Quote:

"I am enough of an artist to draw freely upon my imagination. Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world."

~ Albert Einstein

An interesting quote because imagination is key to be able to draw from the minds eye (a mental image) and knowledge is a thorough understanding of a subject you wish to draw, for example, form, features, anatomy etc. In my opinion I think both imagination and knowledge are important (imagination more so if wanting to create something that is very unique, unusual and one of a kind) because art can be expressed in so many ways and you can be as creative or unusual as you like, but the subject drawn can still be recognisable because of it's form or features of, for example, an animals distinctive fur pattern or shape of an animals ears or even the shape of a tree. As an artist who's style of drawing is whimsical fantasy, I am able to play around with shape, features, composition etc and so I do not focus much on realism. If I have some basic knowledge of a specific subject I want to draw it is easy to envision in my own creative mind and draw on the page how I see it without a photo reference, most times a drawing turns out much more better on the page than in my head and sometimes not so much, but that's ok because it's all about practice and is part of the process of being an artist.

 
 

Work in progress drawing in my sketchbook of a lynx cat (drawn without using a photo reference).

 

Sharon

 

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