Austin Osman Spare (1886–1956) was a British painter, printmaker, and occultist who sought ways to capture visual information while in altered states of consciousness. His experiments culminated in the book Automatic Drawing, which clearly outlines a method for recording subconscious transformations onto paper. This approach was later widely adopted by Surrealists such as Joan Miró, Salvador Dalí, Max Ernst, and others.
“When I speak of automatic drawing, I refer to works begun without the conscious control of the mind. Once finished, I often know more about them than I did while creating them. That is, I begin to analyze the work only after part of it already exists on paper. Very often, as I work, I do not know what I am doing. I work automatically, in a kind of trance. After some time, I return to a normal state of consciousness and often realize that night has fallen—hours have passed while I was in that trance. Sometimes I draw in total darkness. Returning to normal consciousness, I contemplate what I have made. I begin to discern recognizable shapes and emphasize them. If it is a tree, I make it more evident; if it is a human or an animal, I give it clearer form, and so on.
Many artists work partly automatically during the initial stages of creation, operating in a sort of quasi-conscious state. I believe all people are capable of this, though without training these abilities fade. When properly cultivated, however, they become a powerful tool for developing the imagination. Just as handwriting is a direct expression of one’s personality, automatic drawings can reveal aspects of the creator’s character and, when made with courage and sincerity, their mental state and subconscious processes. The mental mechanisms at work are similar to those in dreams, allowing the rapid perception of unexpected associations. One must train the hand to move freely and without control by practicing simple continuous-line drawings without conscious analysis. The drawings should arise unconsciously, letting the hand move with minimal mental effort. Over time, shapes will emerge, suggesting concepts, forms, and eventually evolving into an individual style. A mind in a neutral state—free from the desire to depict or achieve materialistic intellectual clarity—is capable of producing meaningful personal imagery rich in symbolic significance. In this way, sensations can take on visual form.”
~ Austin Osman Spare
I began experimenting with automatic drawing in 2012. Here are several of the best examples from the period 2012–2018.
Augustinas Našlėnas 