I saw it recently at a book presentation in a bar – bookshop (so fashionable these days). There it was: a picture hanging on a wall, with the word SERENDIPITY in capital letters as the only protagonist.
Serendipity according to the dictionary:
f. A precious discovery that happens accidentally or by chance.
And I thought that’s exactly how it is, that we artists find the best version of us when we work. At least, that’s how I see it.
Picasso (who liked to say things…) said something similar:
“I do not seek, I find”.
And isn’t that what serendipity is?
I have been talking for a long time about ‘serendipity as the engine of creativity’, and the fact that we have to keep our eyes (and heart…) open and alert to what is happening when we are working, because otherwise we might miss out on the most interesting things.
The American artist Lynda Barry said something that perfectly expresses how the graphic creative process works: ‘There is the drawing that you are trying to make and the drawing that you are actually making, but you won’t be able to see the latter until you forget what you were trying to do’.
Luck, chance, accident… all these terms are synonymous with the word serendipity and will help us to create, to find our own voice, which in the end is what an illustration course is all about, in my opinion. Because without a personal voice it does not seem possible to achieve any interesting and quality graphic design project.
In this course we will also have access to a lot of important information and study the basics that will help us tackle any editorial or artistic project.
Methods, techniques and procedures that have already been used many times by other artists, but which it is essential to know, then forget. Little by little we will change them with other new methods that we will discover for ourselves.
We will get to know the work of our masters, the rules of composition, graphic and narrative rhythms. How to propose or understand the essence of a character and make it our own in order to define it with our own voice and thus achieve spaces of creative freedom. We will get to know and practise the most diverse graphic techniques, which, at least for me, have a lot to do with play, with the pleasure of drawing and painting… with the pleasure of our craft.
Serendipity (or at least those processes that lead us to discover something we are not looking for, and yet we need it…) is closely linked to intuition, which is a concept very close to artists when they work.
And it is also the sister of procrastination.
I think talent is just the ability to learn. So we will work a lot and learn.
The course will be taught in Italian, but if necessary also in English and/or Spanish.