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Old 10-18-2007, 12:20 PM
 
4 posts, read 8,504 times
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While attending art college my mentor/instructor taught me a method how to obtain an artistic idea in a less frustrating and time consuming manner. The method I am about to explain is the very same I learned from my mentor. I found this same method a few years later while reading a book on the creative process and I would like to share it with my fellow artists.
It was the well-known german physicist, Hermann Ludwig Helmholtz, who described this creative process into three stages. First is preparation; constantly thinking about the problem and studying relevant material. Second, is incubation: a complete forgetting about the idea. And third, is illumination -- capturing the butterfly -- the idea itself.

The first step is a conscious effort and the last two take place in the subconscious mind. After that comes imagination, hard work, and perserverance not to mention creating order out of chaos. I hope this method will prove helpful because it is a common technique involved in most all creative work.

I have been doing book cover illustrations for a special genre of books published in London. Moonduck
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Old 10-18-2007, 02:18 PM
 
2,957 posts, read 7,366,476 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by moonduck View Post
First is preparation; constantly thinking about the problem and studying relevant material. Second, is incubation: a complete forgetting about the idea. And third, is illumination -- capturing the butterfly -- the idea itself.

The first step is a conscious effort and the last two take place in the subconscious mind. After that comes imagination, hard work, and perserverance not to mention creating order out of chaos. I hope this method will prove helpful because it is a common technique involved in most all creative work.
This sounds intriguing. As someone who never quite gets my artwork from my head to the medium in the way that I want - your method sounds like it may help. But I don't see any practical explanation here.
How do you actually implement the 3 steps?
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Old 11-01-2007, 12:54 PM
 
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Default Capturing the butterfly

l. Think about it, do your research, look at all relevant material.

2. Forget it -- totally -- set a time limit for yourself if you need one, then set a time when you are going to sit down and do it (helps if you are a busy person.)

3. It happens, believe it or not. A lot of the kinks are worked out.

4. Work it out. It's out there, you just have to capture it in your mind's net. I works. I have done it for so long it has become second nature to me. Hope it works for you.

Incidentally, we are all butterflies in the making--- >i<
Moonduck
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