Making a Random Start

One way to start a drawing, painting, or model for an artwork is to just start putting dots or lines on a piece of paper or canvas, or to just start moving around and manipulating three dimensional building materials. Eventually, something might start to suggest itself out of the built up lines, or you might get some idea of what to draw or paint or make.

This method of starting can seem risky because you don’t know what is going to show up. Also, usually in the creative process, you are resolving tension between what you want and the state of the work before you. And starting in without knowing what you are going to draw runs a little counter to that. However, it’s possible that your subconscious mind would start to work on what to do as you get your hands moving.

The things that show up with this method of starting a drawing are a little like the eidetic imagery we sometimes see as we are drifting off to sleep or if we just close our eyes for a while.

I sometimes use this method working in a sketchbook when there is no view to draw, or when starting a piece and I want to make something to draw. Simple things like faces are the first things to appear in the drawings, but sometimes if I stay with it further, a more complex scene can emerge.

This is an example of a watercolor I did starting with random ball-point pen marks: