Snake or stick?  What makes us so anxious about this question?  Fortunately, in an actual snake or stick situation, the answer comes automatically, a product of selection in a long history of having snake or stick situations.  ;-)

We have this type of brain that is fixated on pattern details and visual nuances.  Because of our natural ability to recognize intricate patterns and the associated meaning, we are here now and on our way into the future.   Pattern recognition and associating an array of symbolic meanings to an object or concept is a good thing and our success as artists certainly depends on it. 

Should I freeze perfectly still so I won't be noticed?  Should I throw a rock and try to kill it?  Should I make a run for it?  Ah yes, the persistent drip, drip, drip of cortisol that screams, 'Danger! Danger! Danger!' I know it well.  It is an ancient paradigm that no longer works in most modern situations.  

So it is a special problem in sketching and job #1 is to calm down and relax.  Whether out in the field or in the studio (where usually there are fewer snakes) we have to relieve ourselves from active duty and high-alert.  If we fail to do so, we risk short-circuiting our entire creative process.   

In my view, the sketching process is all about applying the right sense of touch in order to 'draw' to the surface of the paper something inventive, curious, original, surprising, and fun.  The thing about sketching is, content emerges gradually because it takes time to make a connection. 

As artists, we need to be patient and open to premature patterns that are only partially defined and are as yet unrecognizable.  In process, a sketch is a hazy cloud, a bunch of blurry smudges and smears.  And visual ideas may develop through several stages before they take on substance and a refined look.  Creative development is a situation of possibilities, the cross-roads of vague lines and partially erased shapes that fade in and out.  We work out of the unknown and that is normal.
 
We work from the unknown to the known ...general to specific.  The tiny details by which we define and recognize our world are so often a last minute task for the artist even though the overall creative process may take hours.  Too early in the process, if we get hung-up on the visual nuances that make something 'realistic' (either a snake or stick), we short-circuit the whole imagination/visualization process.  

For a remarkable illustration of the snake or stick question (in the most literal sense), check out the PBS series, Big Pacific, Episode 2 - Violent.

For more details on the Adventure Journal Workshop, connect with Chris here.

So where in the world do ideas come from?  Some people think that you just stand in the shower and a light bulb goes on... an idea!  Ideas do tend to come to the surface when we are relaxed.  But often those inspirations in the shower are 'ideas finally sprouting' that were planted at an earlier time.

In the business of developing touch or developing connection or developing content - whatever you want to call it - you have to understand that creativity is a state of mind.   We need to cultivate the attitude of playfulness and curiosity.  How can I expect to share touch if I have not developed it within myself?   

Let's begin by taking the time to mess around.  Fiddle and piddle and doodle.  Risk a little scribble.  It's just a piece of paper.  So put down a little squiggle.  Look at it for a few seconds.  It will tell you what to try next.  Be bold...  Make a darker squiggle.  Make a pattern of squiggles.  Dark, light, dark, light.  Play with it and  wonder about what to try next.  Hey! ...that gives me an idea.  And that's the point... A starting point!  

If ever there was one, I am a trail dog.  What happens on the trail is such a flailing hash-up of (1)Exertion; (2)Exhaustion; (3)Exhilaration.  Bike trails.  Hiking Trails.  Water Trails.  I live for them.  It is the visceral intrigue of that touchy unknown something.  There is some mysterious feeling that draws me along the edge of a wooded field and down to the cool, cool river. 

It was that year - 1958 - the year of the dog.  I was born into it.  Now, sixty years later, this year - 2018 - it is again the year of the dog.  And I'm still a trail dog.  Well, if I should live to be 120 years old, today, at age sixty, I'm still only a pup (relatively speaking). 

So on I go through the trees.  I scramble through the brush on a narrowing path that finally opens up onto scattered rocks along the river bank.  There is a deery green meadow on the other side.  Boldly, my arms outstretched, I make my careful steps one by one across a swayback log.  On I go. 

​In these later years, I'm still filled with curiosity.  Still driven.  What is it, I wonder?  The smell of the river.  Some flowering sweetness and pine pitch in the warm Spring air.  I have to see.  I have to find out.  To the top of the hill I go.  And to my great delight, I discover another off-shoot trail that goes cross-county into the next valley. 

I am totally exhausted and for me that's the best...  I pull out my journal and scribble these notes. 

​Tomorrow, there's another trail for this old dog to follow.  That is the greatest gift.  So see you at the end of the trail ...in the year of the dog - when I reach 120 years old.    

I probably spend too much time in the Google Earth Flight Simulator.  The paradox is that I call it the Drawing Beneath.

To begin developing touch...  Get in your kayak and push off.  Make a creative connection with nature.  How?  Scrape away the layers of the page.  Peel down the graphite of your pencil.  Make an observation.  Don't force it.  Release it from the paper.  Become lost in the moment.  It is the sensory engagement that we call now.   Begin to notice.  Begin to be curious.  Remember?  Something unexpected - a deeper reality - emerges.   The sensation of the planet washes through you.  Touch it.  Bring it to the surface of the sheet.  Reawaken that feeling.  Appreciate this moment.  Something stirs within  ...a vast freedom.   This is your Hero's Journey.  Push off.  Journey.  Discover for yourself.  Be the hero.  Live the novel.