I first tried painting seriously when I was sixteen. I spent a considerable chunk of my summer savings on fancy acrylics and paintbrushes and canvases, mistakingly believing that having the best tools would help me be the best painter. While I considered myself decent at drawing, I also mistakingly believed that this ability would translate naturally to painting.
Imagine how disappointed I was when I sat down to paint a portrait I had conjured in my imagination, only to realize that all the best tools and gumption couldn’t make up for a lack of experience. I quickly grew frustrated that the complex, beautiful image I had in my head was being lost in translation from my mind to the brush. Instead of a realistic rendering, I could only create a rudimentary splatter of colors and shapes.
After a few painting sessions without much improvement, I put away my paints and thought that maybe I just wasn’t a painter. And my fancy paints collected dust in the back of my closet until a couple of years later, when I took a sculpting class—and my entire outlook on the creative process shifted.
Sculpting, or the act of shaping and layering
Creating a sculpture begins with an idea and a hard lump of clay. The more you work the clay by squeezing it in your hands, the more it grows warm and pliable and able to be manipulated into whatever shape you desire.
When I took my first sculpting class, I realized that moving from the initial lump of clay to whatever final shape you desire (whether it’s a cup, vase, animal statue, etc.) takes a lot of layering and shaping—but that’s all there is to it: layering and shaping. Whether you want to create a complex anatomically correct human sculpture or a coffee mug, you must form basic shapes from the clay, add layers of clay and water, and then shape the clay again. The more you do this, the more the clay will take the shape of what you want it to become.
I admit, I’m not a master sculptor, and people who have many years of experience have much more wisdom and guidance to add to the conversation than I’m providing here, but the realization that you can move from a lump of clay to a beautifully ornate mug, vase, sculpture, etc. just by shaping and layering the clay was life-changing for my creative process. Because I realized this: no matter what you want to create, it takes layering and shaping.
Art, or the act of shaping and layering
Yes, I’m repeating my header title to emphasize how I took those basic principles of sculpting and applied them to my entire creative process.
I can be an impatient person, much to my dismay. When I have a big creative idea, whether it’s renovating a room in my home, starting a new painting, working on my novel, etc., I often work quickly to get to the end result as soon as possible. But oh how art can’t be rushed!
Every form of art takes shaping and layering, which ultimately takes time and persistence. Meditating on this idea helps slow me down to realize that the creative process is just that: a process.
Nowadays, when I sit down to a blank canvas with an idea, I know that I likely won’t see the final version for many days/weeks/months. I know that the first layer of paint, like a lump of clay, will take many layers and a lot of shaping to manipulate the medium to where I want it to be. When I sit down with my novel, I know that I’ll likely need to reshape a scene multiple times before it says what I want it to say.
The shaping and layering that are an inherent part of the creative process take time and persistence, but skill develops in this perseverance. The more you stick with it, adding layer upon layer, the more effortlessly your art will take the deliberate shape you desire.
Life, or the act of shaping and layering
I would be remiss if I didn’t point out the parallel between art and life. Just as the creative process takes time, persistence, and a lot of shaping and layering, so too does the masterpiece of our life.
While we are all a work in progress, we are also “God’s masterpiece” (Ephesians 2:10), created so that we “can do the good things he planned for us long ago.” The shaping and pruning (John 15:2) that happens along the way can feel painful, tedious, and prolonged, but we can trust that this forming is purposeful and that the intentional layers will result in God’s purpose, glory, and beauty in the end.
Until next time, stay creative, my friends!
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