Like in this painting by Verrocchio, in which the apprentice Leonardo painted the angel and some of the background. It is said that Verrocchio was not very happy with the work of Leonardo, who had by far exceeded his Maestro and decided to not paint anymore!

We are not Leonardo, but like him, we have been apprentices sometimes in our lives. To learn how to write, we started with lines and circles, fluently managing the component skills of writing. The practice of the medieval apprentice was intended to ensure that he -automatically- could manage the basic skills, freeing cognitive resources from his working memory for a thing which is very important for an artist: Creativity. Like Leonardo did in this painting. The key concept is the limited cognitive resources of working memory. So, if we want to get creative, brilliant in a discipline, we have to know the basics of it extremely well. Only if we can not pay attention to the basics, we can free up resources to become creative. When we are driving a car our attention is not focused on how we have to hold the steering wheel to turn the car. We know how to do it and we do not pay attention to this behavior. This allows us to free up cognitive resources that can be used virtuously (to pay attention to that bicycle that is turning) or incorrectly (texting with our cell phones). You can not be creative if you do not know very well the basics of the discipline that you practice.