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A Master Piece with Paul Gaunt (view source)
Revision as of 03:30, 5 August 2020
, 03:30, 5 August 2020Created page with "==Article Transcript== GET YOUR MENTAL GAME ON In the world of sports much is made of a quality called mental toughness. Physical training develops a skill set, but managing..."
==Article Transcript==
GET YOUR MENTAL GAME ON
In the world of sports much is made of a
quality called mental toughness. Physical
training develops a skill set, but
managing the pressure of competition and
performance requires a strategy of mind.
The art of live caricature is not a sport, but
there is competition in it. You compete
with yourself to stay focused on the right
things, push through discomfort, counter
bad habits, and ultimately try to draw
better than you thought you could. All of
this requires mental toughness. Dr. Jim
Loer of the Human Performance Institute
says that “mental toughness is all about
improving your mind so that it’s always on
your side; not sometimes helping you nor
working against you as we all know it’s
quite capable of doing.”
Capturing a likeness requires you to
weigh incoming visual data against your
vast memory of other data, and interpret
it meaningfully in a thing we call art. This
is all achieved without your awareness
when systems are flowing, but distractions
happen. Sometimes a mental game plan
is necessary to get you flowing again. In
this article I want to describe what I see as
my mental game plan. I do not pretend to
be mentally tough all the time, but having
a plan helps.
Attitude is a tool. However cliché, it is
absolutely true that a positive one can be employed for better performance. If I
let peanut gallery offenders get under my
skin, my attention is not in the right place.
Mental discipline means finding a way to
dissipate frustration. Practically no one
intends to be offensive, and by understanding
context, irritation can shift to empathy.
One time I found myself distracted by the
voice of a woman reading aloud every
single word of my signage. At first flattered
by the attention, I began to suffer a Chinese
water torture effect. I looked over to
discover she was reading to her friend who
was blind. With a basic sense of compassion,
attention can be redirected back to
the drawing.
The first step in my mental process of a
live caricature begins by being receptive
to the subject. What is going on with the
face? What are the interesting shapes that
describe a theme? Like hearing a faint
tune in the distance, if you listen, a melody
emerges, and then becomes clear. The
simpler the melody, the easier it is to hear.
While holding this question in mind, I look
at the subject in a way that avoids focus on
any particular feature. Fixing on features
will bias my impression. I want to take in
the whole face at once, to look, but not too
closely and look away. A series of quick
glances works best for me. Looking away
engages memory, so the question becomes,
“What do I remember about what I
just saw?” An overall impression emerges.
Mental toughness is useful to reinforce the
impression so it does not slip away. To this
end I mentally verbalize the impression
with a few key words and repeat them in
my head like a mantra. This becomes like
the simple melody around which I hope to
compose a song.
Now I direct attention to that rectangular
white paper on the easel. Here I try to look
beyond the paper like I’m drawing on a
wall across the room. I do this by squinting
my eyes to filter the view. White paper
becomes grey through a blur of eyelashes
and only the black marker emerges in what
seems like the distance. In this way I block
in the main features as the mantra encourages
me to push beyond my comfort zone
in the key areas.
With the big decisions made and a likeness
taking shape, it is time to focus on particular
features and their nuances. Here is
where the likeness tightens up and where I
now let my view fix on this and that feature.
I like the saying “Aim small, miss small,”
which I picked up from the movie “The
Patriot.” If I aim for a broad target, I might
miss altogether. If I shoot for a bullseye
and miss, I will still probably hit the target.
Yet another effort of mental discipline as
executed in my game plan is when the
drawing is almost finished and mostly good.
Anyone watching might think it is complete.
I can walk across the finish line or kick it in
for my personal best. Kicking it in means
scouring the drawing and the subject one
last time, and infusing one with the other
just a little bit more.
One aspect of mental toughness for Olympic
athletes is overcoming performance anxiety. The pressure is so acute that an
athlete can be too nervous to perform well.
In live caricature, with no end of opportunities
to succeed, I find it is a lack of pressure,
if anything, that handicaps my attention.
A customer wants a drawing suitable for
framing, so there is pressure to deliver
that. If people are waiting in line, there
is added urgency to be efficient, which
heightens concentration for better drawing.
If you work alongside other caricaturists,
there is yet more incentive to bump up
your game to a standard they can appreciate.
However, sometimes the reality is that
no one is watching, you are sleepy, and
your customer is a bump on a log, indifferent
to the notion of inspiring your better
work. In moments like this I pull out my
mental toughness playbook, and employ
another trusty tool: using imagination to
create pressure.
I imagine the ghost of Al Hirschfeld looking
over my shoulder, and he is assigned to
critique. One look at my subject and he
can tell the odds are stacked against me.
Embarassing myself in front of Hirschfeld
is not an option. Pressure mounts. My
subject notices a change in me, and sits
taller in his chair. He transforms from a
bump on a log to the glorious person he is.
Now I am off and running!
Olympic legend Jesse Owens said, “It’s
extra effort that separates a winner from
second place. But winning takes a lot
more than that. It starts with complete
command of the fundamentals. Then it
takes desire, determination, discipline,
and self-sacrifice. And finally it takes love,
fairness, and respect for your fellow man.
Put all these together and even if you
don’t win, how can you lose?
''Paul Gaunt graduated with a B.A. in fine arts from Indiana University in 1987. He has a caricature concession on the Casino Boardwalk of Hampton Beach, NH. He joined the ISCA in 2000 and won the Golden Nosey in 2002.''
GET YOUR MENTAL GAME ON
In the world of sports much is made of a
quality called mental toughness. Physical
training develops a skill set, but
managing the pressure of competition and
performance requires a strategy of mind.
The art of live caricature is not a sport, but
there is competition in it. You compete
with yourself to stay focused on the right
things, push through discomfort, counter
bad habits, and ultimately try to draw
better than you thought you could. All of
this requires mental toughness. Dr. Jim
Loer of the Human Performance Institute
says that “mental toughness is all about
improving your mind so that it’s always on
your side; not sometimes helping you nor
working against you as we all know it’s
quite capable of doing.”
Capturing a likeness requires you to
weigh incoming visual data against your
vast memory of other data, and interpret
it meaningfully in a thing we call art. This
is all achieved without your awareness
when systems are flowing, but distractions
happen. Sometimes a mental game plan
is necessary to get you flowing again. In
this article I want to describe what I see as
my mental game plan. I do not pretend to
be mentally tough all the time, but having
a plan helps.
Attitude is a tool. However cliché, it is
absolutely true that a positive one can be employed for better performance. If I
let peanut gallery offenders get under my
skin, my attention is not in the right place.
Mental discipline means finding a way to
dissipate frustration. Practically no one
intends to be offensive, and by understanding
context, irritation can shift to empathy.
One time I found myself distracted by the
voice of a woman reading aloud every
single word of my signage. At first flattered
by the attention, I began to suffer a Chinese
water torture effect. I looked over to
discover she was reading to her friend who
was blind. With a basic sense of compassion,
attention can be redirected back to
the drawing.
The first step in my mental process of a
live caricature begins by being receptive
to the subject. What is going on with the
face? What are the interesting shapes that
describe a theme? Like hearing a faint
tune in the distance, if you listen, a melody
emerges, and then becomes clear. The
simpler the melody, the easier it is to hear.
While holding this question in mind, I look
at the subject in a way that avoids focus on
any particular feature. Fixing on features
will bias my impression. I want to take in
the whole face at once, to look, but not too
closely and look away. A series of quick
glances works best for me. Looking away
engages memory, so the question becomes,
“What do I remember about what I
just saw?” An overall impression emerges.
Mental toughness is useful to reinforce the
impression so it does not slip away. To this
end I mentally verbalize the impression
with a few key words and repeat them in
my head like a mantra. This becomes like
the simple melody around which I hope to
compose a song.
Now I direct attention to that rectangular
white paper on the easel. Here I try to look
beyond the paper like I’m drawing on a
wall across the room. I do this by squinting
my eyes to filter the view. White paper
becomes grey through a blur of eyelashes
and only the black marker emerges in what
seems like the distance. In this way I block
in the main features as the mantra encourages
me to push beyond my comfort zone
in the key areas.
With the big decisions made and a likeness
taking shape, it is time to focus on particular
features and their nuances. Here is
where the likeness tightens up and where I
now let my view fix on this and that feature.
I like the saying “Aim small, miss small,”
which I picked up from the movie “The
Patriot.” If I aim for a broad target, I might
miss altogether. If I shoot for a bullseye
and miss, I will still probably hit the target.
Yet another effort of mental discipline as
executed in my game plan is when the
drawing is almost finished and mostly good.
Anyone watching might think it is complete.
I can walk across the finish line or kick it in
for my personal best. Kicking it in means
scouring the drawing and the subject one
last time, and infusing one with the other
just a little bit more.
One aspect of mental toughness for Olympic
athletes is overcoming performance anxiety. The pressure is so acute that an
athlete can be too nervous to perform well.
In live caricature, with no end of opportunities
to succeed, I find it is a lack of pressure,
if anything, that handicaps my attention.
A customer wants a drawing suitable for
framing, so there is pressure to deliver
that. If people are waiting in line, there
is added urgency to be efficient, which
heightens concentration for better drawing.
If you work alongside other caricaturists,
there is yet more incentive to bump up
your game to a standard they can appreciate.
However, sometimes the reality is that
no one is watching, you are sleepy, and
your customer is a bump on a log, indifferent
to the notion of inspiring your better
work. In moments like this I pull out my
mental toughness playbook, and employ
another trusty tool: using imagination to
create pressure.
I imagine the ghost of Al Hirschfeld looking
over my shoulder, and he is assigned to
critique. One look at my subject and he
can tell the odds are stacked against me.
Embarassing myself in front of Hirschfeld
is not an option. Pressure mounts. My
subject notices a change in me, and sits
taller in his chair. He transforms from a
bump on a log to the glorious person he is.
Now I am off and running!
Olympic legend Jesse Owens said, “It’s
extra effort that separates a winner from
second place. But winning takes a lot
more than that. It starts with complete
command of the fundamentals. Then it
takes desire, determination, discipline,
and self-sacrifice. And finally it takes love,
fairness, and respect for your fellow man.
Put all these together and even if you
don’t win, how can you lose?
''Paul Gaunt graduated with a B.A. in fine arts from Indiana University in 1987. He has a caricature concession on the Casino Boardwalk of Hampton Beach, NH. He joined the ISCA in 2000 and won the Golden Nosey in 2002.''
