Muscle Memory

Let me first think about some smaller parts to this puzzle.

thinking about how the monuments will look

Here are some pages from my sketchbook, ones that I'm not too embarrassed to show. Drawing is like any motor skill. The muscles remember what to do long after learning the  skills, but practice and exercise is still needed for fluency. I'm a bit rusty. I like Prismacolor drawing pencils. I have a set that ranges from 9B to H. Pencils with a soft lead are B (the higher the number, the softer the lead.) This kind of pencil will make a denser, darker mark, while an H pencil leaves a finer, lighter line.  H is good for invisible guide lines, or very sharp detail. B is good for broader stokes and filling in areas. To force myself to use less detail, I have just bought a 2B graphite crayon, but I haven't used that yet.

I have never been much of a sketch artist - one who can put some quick ideas down on paper. I usually jump right into a project and get involved with details way too early in the game. Then I find that the of effort I put into details in the beginning is often wasted, because the final composition requires something different than I originally had thought. 

after a sketch, I made notes about what I liked or what to change

I also have not done a lot of pre-planning by way of drawings for previous quilts. Either I design as I go along or work with photoshop to compose a picture. In this case, because I have some very definite ideas that I want to express and I know that it's a lot to visually communicate, I know I've got to sort out things before I start with the actual quilt. As a writer makes an outline before delving into their thesis, so I also need to outline my points and be clear to myself what it is I'm trying to achieve.

how should I pose the people?

 

Some artists focus on "process." They get absorbed in working with their materials, taking direction for how to proceed with their work by responding to the outcome of their manipulations. Sometimes it's a "I want to see what happens when I do this or that.." or "I was just playing with (some medium, some idea) and look what happened: let me follow that direction.." It's a wonderful transcendent feeling, to not "think," to be so wrapped up in what you're doing. It's as if a piece is talking to you, saying, "I need this" or "hey, try this over here." It's muscle memory again! The brain is a muscle - it's got to be trained first before it can just work on it's own. Art can be created in a spontaneous manner when there is a grounding of knowing how to respond. Design, composition, balance, focus, perspective and all the other factors in creating art are all being processed in the background. If one weren't considering these elements, then their art is randomness - which may or may not turn out appealing.