Lucas McLaughlin

[lucasmclaughlin]

VIDEO: Pen and watercolor Avocado plant and succulent sketch (plans for sketching)

I finally finished the editing on this video and uploaded it to YouTube. I’m learning a lot.

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A Dangerous Field: Now Live

Our group exhibition, part of Photo Oxford 2020 is now live!

Click on the photo below to check it out:

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We just call them muffins

I decided to make some English muffins. They are versatile and tasty, freeze well, and are great to have on hand for a quick meal or snack. I looked at a few recipes and came up my own version as follows:

2 cups plain flour (white unbleached all purpose)

100g sourdough starter or levain

1 cup milk

2 tsp sugar

1.5 tsp salt

Semolina, polenta, or cornmeal for outside of muffins

Mix all ingredients until it forms a mass. Allow to rest for 10 minutes. Knead for 5 minutes. Allow to rise in bowl until it doubles in size. For me this took about 6 hours. Divide dough into 12 balls and press into disc shape with your hands. Alternatively roll out and cut using a biscuit cutter.

Put some semolina, polenta, or cornmeal on each side of the muffins and allow them to rest for 30 minutes (or put in the fridge overnight). Cook on low heat on a griddle or skillet for 7 or so minutes per side (until both sides are nicely browned and they are hollow when you tap on them.

They were super easy and delicious.

[lucasmclaughlin]

iPad sketch: Orange

iPad sketch with Procreate app - 8”x10”

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Creative habits can help you do create even if you don't have a deadline

If you are used to getting up early (or staying up late), eventually it isn’t an effort. It becomes normal.

I am not saying that even this brief post requires no effort on my part, but it doesn’t feel like something I have to do now. It doesn’t require a lot of courage. I don’t need to psych myself up or convince myself that it’s something that I really ought to do. It’s just something I am used to doing. I think of something to write about or find a photograph to post on my blog and I post it.

Now I’m sure I won’t post every single day, but that doesn’t matter. Unless I stop altogether, the habit will stay. For the remainder of the time that I am in lockdown, I have decided to work on a painting habit.

[lucasmclaughlin]

Blogging for 100 days didn't turn out how I expected

I expected to blog about working in my studio and going on photography adventures. I expected to really struggle. I hoped that i wouldn’t give up part way. I did struggle a tiny bit, but only a few times. Instead I ended up using it as a way to go back through my old work and inspire myself again. It has helped me refine some ideas and come up with new ones. Mostly, I used it as a way to keep a thread of consistency for myself through a rapidly changing life experience.

But the biggest help for me is that it has given me a channel to share whatever content that I want on a platform that is my own. I may get fewer views on my website than I might on social media content, but those views are more valuable to me and I hope for you as well.

Sometimes you have to decide whether you want to adapt. My posts would have performed better on the algorithms if I had stayed on trend and posted about coronavirus but I decided to mostly ignore that and post what I felt like posting rather than what the Facebook and Twitter would prefer.

As a creator, posting content that will perform well in the algorithms is a moving target. As media platforms shift, you will lose your audience unless you adapt. The other option is to try to find a few people who will actually care about your work and share it organically with the people that they believe will enjoy it. This is where real value lies for artists. Yes you can reach millions with a viral post, but you can also slowly build up a group of people who care about your work because it is what you do.

[lucasmclaughlin]

71 thoughts from 99 days of blogging every day

Things I have learned from posting on my blog every day for 99 days:

A challenge can be a great way to start a new habit.

You will get better at blogging

A mediocre post is better than no post

Small creators add a different kind of value than, for example IKEA

Having your tools and ingredients ready makes it easier to create when you get to crunch time

Lessons learned in one field can be applied to another field

Creating a buffer of prepared work can let you take a break

Crutches help you keep going

Write the ideas down as they come

If you have the right goal, you can succeed even if your circumstances change completely

Metrics such as clicks and shares depend more on presentation than content (at least on a surface level)

You don’t need the best gear

Talking about artwork helps you understand your own work better

Allow yourself to feel successful when you succeed

I wrote a post about emergency funds and stocking up on supplies 3 months ago that was more relevant than I realized

A small change in input can produce large changes in results

You probably need 10,000 hours of work at a skill to be good enough for it to make a difference

Chaining goals together can help you keep momentum

Take adventures when you have the opportunity

Try breaking your perceived rules

Organic growth and strategic growth where you plot out the “Keyframes” ahead are both valuable

You are still moving forward during recovery

You need a license to go mudlarking on the Thames in London

Timers are a great tool for artists

All of your experience and skills adds up

Combining your specializations is a way to increase your expertise

If you are going to make something worth making, someone isn’t going to like it

One reason children learn faster is because they are used to failing and not already being experts

The great ideas will come as a result of steady work

If you underestimate how long things will take you might feel like a failure even if you succeed

Photorealism is a specific kind of distortion

Don’t seek approval. Seek a way to share value with others

There are no rules

Number 33 makes it easier to not fail

Blogging is a way to share

Challenge keeps you from getting bored

Belief you can succeed keeps you from giving up

Permission to fail without ridicule lets you try

You can learn more if you worry more about learning what is being taught than trying to learn the specific lesson you want to learn

Addiction to ideas (brain crack) keeps you from acting on them

Be prolific

If you want to be a writer, write - keep it up and you are a writer

Making a task a daily task makes it a habit

If you want to do something but don’t feel like it, do it anyway

It takes a long time to get really great at something difficult but that doesn’t mean you can’t learn a lot in a short time

Work on your weaknesses, but use your strengths

Use up the supplies that you have

If you are really struggling to do something, tell yourself that you only have to do it for a few minutes while you are boiling a kettle for tea or coffee.

You can recycle old ideas and content that you have produced.

You can learn a lot by watching experts at work

Warming up is important

Consistency is good

Variety is good

If you have a lot of jobs, having one job that you do every day can be helpful to keep continuity

Keeping going is easier than starting

Good enough is good enough

Do things that are good for your spirit

It’s worth getting rained on to get a really great photograph

iPads are a great tool for sketching

Try to get into a flow

Forgotten tasks take up a lot of time

When you see something really neat, stop and take a picture of it

Clearing space changes how you feel

Painting, drawing, or photographing a place helps you to see it differently

A bread failure that you can still eat is still pretty good

Noticing is crucial

A global pandemic and being in quarantine might help you learn some new things, but don’t feel like a failure if you don’t.

Not being able to plan far into the future might help you live in the moment more.

Looking at artwork online is a complex experience

Seeds are really good at waiting

Let yourself create with your inner critic switched off and then turn it on afterwards to see how things turned out

[lucasmclaughlin]

iPad sketch: Tomatoes

[lucasmclaughlin]

Turning off my inner critic

In order to progress and develop in your creative endeavor, you probably need to turn off your inner critic for a bit. If you doubt each brush stroke or second guess every element of your process, your work probably isn’t going to be sustainable. You won’t have room in your mind to make your best work if your mind is full of self doubt and inner criticism.

Stephen King advises writers to write the first draft behind a locked door and to complete it before you show it to anyone else. I have found a similar strategy to be helpful with my artwork. In the book Clear Seeing Place, the painter Brian Rutenberg, who I would be my last dollar read King’s book On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft before embarking on his book, says the same thing about painting. Both books are worth reading.

I have been filming some of my working process and I want to be able to share that without sabotaging my own work. I think it is possible, but I also will continue to create work that may never be shared. This will give me a chance to do work that breaks my own rules and habits and allows me to continue my work without being too self-conscious.

I am am going to have to find that balance with my practice of sharing my work in progress without too much self-criticism.

[lucasmclaughlin]

What do seeds are really good at

I have spent a lot of time in the last few years taking pictures of plants and seeds. They are so fascinating to me. Watching them grow is a source of delight to gardeners and plant lovers around the world. Even if you don’t care about them, your life depends on them. If you are going to eat this summer, they need to sprout now.

What seeds are really good at is waiting for the right time. As a gardener I spend a lot of effort to try to get the conditions perfect to maximize germination and crop yields, but left outside through seasons of unfavourable conditions, seeds will still decide when the time is right on their own.

Sometimes you just need to wait for the right time. Often it seems that the only thing that stands between us and our goals is our own input but the present situation of lockdowns and quarantines demonstrates that this is not always the case. External conditions may or may not allow you to do what it is that you want to do right now even at the best of times. Knowing when to wait and the ability to be ready for the right moment are valuable.

For me, now is the time to plant seeds.

[lucasmclaughlin]

Photo of the week: Anglesey, Wales

Newborough (I) - 2016

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Oxford leaves and sky

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Photo: Summer grain near Minster Lovell

The weather since lockdown began in the UK one month ago has been more like British summer weather than the usual April showers.

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Bonus photo: Scotland (near Saint Andrews)

We visited this forest with friends.

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Looking at artwork online

What do you see when you see artwork online?

I participated in an online version of the Artists’ Salon, organized by the artist Cally Shadbolt. You can read my post about the previous Artists’ salon in my post from January.

The premise is fairly simple. Anyone is welcome to to share their work (or not). First, everyone else analyzes and discusses the work without hearing anything from the creator of the work. Afterwards the artist who made the piece responds. It is relaxed and but serious and intentional.

But this time it took place on a google hangout. This caused a lot of the discussion about our work to be around the difficulties and opportunities provided by presenting and looking at artwork online. I have found this to be one of the most challenging aspects of presenting my work as a photographer online. It is something I am still trying to figure out.

Of course it isn’t a problem just for photographers. How work is presented and viewed makes a huge difference. The in-person experience of seeing Mark Rothko’s or Monet's huge paintings is far more powerful than seeing them on a postcard or on your smartphone. On the other hand, trying to spot the Mona Lisa behind a crowd of fellow tourists with their iPhones out might take away from the experience.

Participating in this online meeting, however was helpful and motivating for me. It’s encouraging to see how we are all working within this new situation and how it will force us all to learn new ideas about our work. I look forward to the next one.

[lucasmclaughlin]

Bonus photo: Back to Christ Church Meadow

[lucasmclaughlin]

How much can you learn from a single failure?

Experimental photography is all about learning from failure. The more that you notice about what went wrong or unexpected success, the more that you can take into your next effort.

The way that I have been working in my experimental photography is to have an image in my mind, and then work towards that image with experimentation. My best work might not be what I had in mind in the first place, but by failing to create what I had in mind, I am able to continue to create new work.

This isn’t exactly the vision in my head, but I am making progress.