What I seriously love about being an artist (despite being a former,
rather structured, computer engineer) is all the rule-making and
rule-breaking. Egads, it's a
free-for-all in the art world. I haven't
completed a full analysis, but it looks like half of the art instructors are
insisting you HAVE to do it this WAY and the other half is saying do WHATEVER you
WANT. I guess the trick we finally
figure out is pick-and-choose what we like and what feels natural (ish). As a rule-based person, this is quite a
challenge, but each class and workshop propels me through this particular
vortex!
There also seems to be a little "mantra" that goes along with
this cult - do something, then tell us what you learned. So here's the recap from my recent class and
the new things I learned:
- Block it in (largest object first, then middle,
then "baby bear")
- Make an interesting mud for the background
(huh, really?) fascinating concept this one - mud is made by mixing too
many colors together, but this idea was to mix all the colors in the
painting for the background as each object would be complementary to some
part of the mud. When objects are
complementary, they pop out even more.
Go figure.
- Get extreme on the composition - zoom in!
- Fine-tune the focal point
- Then destroy the other edges to give it drama
and interest (oh yeah, wild woman now!)
This one also loosens you up knowing that precision is not going to
survive to the end -- can't wait to try more of this.
Class paintings
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| Yellow Pom-poms in a crystal bowl (12"x12" canvas) |
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| Abstract composition / zoom (9"x12" canvas) |
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| Fruit Titanic (10"x10" canvas) |
You should have seen the size / shape of the bowl this
was in - humongous! I'm putting this one on sale at DailyPaintworks - let's see what happens. I love it.
And I painted some silly things -- okay the grammar police say NEVER
start a sentence with the word AND, but I just had to do it now that I'm
"breaking bad!"
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| Stuffed dog, house and bird (5.5"x5.5" panel) |
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| Stuffed dog, Embarrassed (5.5"x5.5") |
This is what you get for a couple hundred bucks and a few weeks of training. . . . LOL. I guess being able to laugh at yourself, take risks, and be willing to fail, are all part of the adventure.
Thanks for taking the time to read my blog and being a part of the
journey.
Enjoy - life is joy we make one moment at a time,
