Visually Brainstorming with Shapes

This is the first in a series of blog articles that I plan to write on visual brainstorming. As artists, there comes a time (many times actually) where you stare at a blank canvas in your sketchbook (or digital canvas) and wonder what to draw.

For me, tonight was that night. I must have stared at the screen for a good 20 minutes. The urge to draw was there – but I wanted to draw something different – not just rely on muscle memory.

So I opened up Photoshop and created a random shape using the Lasso tool. After coming up with a closed form of some variety, I filled its color in via Option-Backspace (on the Mac) or Alt-Backspace (on the PC).

Next, I rotated the canvas around in an attempt to “find the form”. In essence, I’m taking a shape that’s abstract and mentally trying to map something onto it.

I tried to graft my drawing onto the form as closely as possible, allowing for the flexibility to add to the sketch as needed. There are no wrong answers at this stage – it’s merely an exploratory exercise.

So if you’re feeling stuck drawing the same old thing, try this trick. Let me know if you found this trick useful. How do you visually brainstorm ideas for upcoming projects? Share your ideas in the comments below.

-Krishna

Krishna September 25, 2012 art instruction, mentor experiment