How is it that some artists capture so much meaning and emotion in a few simple, yet expressive, marks? I often develop a kind of rigidity as I become competent with a creative skill, and I wish I could be as loose and free as those artists.
Whenever I sit down to do art with my kids (a wonderful experience that doesn’t happen nearly enough), I marvel at how loose they are. They can dive right into a project without agonising over layout, without measuring, sketching, or erasing. Their lines are bold and expressive, and they seem to capture their intention effortlessly.
In contrast, I usually begin with a more structured approach. I think about the finished product, the format and dimensions. I measure up. I sketch and then painstakingly lay down lines. Paradoxically, I spend a lot of time and care making my work seem more spontaneous and free.
For example, my Creators Club project, “The Band,” was an exercise in letting go. For the final iteration, I erased my careful lines in favour of looser, more spontaneous, more textured ones.
This experience got me thinking.
Is “looseness” in creativity related to experience? It seems we start off loose as kids making art, then as we become self-aware, we get tighter and more controlled. Then eventually, we rediscover that looseness of expression and form that gives our work liveliness:
This immediately brings to mind the four stages of competence, a learning model that describes the process of learning a skill. The learner moves from unconsciousness incompetence, to conscious incompetence, conscious competence, then unconscious competence. As an artist becomes more experienced, they become more competent. But also, with experience comes a return to the unconscious, the “beginner’s mind”:
So, as our creative competence grows, we gain the ability to access the freedom from self-consciousness that we felt when we first started. This can lead to a more relaxed approach and the potential for greater expressiveness.
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