A Creative Process

One night I was sitting by my window with the lights off. As I looked to the backyard I noticed a tree near the fence. There was a slight breeze that caused the tree to sway a little. This motion created an image that stuck in my mind. The motion resembled a movement of a charging horse and the shape of the tree reminded me of a samurai warrior. I did not think much of it at the time and went about my usual evening routine. The next night I just happened to glance out the window and immediately saw the samurai but this time I could see his face. Now every time I saw the tree, even during the daytime when my samurai really just looked like a tree, I started to see more details. I decided to create an artistic exercise based on my samurai tree.

I knew that most of this samurai was in my mind so I knew a photograph of the tree would not do it justice. I decided to make a pastel. I started with a pencil drawing and drew the samurai with as much detail as possible. I then used my pastels to overlay the tree. My objective was not to bring out the exact samurai I saw but leave it open to the viewer and keep the essence of the tree. I also wanted to encompass some of the movement of the tree.

Once finished I took a photograph of the pastel.

ST#1


Now that I had a photograph I could start to explore the inner workings of my "samurai-tree".

Using various filters I discovered that my "samurai-tree" changed. Below are some of my observations.

ST#2

In this version the samurai changed to a woman carrying wood in the night. I can see her dress.

ST#3

In this blue-green version it looks more like a bird.

ST#4

Here I see an Indian Goddess

ST#5

I see the samurai again covered in mud after the battle.

ST#6

Here I see the ocean waves crashing against a big rock.

ST#7

This one is what came closest to the samurai I saw. This is because I saw it most clearly at night in mostly black and green.

ST#8

In this one I see more of a king with royal robes walking on a sunny day in his garden. He is lifting the front of his garb to avoid a puddle.

ST#9

Here I see a large rose in a rain shower.

ST#10

This one looks like a Christmas tree.

ST#11

Here I see less samurai and more Peruvian high priest sitting in judgment.

ST#12

Finally, in this one I see the samurai charging forward into battle, hand stretched out.

Amazingly, after I finished the exercise I found this drawing of a samurai on the web. While my samurai had more amour, a bigger saddle, no bow and arrows, and in some versions has his right arm extended and not his left, it is fairly close.



Here is an actual picture of the tree. As I suspected it looks just like a tree but for the purpose of this exercise I wanted to include a picture of it (actually I see it clearly but I suspect that is because I worked on it so much).




Now, as a further experiment, please pick your favorite one (#ST1 - ST12) and tell me why you like it and what you see?

Keep your creative side alive!

Until the next time.
Carpe Diem