‘It’s not about having a goal but instead about thinking, Where does that object take me? (…) We have these stock images of life in our head, and only when you start looking at real life and the imperfections do things start to become fun.’ — Christoph Niemann
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Step 1. Take a random picture of your everyday commute.
Step 2. First, observe the given information in the picture carefully, acknowledging what’s in there. Next, think about what else this object or place could be or resemble. Be imaginative!
Step 3. Now sketch these new imagined elements on the picture.
Think about associating shapes and colours to add to the visual narrative. Draw anything you like! This is like the classic drawing of animals on cloud shapes.
Step 4. Try several sketches and imagine different scenarios.
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I once attended an improv class in London - and it turned out to be a great life lesson. I learned how challenging building a creative narrative in real-time is, and I learned about the concept I’d like to talk about in this post: ‘Yes, and’.
‘Yes, and…’ can be a very powerful and nuanced type of collective, storytelling thinking that invites cooperation, brainstorming, and expansion of ideas. It comes from the classic improv comedy practice that consists of accepting what the first improviser has stated (’yes’) and then expanding on to that statement (’and…’), even if this second improviser doesn’t agree with the first one.
This concept - philosophy almost - of acceptance and expansion can be applied to many areas of our lives, especially to creative processes. ‘Yes, and’ would be the opposite of ‘no, but’.
Think about how many times in creative discussions or practising your own craft you’ve had an immediate negative or confrontational response instead of a growing, expansive one. Picture yourself angry crumpling your drawing because it’s not up to your standards. Or trying to impose your design ideas on your colleagues without even considering theirs.
Practising improvisation is practising creativity.
The drawing exercise above helps us expand our creative boundaries by practising this concept of ‘Yes, and’. It teaches us the acceptance of the information we are given or faced with, and then it forces us to be imaginative when responding to the existing context with information that continues its visual narrative.
In doing this consistently (and especially during your boring commute) you’ll be practicing creativity in a playful way. You could also use this prompt to overcome any creative block and to give yourself the space to generate new ideas.
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Christoph Niemann knows this well and practises it consciously. Some years ago he created Abstract Sunday, his personal way (outside of work and commissions) of playing and getting ahead with a pool of new ideas. This is the way he describes it:
‘When I work on my Sunday Sketches, it’s never about a sudden inspired spark. I pick a random object, and then I just stare at it. I look at it from different angles, play with the light (usually just by moving my desk lamp). And I try to open my mind as wide as possible, to see if a peculiar angle reminds me of a familar shape.
More often than not this yields… nothing.
And when it does, I doubt it’s because I have a special gift at making these visual connections. It’s because sometimes I have the stamina to keep on staring, when a saner person would do the reasonable thing and get on with their life instead.’
Conceptually, this is a bit like the ‘Yes, and’ philosophy. Niemann is accepting a given object from the real 3D world (‘yes’) and transforming its meaning by seeing it from different perspectives on the imaginary 2D paper realm (‘and’). His sketches are surprising and witty. He plays with paradoxes and narratives to expand his way of seeing in a more creative way.
Taking a given concept and abstracting its meaning by making visual associations (of shape, colour, etc) is another way of practicing ‘Yes, and’ in visual arts.
One of my favourite posters is ‘Transport for London keeps London going’ designed by Man Ray in 1938. Ray takes the London Underground logo out of its usual context accepting its shape and design (’yes’) and then he places it in a different context, the space, by association (’and’), giving it a very powerful meaning: Transport for London keeps London going as planets do in the Solar System.
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Happy sketching!
Ana
Have you been drawing recently? It would be great to hear about it! Leave a comment and share your thoughts :)