The creative process can feel like a whirlwind. Many artists describe a sense of exhilaration, becoming completely absorbed as the art and its underlying message take over. However, there is a method to the madness, and without some semblance of structure, it can be difficult to channel this creative chaos.
This is where documentation comes into play. As a core part of the artist workflow, this provides a chance to tell a powerful story while reflecting on the magic that underscores the creative process. Documentation offers a snapshot of the moment, revealing the how behind the most impactful works of art.
Novice artists often struggle to build documentation into their workflows, but this can cause big problems in the long term, including lost opportunities for connection and limited chances for self-reflection. This process does not need to feel boring or cumbersome, as a few simple strategies can make documentation feel like a compelling part of the creative experience.
Why Documenting the Artistic Process Matters
It could be argued that art constitutes a form of documentation, documenting your thoughts, feelings, or philosophies. Much can be gleaned from art itself, but additional insights can be helpful, bringing nuance to each piece and a spirit of continuous improvement.
Adding Depth to the Artwork
The circumstances surrounding any given work of art can be deeply intriguing, offering insight into why this creation unfolded in a particular way or where you found your artist’s inspiration. Easily forgotten, these details could be crucial to gaining a full understanding of your work. Documentation adds layers, delivering a richer narrative and provoking reflection beyond the final product.
Connecting With Audiences
Audiences are as fascinated with artists as they are with the work they produce. The story of the artist and the creative process can bring greater meaning and appreciation to any work. Documentation provides another touchpoint for connection, fostering empathy while driving deeper connections with diverse audiences.
Preserving Artistic Evolution
Every artist evolves, drawing on new techniques or sources of inspiration to shape their work. This evolution may involve the core themes explored in artistic pieces and the styles or techniques used to convey these themes. This journey can be a huge source of pride for experienced artists, who may occasionally revisit previous works and reflect on how their process has changed. Many are surprised by how much they forget about their previous workflows. Process documentation is the best way to avoid this gap in knowledge.
Methods for Documenting the Artistic Journey
Artistic documentation is nearly as diverse as art itself. There is no ‘right’ way to preserve or reflect on recently created works of art, and anything that feels personally compelling or authentic should work well. Furthermore, documentation strategies may evolve alongside the art being referenced. Many artists experiment with several approaches over time, eventually settling on a few that feel personally meaningful.
Visual Documentation
As we’ve discussed, artistic creations themselves serve as a form of visual documentation. Beyond this, other visual strategies can be used to represent already created pieces. The simplest and most forward approach involves photography. This could mean snapping a few pictures of works as they take shape or even drawing on high-level photography skills to form the basis for additional works of art. Other artists prefer sketching, especially when creating three-dimensional or multi-media pieces.
Written Reflections
Written documentation provides a unique and decidedly different way to reflect on the artistic process and tell the story of how a particular piece came together. For many artists, this takes the form of a diary, complete with entries detailing every step of the creative process. Journaling can also serve a functional purpose, helping artists plan their work or explore their inner world. Some artists bring a collaborative approach to documentation by writing and exchanging letters.
Digital Tools and Platforms
Increasingly, many artists rely on digital tools to streamline the documentation process. Journaling applications, for example, provide guidance and may feel more readily accessible than physical materials. Digital tools may also facilitate greater connection or collaboration than would be possible with tangible alternatives. Options worth exploring include Figma, Miro , and Mural.
Benefits of Process Documentation
Process documentation can deliver many distinct advantages, although these depend somewhat on the artist’s unique style, techniques, mediums, or personal goals. Potential benefits include:
Building Credibility and Authenticity
Credibility can be difficult to achieve in the artistic landscape. This is developed over time through consistent exposure, but documentation can streamline the process, offering tangible evidence of artistic growth, exploration, and thought process. This can make it clear that the artist in question is passionate and highly skilled. Artists can even amplify credibility-focused pursuits, such as an artist in residency experiences. Many artists also incorporate process documentation efforts within their portfolios.
Fostering Community and Collaboration
Artists can learn a great deal from one another, but many struggle to convey the specific emotions or techniques that contribute to their most powerful works. Through documentation, they can share insights, forming the basis of further breakthroughs among fellow artists. Over time, this spirit of open communication can spark amazing collaborations, with artists from different mediums or backgrounds coming together to push boundaries.
Enhancing Marketability
Audiences are drawn to works when they feel a personal connection to the artists behind these creations. While paintings, sculptures, and other artistic wonders can inspire connection, this feels even stronger when patrons understand the fascinating stories that underscore their favorite pieces.
This can spark greater engagement, even encouraging patrons to invest financially by purchasing artworks that speak to them. This may also influence broader marketing efforts, with insights gleaned through documentation shared on social media and professional websites.
Real-Life Examples of Artists Embracing Documentation
Many inspiring artists reveal the power of documentation. While the public may be more familiar with their most iconic pieces, the documents or reflections accompanying them can be just as insightful. Examining these processes can provide valuable inspiration, especially for artists struggling to implement documentation strategies. Several examples demonstrate the versatility of artistic documentation.
Famous Artists and Their Creative Processes
Throughout history, many talented artists have used the power of the written word to clarify their intentions or detail the intricacies of their artistic process. Among the most inspiring process art examples include these iconic artists:
- Vincent van Gogh. Nearly as passionate about writing letters as he was about painting, Vincent van Gogh is believed to have penned over 2,000 letters, of which nearly half survived. Most were sent to his brother and best friend Theo. In these letters, van Gogh incorporated sketches meant to describe what he was working on and his thoughts on this artistic progress.
- Leonardo da Vinci. Demonstrating a great diversity of talent, Leonardo da Vinci kept detailed notes about his achievements, drawing diagrams and recording personal observations that ultimately influenced his greatest works of art. Interestingly, his notes read in reverse, from right to left.
Contemporary Artists and Process Sharing
While Vincent van Gogh and Leonardo da Vinci offer plenty of inspiration, their documentation processes may feel less relevant to contemporary artists, given not only today’s tech-driven opportunities for documenting workflows but also, the increasing integration of technology into the documented works. Contemporary artistic process examples include:
- Ai Weiwei. As a documentarian, dissident artist Ai Weiwei is committed to recording not only the world around him but also artistic endeavors such as Fairytale — his contribution to the contemporary art exhibition documenta 12. This documentary revealed the potential for building community, as the project encouraged insights from numerous citizens and detailed participants’ challenges in staging the event.
- Yayoi Kusama. Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama may be best known for her mesmerizing Infinity Mirror Rooms. Still, she also keeps an immaculate photographic archive to preserve her distinct sense of style. She has also recorded her thoughts in writing and has even published Infinity Net: The Autobiography of Yayoi Kusama. This “multilayered portrait” details not only her difficult childhood but also, the “sense of the sheer necessity within an artist to create” and the value of the artistic process as a therapeutic activity.
Emerging Artists Using Technology
Many up-and-coming artists offer intriguing new perspectives on how documentation can shape artistic works and discussions. Several leverage advanced technologies to convey their thoughts, ideas and workflows.
- Krista Kim. Committed to exploring the concept of digital consciousness, Krista Kim aims to “create zen for the digital age.” Her project Continuum offers a meditative experience, leveraging peaceful sounds and imagery to combat disconnection. While this brings a meditative experience to sizable audiences, she also believes that the process of creating art can be deeply meditative. She documents her philosophy heavily on social media and is eager to explore new, immutable forms of documentation via non-fungible tokens (NFTs).
- Andrea Crespo. Exploring psychological misconceptions while also revealing the unique interplay of digital identities, groundbreaking artist Andrea Crespo draws heavily on clinical imagery and concepts, pushing boundaries for how art itself can serve as a form of self-documentation. The powerful show sis: somatic systems, for example, documented the process of self-transformation, while intensifies expanded on this in an immersive environment, drawing on the character Alan to spark a nuanced discussion of autism. Crespo explains, “I’m offering my story and my subjectivity — a narrative — to people so that they can not only learn something from me but also be stimulated and relate it to their own experience of being in a body and of bodily difference.”
Challenges and Solutions in Process Documentation
Documentation can help artists refine their technique and pursue collaboration, but it presents significant challenges that some may struggle to overcome. Some of these are strictly practical, such as finding ways to integrate documentation into artist workflows, while others relate to creative concerns, such as worries about the impact of documentation on authentic art storytelling.
Balancing Creation and Documentation
Some artists are slow to fully embrace process documentation because they worry that this will suck the creativity or inhibition out of the artistic process. This fear is understandable, but balance is possible, and documentation can unleash enhanced creativity by sparking inspiration. The key is to avoid rigid or overly structured logging and capture experiences that feel more resonant. Spontaneity can ensure that documentation encourages creativity instead of stifling it.
Maintaining Authenticity
When documenting the creative process, artists can be tempted to focus on what they think their current audiences or future selves will want to hear rather than staying true to the creative forces that underscore any given work. Authenticity is crucial, however, as documentation cannot achieve its core goals unless it accurately reflects artistic creations and the thought processes that go into these amazing pieces.
This is where the benefits of art journaling come into play. Instead of viewing documentation as an aspirational report, journaling tells the story of the artistic process, helping artists become more raw or vulnerable along the way.
Handling Criticism and Vulnerability
Any artistic creation can open the door to criticism, and while many artists eventually work through this fear as it relates to their own work, criticism surrounding documentation can feel different. Artists often justify artistic criticism by assuming that skeptics fail to fully understand their perspective or appreciate the sheer effort that goes into bringing creative ideas to life, but this no longer feels mysterious once artistic processes are fully documented.
Documentation strategies may also be critiqued; audiences may be impressed by tangible works but less inclined to complement the documentaries or photographs that reflect on these works. Artists can grow more comfortable with multiple forms of criticism by continuing to release their work and avoiding the impulse to regard critiques as attacks.
How to Start Documenting Your Artistic Journey
Now that you understand why documentation is so important, it is time to take active steps to build this into your artistic practice. These suggestions should help:
Setting Goals for Documentation
If you hope to document your work consistently, you need to understand why this is important and how this will enhance your work or your artistic journey. Setting goals can provide valuable guidance. There is no right goal, as this should feel deeply personal and closely connected to the work or process in question. Reflect on these goals later to determine whether your documentation efforts align with your original intentions.
Choosing the Right Tools
With a vision for documentation in place, it’s time to move on to the practical aspects of documenting your process and your work. This begins with selecting tools and strategies that support your goals. You may feel drawn to visual, written, or even tech-driven tools. Consider which are best capable of amplifying the value of the process, and which are most likely to invite authenticity or consistency. Be willing to experiment with multiple tools until you find a form of process documentation that works for you.
Establishing a Routine
Consistent documentation is only possible inside a purposefully built artist workflow. Again, this should not feel rigid or overly structured, but a routine can help you get in the habit of documenting your artist workflow. Aim for a loose rhythm or routine that allows for spontaneity and creativity in documentation.
Document Your Artistic Evolution at RMCAD
Process documentation represents an exciting journey that can begin with your creative experiences at Rocky Mountain College of Art + Design (RMCAD). Our Fine Arts degree program explores the intricacies of the creative process, highlighting impactful tools and techniques and opportunities to refine your workflow and document your process. Discover new artistic possibilities — get in touch today.
