“The greatest obstacle to discovering good art within you is not ignorance – it is the illusion of knowledge.”
Repetition, as a design principle, is a good principle to understand and use. In good conditions, it plays well with Rhythm and Harmony, and when done right, is itself a maker of exquisite patterns.
However, there are risks to using repetition that can be very costly to the value of your art. Too much Wrong Repetition can have a negative impact on your art and your ability to make well connected art. Our brains are pleasure / pain machines. We look for things that give our brains pleasure and avoid the things that cause pain. This is where our first post on Mindfulness comes into play. If the pain of not doing something we should do is not great enough for us to change our behavior, our pleasure brain takes over and lives with the less than best results. Equally as strong, if the pleasure of doing something repetitively, even though it’s not right, outweighs the pain of slowing down and changing the way we look at things, and doing it the right way, it’s very hard to break out of these repetitive mark making moves.
Please, for all things right and good in this world, don’t be a lazy painter. I’ve fallen into this trap so many times, more than enough times to count for all of us combined. So, I know what I’m saying and it’s worth repeating again. Don’t be a lazy painter! Lazy painting is finding a quick and painless way to make marks that somewhat look like the object you are painting, as opposed to taking the time and energy to really look and observe the actual shapes you are painting.
In instructing students, I often see folks use sponges to make leaf shapes on trees.
This alone is not a bad tool, but when they load up the sponge with paint and daub on the color without so much as a change of one degree in the rotation of their wrist, all their leaf shapes start to look like they’ve been rubber stamped. We do this Why? Because 1. we found an easy way to make interesting marks that cause less pain, more pleasure; 2. more of this must be a good thing, and it’s easy to do so just keep making these marks; 3. nobody ever told us this is not the best way to make these marks. What we are left with is your typical “Wine and Paint party” approach to making a “painting”. It is not seeing and making a work of art. There is a difference.
This is where Variety comes to our rescue.
When you catch yourself in that mind-numbing state of simply making marks without thought, STOP IT! Look at each shape as its own AND as it relates to its direct neighbor AND how it adds value to the whole painting.
Have three eyes while painting every painting.
Use one eye and keep it on the whole painting. How is the entire painting looking at all stages?
Use your second eye to focus on your center of interest. Keep this center of interest center stage in your attention span. Always make marks that support or lead us to this hero of our story.
Use your third eye to focus on the actual mark you are making right now. How does this mark, and the edges of this mark, play well with the immediate surrounding marks?