Ask the Art Professor: How do you work in a series?

Welcome to “Ask the Art Professor“! Essentially an advice column for visual artists, this is your chance to ask me your questions about being an artist, the creative process, career advice, a technical question about a material, etc. Anything from the smallest technical question to the large and philosophical is welcome. I’ll do my best to provide a thorough, comprehensive answer to your question. Submit your question by emailing me at clara(at)claralieu.com, or by posting here on this blog. All questions will be posted anonymously. Read an archive of past articles here.

Here’s today’s question:

“I recently went to an art retreat and was told I need to make a series. I have never done this before and I keep struggling with a topic. My question is how can I take a topic , like “transformation” and make it into a series? I have always been a “paint what I see” painter and I use images for reference. I have such a hard time with concept painting. How can you take an idea and translate it into a two-dimensional surface?”

For a series to work, you need to find a subject you are passionate about that is both open to variation and yet specific at the same time. A strong series is like a really good television show. You want to have details that make the show distinctive, but the fundamental premise has to be open enough that many contrasting episodes can be generated. A successful series should allow each individual work to be able to stand on its own, yet simultaneously relate to the rest of the other works in some manner.

I find that it’s helpful to establish a list of “rules” for your series that you can consistently follow. This could be done in terms of the format, the size, the materials, the subject matter, etc. Write down what the list of rules are and make sure that you stick to them from the beginning to the end of the series. Even if you have moments where you want to stray from the rules, force yourself to adhere to the rules. Not only do the rules help keep you on track, but they can create both conceptual and visual cohesion for the series overall.

If you are starting with the word like “transformation” which is quite abstract, do some extensive brainstorming first. The primary objective of brainstorming is the creation of as many ideas and images as possible, with an emphasis on quantity over quality. One of the key elements of this process is that brainstorming is inclusive of everything that emerges, regardless of how odd or unappetizing an idea or image may seem at first. Write everything down, and play “word association”. Give every idea and image a voice and a place on the page. Once you are done brainstorming, you should have have enormous amounts of pure, unedited content to select from. This content is the raw material from which you can create thumbnail sketches. This post “How do you develop an idea from a sketch to a finished work?” talks more in depth about how to bridge the gap from idea to sketch to final work.

An example of a brainstorming session.

Since you are used to observational painting, it is probably a good idea to select one image from your brainstorming session that you can then create variations from. Look at other artists who worked serially and see what kind of subjects they chose. Monet painted water lilies, haystacks, and Rouen cathedral. Degas drew ballet dancers and jockeys. Rembrandt painted self-portraits consistently throughout his entire career. Andrew Wyeth had his Helga pictures. Analyze their works and ask yourself what their rules were for their series. This can provide inspiration as well as a departure point for your own work.