~ Start from interest, and cultivate your sensitivity to beauty

In the world of art, we often hear the word “aesthetic”. But what is aesthetic? Is it really an inborn talent?

From my own experience, aesthetic is not an innate gift, and there’s no such thing as high or low. It’s more like an observation skill and a power of choice in life. More importantly, it’s an attitude of whether you pay attention to things or not.

When I first came into contact with paper carving art, I was particularly interested in “paper”. I won’t tell you that I understood aesthetic from the beginning. I just simply felt that paper was very interesting, changeable, and warm— so I started to research like crazy.

I bought many different kinds of paper, collected all kinds of materials, colors, textures; I went to all platforms to see paper carving-related content, whether local or international, art or design — as long as it was related to paper, I watched it. I watched how others used paper, how they composed, how they layered, how they conveyed emotion. I even took screenshots and saved all the works I thought were “beautiful”, and studied them over and over again.

At that stage, my head was full of beautiful, delicate, and richly layered paper carving works. As time went by, when I started to create my own paper carving wall art, I didn’t even need to “design” deliberately— many visuals, ideas, color combinations, sense of depth would naturally appear in my mind. Why? Because what I stored—materials, memories, experiences—were all “beautiful”, so what I expressed would naturally lean towards “beauty”.

You’ll realize that aesthetic is actually a result of input. The more you input, and the better you input, the more beautiful your output becomes.

Let me give a simple example:
 If there are two total photography beginners, one only occasionally takes some pictures, the other looks at world-class photography masters’ works every day, studies composition, studies lighting, and forces themselves to take 100 quality photos every day— Who do you think will have better photos after three months? Who will improve faster? Who will have better “aesthetic sense”?

No doubt, it’s the one who is passionate, serious, keeps learning, and is willing to practice a lot. Because passion brings focus; focus accumulates a huge amount of “beautiful materials”; over time, these internalize into your own aesthetic intuition.

So today, if you ask me: “How do I improve my aesthetic sense?”

My suggestion is very simple and very real:

  1. Find something you truly feel connected to ~ Whether it’s paper carving, photography, floral design, home décor, beauty— as long as you feel something for it, there’s a chance to build your own aesthetic system.

  2. Look at beautiful works ~ Don’t just look at “what is taught”, but more at “whether it’s beautifully done”. Save those visuals that move your heart. It’s okay to imitate at the beginning.

  3. Practice and output in large quantities ~ You don’t need to be perfect from the start, but every attempt will force you to become more sensitive and detailed.

  4. Review and correct afterwards ~ Re-evaluate your past works: what’s wrong? What can be more beautiful? Only by constantly correcting can you improve.

At Kamicarv, the reason why our works appear more and more mature, more and more delicate, is not because we have some special “aesthetic talent”— but because we never stop practicing how to “see beauty”, how to “create beauty”, and how to become a “vessel for beauty”.

Aesthetic sense, is actually the result of “long-term focus on one thing you love”.

If you love it, you’ll pay attention. If you pay attention, beauty will come to you.

Not sure if you agree? If you think this article is helpful to you or your friends, feel free to share it.

( Translated from the original Chinese text )

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