Jeff Watts said something I’d never heard said before, and it’s given me a new perspective on my efforts to grow into a solid illustrator. In an episode of the Draftsmen Podcast, he said:
“I personally would like to paint it the way I would like to see it, not the way I’m seeing it. I will respect what I’m seeing. I’ll intellectually banter with it a little bit and have some dialogue with it, but I don’t necessarily have to be literal with it. So that’s where I think the felt sense comes in. That’s where you would start to go, ‘ok, well, what feels right to me?'”
On the writing side, the common advice is to write the book you want to read, but I’ve never heard it applied to visual arts like this. I’ve always just tried to draw something as I saw it, without much thought other than trying to get it right.
That’s not to say there isn’t value in drawing accurately, in learning the technical skills, the fundamentals. But, looking at something and thinking, “what feels right to me?”, is a different ballgame, and it’s one I look forward to playing.
Justin Williams 