Focus on the Creative Vision, Not the Tools

Jeremy Mann is a successful fine artist known for his cityscapes and figurative paintings. He favors a limited palette of muted tones, and many of his cityscapes are monochromatic.

Mann hires models to photograph as reference material for his figurative work. He has an extensive collection of ornate dresses, belts, jewelry, and footwear to costume his models.

Unlike most fine artists, Mann creates a lot of his paintings with unorthodox tools and analog devices. Stuff like ink brayers, printmaking tools, windshield wipers, and even doorstops.

Most interestingly, Mann uses vintage and homemade cameras to photograph his models, much like the late, eccentric photographer Miroslav Tichy. Tichy built his homemade cameras out of old camera parts, cardboard tubes, elastic, tin cans, thread spools, and more.

Similarly, Mann constructs his cameras out of old Polaroids, cardboard tubing, duct tape, binocular parts, cigar boxes, etc. The resulting photographs often have light leaks, spots, and scratches that create a dreamlike, vintage quality.

Writer Joel Meadows, in an article for Tripwire Magazine, described Mann’s work as “timeless yet contemporary.” Mann responded by saying he is “an old soul, a lover of romantically antiquated ways, old European streets and slow days wandering outdoors, the heart in my work feels like a memory from the vintage cameras which I carry with me.”

Jeremy Mann doesn’t shun modern technology like computers and digital cameras, but he prefers the look and feel of analog tools, like ink brayers for his cityscape paintings and charcoal for his drawings.

Mann wrote his Master’s thesis about the use of ink brayers in painting. The springboard for his Master’s thesis, according to a 2017 interview, was the idea that “it doesn’t matter what tool I use to paint.”

It doesn’t matter what you use

Art students, photographers, and creatives tend to fixate on tools. Particularly the tools used by their creative heroes.

In painting workshops I’ve attended, fellow students insisted on knowing the exact colors used by the instructor, as well as the type of canvas, brand of paintbrushes, etc. They think if they use the same tools they’ll get the same results.

In an interview, Jeremy Mann shared the following insights:

It’s not what’s in your hands, it’s what’s in your head. These damn tools in our clumsy mitts are actually the hindrance to creating a great painting, so the only way to get around that hurdle is to spend the time, energy, expertise and intelligence to figure that tool out, find all the marks it can possibly make that I enjoy, and then I will be able to express directly what’s in my head. But then, having realized that is the solution, I spin slowly around my studio, my brow furrowed again (the way it does just before a discovery) … ‘I can use anything, then…’ Yes! And I’ve since moved far beyond these days, using 4-foot rollers, door jambs, windshield wipers, bottles, liquids, spit, whatever! And therein lies the foundational theories of style and uniqueness in artistry. It doesn’t matter what you use, it’s what you know and how you use those tools which sing their notes to your soul alone, with which to make your unique mark on the world.

The reality is that you don’t need the best equipment to create. What you need is your own, authentic vision, and the motivation to start. The tools will find you, and they don’t have to be expensive high-end stuff.

“Your vision will become clear only when you can look into your own heart. Who looks outside, dreams; who looks inside, awakes.” -Carl Jung

The painting masters didn’t have the range of oil colors we have today, yet their work stands the test of time. Today’s stone carvers have electric tools, yet few can produce a work like Michelangelo’s David.

If Steven Soderbergh can shoot a professional, feature-length film entirely on an iPhone, then what’s stopping the rest of us from chasing our own artistic and creative dreams?

The more beautiful it will be

I used to think I needed the best tools possible to create professional artwork. I spent a small fortune on the “best” brushes and “artisan” oil paints.

I’m embarrassed to admit how many portable paint boxes (“Pochade boxes”) I went through, thinking my work would improve with the latest, greatest equipment.

A few of my pochade boxes with painting studies of mine.

In the end, my paintings only improved by doing a lot of paintings. By understanding composition, design, values, etc. The newest, fanciest paint box didn’t matter at all.

The equipment doesn’t matter, it’s the vibe you put into it. If the music sounds good, music sounds good. -Madlib

Some of my best cartoons are drawn with cheap, ballpoint pens. Despite having a fountain pen collection that includes a few expensive models, my favorite drawing tool is still the ballpoint pen.

I love the control and sketchy feel I get with a ballpoint pen. It seems the ballpoint is the best tool to capture my vision, my style of cartoons. And I love that it’s inexpensive, portable, and fun to use.

I have an iPad Pro, which I use with an Apple pencil and the ProCreate app, to craft digital cartoons. It’s convenient for travel, and when I’m crunched for time due to deadlines. But the digital work, in my opinion, doesn’t have the same charm as pen, ink, and paper drawings.

Sometimes the simplest tools are all you need to create.

You just need a vision

Clarian North is a world-renowned producer who has worked with reputable production companies like Universal, Warner, BBC, Spotify, and more. He has worked as a head engineer (mixing and mastering) and co-producer (writing and arranging) for Grammy-nominated and award-winning productions, as well as majors, indies, and international publishing houses.

Clarian is also a successful instructor on Udemy.com, with popular courses in audio production and podcasting. Not bad for a self-taught guy.

Clarian’s Udemy.com bio notes:

Clarian gained success with zero budget or studio to begin with, and spent years on his own interning and moonlighting at professional studios, going through the grind of frustrations struggling to obtain the quality of production eventually gaining international notoriety for projects made on with nothing but a computer and headphones distributed to hundreds of thousands of listeners.

A profile on Clarian in ElectricGroove.com included the following quote from Clarian:

A really good producer can work with any kind of equipment and make it sound great. You don’t need expensive equipment to make good music, you just need a vision and to know the basics…

How about you? Are you procrastinating because you don’t have the best tools? If so, why not dive in anyway? Don’t let procrastination kill your creative vision.

The sooner you start, the sooner you can execute your creative vision. Use whatever tools you can get your hands on. Along the way, you’ll learn tons. Sometimes, the limitations of simple tools force you to become more innovative in your work.

Your creative vision needs to come first because that’s what separates you from everyone else. Later on, as you develop technical expertise and income, you can find higher quality equipment to expand on your vision (if you need to.)

Every rule has an exception

There are exceptions to every rule. While it’s true that you don’t need the best equipment to create, there may be times when you need to best equipment to create your best work.

“There is no exception to the rule that every rule has an exception.” -James Thurber

According to the short bio on his website, Scott Kelby “is a photographer, award-winning author and the original ‘Photoshop Guy’ as well as the CEO of KelbyOne, an online educational community for photographers, Photoshop and Lightroom users.”

In an episode of Kelby’s popular webcast The Grid, Kelby argues that sometimes it is about the equipment. Here’s part of what he said:

This is one that, boy, you’re gonna hear people get cranked about this, but by gosh, we talk about it privately, and we hear other people talk about it in small groups, but somebody’s gotta talk about it. I know that you’ve heard again and again and again on the web — someone’s gonna type this as soon as I say it — ‘It’s not about the camera. It’s not about the equipment.’ You know what it is? Here’s the truth. Sometimes, it is about the equipment. Sometimes it is and nobody wants to say that because everyone wants to be camera-politically correct….The reality of it is sometimes it is. If you want a certain look, sometimes you have to buy stuff.

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The gear and equipment you use can matter when you start to specialize. For example, if you want to capture the details of a hummingbird in flight, your iPhone won’t achieve the same clarity as a Canon EOS 1D Mark IV with a 600mm f/4 lens.

I enjoy the simplicity, elegance, and clarity of black and white photography. Nearly all the photography on my website is black and white. The images were shot on my iPhone SE and modified to black and white using the phone’s editing tool.

The iPhone takes surprisingly good photos. Sometimes I use an app to modify my photographs to look like vintage images.

I took this landscape photo near my home with my iPhone SE.

Unfortunately, my iPhone is unable to achieve the clarity, depth, resolution, and deep blacks possible with a Leica M10 monochrome camera. The M10 monochrome is a digital camera that only shoots black and white. It costs $8,295.

I’d love to get my mitts on the M10 to improve the quality of my black and white photography, but I don’t need such an expensive camera to fulfill my creative vision. For now, I can get by with my iPhone.

Luxury in simplicity

High-end, professional equipment enables you to do more than less expensive equipment. But more often than not, you don’t need the best equipment to chase your vision.

The key is to start, and over time the equipment and gear will sort themselves out. Keep things simple. Too much specialty equipment and gear can muddy the vision and prevent you from succeeding.

“I am convinced that there can be luxury in simplicity.” -Jil Sander

I was painting outdoors once with other artists and watched them forever setting up their fancy easels, and fiddling with handfuls of expensive brushes. Except for this one older gentleman near me.

He had one brush, a palette knife, and an old paint box on a tripod. By the time everyone else began painting, this old guy was finishing a gorgeous little landscape. Later that day, one of the artists in our group bought the old guy’s painting.

The lesson? Focus on your creative vision. Worry less about the equipment and more about starting.

Put in the time. Build your skills. The equipment will take care of itself along the way. Stop procrastinating, the world deserves to see your creative vision, and you deserve the joy to be found creating it.

Before you go

I’m John P. Weiss. I draw cartoons, paint, and write about life. If you like elegant writing and fine cartoons in your inbox, sign up here.

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This post was previously published on Medium.com.

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Artwork and photography by John P. Weiss