Is creating art like writing a book? Discuss.......

I think the development of skills in language and art can provide some interesting parallels

• first we learn how to make marks using different implements (pencil, pen, brush etc)
  
• then we start learning words and how they are spelt (and how to draw objects and use marks to represent them)
  
• then we start making sentences and learning grammar (and we also learn the language of making art - how to mix a colour, how to represent values)
  
• then we start composing stories - and begin to realise maybe the story needs a beginning, a middle and an end (and we learn how to compose a picture - making choices about what's in and what's not and how objects are arranged within the picture plane - rather than drawing any old group of objects any old how)
  
• before long, if we work hard, we can describe things and can write technically accurate language (and we can draw accurately and paint in a precise and "realistic" way - people know what an object is supposed to be)
  
• but then we learn to describe our subjects all over again - using metaphor and simile (just as some of us learn to loosen up - drawing loosely, painting impressions, creating moods through the use of tone and colour; maybe including an object to represent an idea or something else important)
• and then we realise that stories can be more fun or more interesting when we don't tell them in straight lines - but maybe come at a story in an unexpected way (just like when we construct a picture which tells a story - but contains a surprise - if we just look closely enough)
  
• some people go on to be seduced by drama and theatrics and begin to write plays and lyrics and maybe libretti (which is we got all those huge classical paintings of major stories and key events and how we continue to be drawn to paintings which tell a story)
  
• and finally a few come to the art of poetry - where often the skill lies more in what you only suggest and what you leave out (need I say more?)

What do you think?

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