Developing a visual language
Capturing the beauty
In this piece I am talking about the absolute critical skill of developing a visual language. In a world that is so ‘word’ based it is easy to neglect this language or to assume it is developed enough. For me, developing a visual language is a life long pursuit and part of my daily evolving strategy. If we don’t continually evolve we stand still and I am not keen on that concept.
So what is our visual language? It is a way of communicating that is able to extract elements such as colour, shapes, lines and textures in what we see around us. In communicating these elements we draw on our emotional and intellectual responses to share our interpretation with the world. In an era of social media I really do mean the world. That is a bit scary isn’t it?
To develop our visual language we must be prepared to play. We played when we were small people but, for most of us, we lost that as we aged. I am firmly in the camp that we are all artists. We were all mini artists once upon a time so, for some of us, it is a matter of finding that again.
As this book arts projects unfold I will be sharing the methods I use to continually develop my visual language. That journey has already begun with our autumn project as we explore the place of art journaling in our creative thinking. In time I will talk about the role of a sketchbook - a divisive subject!
Today, I want to talk about capturing beauty. For once I am not beginning this capture outside. To develop a visual language that is robust it must belong to you. It can’t be anyone elses or it falls flat. You have to learn to love the journey of developing your visual language to the extent that it is right up there with all the other self care elements in your life. That means you have to invest in it and, in turn, you have to invest in you. From the outset you can’t think about art as something others do as that is not helpful. You have to think of yourself as an artist and, as soon as you do that, you unclip your own wings.