generating and transforming your ideas

To create effectively, I have found it useful to separate the original impulse — what I call generating — from later manipulations that I call transforming. Here is how it works. First, I make an original sketch or doodle. Then I experiment with different ideas which transform the original — often copied or otherwise redrawn — into something novel or surprising. I believe that to separate the process of generating and transforming into two distinct steps has great value, and I have structured many of the exercises in this book that way. Simply put, generating is like sketching, while transforming is just as it sounds — you take the sketch to the next level, moving to a more defined and specific place.

Moving from generation to transformation often requires redrawing all or part of your original sketch. There are several practical ways to do this. You can simply copy the original by hand. You can tape the original to a sunlit window with a blank sheet on top of it, and then trace. You can photocopy the original, and then work on the copy. Finally, you can buy or construct a light box for tracing originals.

To get the most out of your work in this book I recommend the last of these options. A light box can become an indispensable tool. It is for many artists. Or it may just become a useful learning device, like training wheels for the fledgling bicyclist. Either way, the things you will discover by using it are well worth the effort it takes to build one.

A light box is simply a sheet of glass or thick plastic, supported by a frame, with a light underneath the glass. They are available in art stores, but making one yourself is much cheaper. Here is a homemade design that works perfectly well. Even I, a carpentry-challenged person, found this easy to put together.

1 Build a wood frame with room for a portable light.

2 Cover with Plexiglas. Add a sheet of tracing paper, taped around the edges, to make the work surface translucent.

Here are just a few of the ways in which a light box can be helpful.

RETRACING YOUR WORK TO MAKE ALTERNATE VERSIONS

COMBINING IMAGES FROM MORE THAN ONE DRAWING

FLOPPING AND MIRR OR IMAGING

REDESIGNING A DRAWING BY MOVING AND ADJUSTING THE ELEMENTS

EXPERIMENTING WHILE PRESERVING THE ORIGINAL

Generating and transforming — the point where drawing and imagination first come face-to-face — are at the heart of this book. This conjunction encourages the use of your own drawings as source material for new and more imaginative drawings. The sketches you make in your sketchbooks become something more than ends in themselves. They become springboards for new possibilities. You may not see this right away. Often this happens months later, when you browse through your sketchbook. The most insignificant little doodle suddenly becomes the template for a series of imaginative transformations. It happens.