Urban SketchHunter theme focused my return to the creative studio, and getting out and about, learning and doing.   Sketching has its own process and flow, and the material forms that emerge, whether considered preparatory or finished in their own regard, have intrinsic and extrinsic qualities and aesthetics, and an important place within a creative practice.   I know deep within my bones and emotional system, that when I'm sketching, time can stand still, perception sharpens, and energy flows in deep engagement and joy, and a spiritual and material experience emerges, regardless of what materially takes form.  Creativity.  The point of the moment, though, is the practice of sketching, regardless of the subject matter, urban or otherwise, is but one facet of the creative process that I'm interested in pursuing and practicing. 

The blog entries to date are an archive of this process and provide evidence that sketching from life is a vital practice.  A practice that will continue to thrive and deepen within a larger creative context.  It's  this larger creative context that I'm fundamentally interested in, and will be exploring as the central blog journal theme.  The blog will serve as a medium for distilling and expression of my personal practice of getting to the heart of the matter.  The form this will take, at the moment, is pure potential, but it will emerge and evolve over time....as the journey continues to unfold...  :)))

quick glance

Explored the dark masses in the hair and shadows to frame the face and define its shape.  Abandoned any use of outlines throughout, relying rather on value contrasts, edges, and directional lines to define the flow of hair, shape of the head and face, and shawl...

This sketching approach of defining masses with value and directional lines, rather than trying to draw a person, actually took less time and energy, and felt much more connected, spontaneous, and flowed more naturally and meditatively than previous efforts.

composition study

Quick value and composition study (20 min)....just long enough to sneak sips of Moonstone Asian Pear Sake from the still life.... :)))

Value and composition study | Sushi and Manga at Silhoette

Value study  seeking large abstract value masses and interesting shapes.

Silhouette sushi bar with big screen Manga animation movies playing nonstop.... :)))

Sketchbook notes

Quick gestural sketch (under 5 min) looking for value masses and thinking in terms of foreground (glass and backpack), middle ground (seated figures) and background (suggested room and people with pictures and windows about 30' away).   It is much more interesting, fun, and fluid to sketch this way, as opposed to becoming distracted by details and drawing objects....in defining the value masses and simplifying the details the "identity" and nature of the subject and objects emerge spontaneously.....

Sketchbook notes

Sketchbook notes:   composition basics:

1. Crop for drama
2. Look for value masses
3. Design divisions with rhythm
4. Keep shapes interesting
5. Avoid attracting attention to the edges
6  Create depth with overlap
7. Watch the corners
8. Create an entrance
9. Organize your masses
10.  Organize eye movement with gradations
11. Use straight lines  to balance and "seat" curves
12. Think foreground, middle ground, and background

Quick thumbnail value sketch (10 min or less) looking for value masses, interesting shapes, and balance...

composition studies | evening interiors

Silhouette Sushi Restaurant | Congress Ave
copyright 2009 b. scott shaevel | studio712; This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.

Zen Japanese Fast Food restaurant | SoCo
copyright 2009 b. scott shaevel | studio712; This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.

Focus of study: Composition

In honor of the winter months the studio process will include a foundational shift from "sketch hunting" to "composition hunting". The end objective in mind is to focus less on the "subject matter" and look behind it to the arrangement of shapes on the picture plane and the creation of visual flow within a sketch or painting. A shift from the effort to create an engaging and recognizable sketch through object-driven drawing....drawing a person, a building, a tree, a plant, a bicycle, "Jo's coffee Shop", ...etc...to exploring the range and visual dynamics of the picture plane, regardless of the subject matter at hand.

The primary instructional resource is Ian Roberts' text: Mastering Composition: Techniques and Principles to Dramatically Improve Your Painting.


The primary exercise is the "composition a day"...it's not intended to be a regimented focus on creating at least one composition a day....but rather the intention that whenever engaged in the creative "hunt" that the focus embodies "a sketch journal adventure exploring and falling in love with the world one composition @ a time".

Jo's | hot coffee:good food:cold beer....

copyright 2009 b. scott shaevel | studio712; This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.

Enjoying a Bodhi bowl @ Zen on Congress Ave gazing at Jo's hot coffee:good food:cold beer across the street on the corner of Congress and James.....

25th Annual Sketch Crawl - Stevie Ray Vaughan Memorial

copyright 2009 b. scott shaevel | studio712; This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.

Pathway around Town Lake @ the Stevie Ray Vaughan memorial. Sketch was completed from field notes in Corel Painter with Wacom tablet.

Tantramount I

copyright 2009 b. scott shaevel | studio712; This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.

Quick abstract color study while calibrating a Wacom Intuos drawing tablet with an iMac and Corel Painter.

Casa De Luz | Bowl of sunshine....

Casa de Luz | lunch here is food for the soul| graphite| Pen | 11.19.09
copyright 2009 b. scott shaevel | studio712; This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.

Each spoonful of each bowl of soup @ Casa De Luz is like liquid sunshine....its that good, and that pure of a delight....

lunchtime stroll

Construction walkway, downtown Austin | pen and graphite | 11.18.09
copyright 2009 b. scott shaevel | studio712; This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.

Office View | Municipal Bldg, 8th St.

Municipal Bldng | graphite value study| 11.16.09
copyright 2009 b. scott shaevel | studio712; This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.

Bit too windy to sit outside and sketch today during lunch...so pb&j and pencils looking out of my North facing office window. My view is from a building on Colorado and 7th st. The view is looking to the NE corner of Colorado and 8th st. The shadowed doorways across the street belong to the Amsterdam Cafe'. The sunlit building is the Municipal Building.

People @ Casa De Luz

Pen and ink, graphite, watercolor | Casa De Luz | 11.14.09
copyright 2009 b. scott shaevel | studio712; This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.

New Sketchbook and pens :))) !

conscious looking... we are how we see | pen and ink, watercolor, graphite| 11.13.09
copyright 2009 b. scott shaevel | studio712; This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.