Practice
Practice can be playful, especially when practicing the skill of exaggeration.
Practice becomes performative when focused on demonstrating technical skill.
Documenting visuals from real life is the practice of negotating between the subject and the material used to represent it.
Iterating on the same subject is a great way of understanding what elements are essential to simplifying that subject accurately.
In order to learn, you have to be willing to be wrong. That's the key to experimentation.
