Should I Stay or Should I Go?

Good morning!
It's Monday, and normally I would be setting up the theme for the week ahead, so that I could write individual posts about that topic all week, but I need some help from you guys first.

I think my readership is still pretty low, because I don't have very many profile views, and few comments.

If you are reading this blog regularly, and could let me know (either by commenting or sending me an e-mail through the "Contact Me" feature on the right sidebar), I will know better how to continue. I would love to know if you just enjoy reading it, or if you are actually trying some of the ideas as well.

I really love writing on the topic of art, and trying to get others to bring it in to their lives on a regular basis, but unless I know that others are trying some of the exercises or gaining benefit from reading my blog regularly, it is hard to justify the time it takes to prepare daily for this blog, and I may cut down on my quantity of posts-or (dread)- let it go altogether.

Can you guys let me know what you think so far? I'd really appreciate it.
Thanks!
Lori

Color- To Mix or Not to Mix

To mix or not to mix color?- that is the question!

What I am talking about here is the idea of putting color down and not mixing totally beforehand on your palette but instead, letting the viewer's eye mix the colors optically.

This isn't a new concept by any means, of course. The impressionists exploited this idea to the fullest, with Georges Seurat's pointillism being the best example, where he used little dots of pure color to make up his paintings. Remember Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grand Jatte above?

I like to use a modified approach, inspired by the impressionist painters, in my own work. I try to resist the urge to mix every color perfectly on the palette first, but I do mix some of the colors. Others, I use in full strength, and place them in unexpected places.

Take a look, for example, at Portrait of a Cambodian Woman below. Do you see the pure reds and yellows used on her face? These are colors that I would normally use when mixing flesh tones, but I let them exist on the paper in their pure form.

As an artist, I encourage you to try this today. Work on paper, and use a toned paper if you can (even brown craft/packaging paper like in my painting) as your surface. Try to "see" the different colors in the subject. Part of it is imagination, and part of it is actually breaking down the colors you would normally use to mix the resulting color, and using those directly on your painting.

I hope you enjoy giving this a try today.

Stay tuned for my weekend post, with tips about setting up your palette.

I'd love to hear your comments, trials, tribulations and successes, so please comment if you can!

Make your Paintings POP!

To continue with our week-long look at color, I thought that we'd see today how to use color to make your paintings POP!

In yesterday's post, I talked about how you can use color to unify your work. Although there are ways to both unify and still "pop" with color, and I advocate doing both, today we will explore the pop factor.

I am not talking about pop-art, but instead about how to play certain colors off one another to make a visual impact with your work.

In the example above, a photo of my dog that I manipulated and digitally painted, I changed her reddish brown color to a yellow orange, and then used an aqua and blue combination for the background. I did this because yellow-orange and aqua (marked with red dots on the wheel below) are opposites on the color wheel- complementary colors- which tend to look really dynamic when used together in the same painting. You can see that I also marked the blue and yellow that are shown across from each other as well. I also used them in the same piece.

How about trying out a small painting utilizing color opposites on the wheel to give it a dynamic punch?! Choose any two colors directly acroos from each other on the wheel and use them as your main choices. Let me see what you come up with!

Unify with Color

This week, we are talking about color and it's power in our artwork. Let's focus today on how we, as artists, can use color to unify our work and make it great!

I believe that there are three ways that we can use color to unify a painting:
1. To use an analogous (or similar) color scheme throughout the painting
2. To work with a limited palette so that your mixtures of colors are all related
throughout.
3. To use each new color in many places in the painting to keep it working as a
whole.

Let's look at examples of these concepts in action!

First, take a look back to the color wheel that we all grew up with, shown above.

I mentioned yesterday that you might want to consider Don Jusco's color wheel as a better model for paints and mixing, but for general use in relating colors to one another, we will use the standard 12-color wheel that we are all familiar with.

If you choose colors within 3-5 positions from each other on the 12 color wheel, you will end up with an analogous color scheme, and it will look great- just like magic!

A twelve color wheel includes the primary colors- blue, yellow and red, their mixes (or secondary colors)- green, purple and orange, and the colors mixed by the secondary colors (called tertiary colors)- blue green (aqua), yellow green (lime), blue purple (violet), red purple (magenta), yellow orange and red orange.

Here's an example of one of my photos, which falls into the analogous color scheme, since it uses yellow orange, yellow, yellow green and green- colors within four spaces of each other on the 12 color wheel. Do you see how it all looks harmonious? No great secret. I just exploited the analogous color scheme that nature provided and I photographed!


Now, let's look at two examples of a limited palette in action. In the first example, not only is the palette limited to three colors, it is also nearly monochromatic. In the second example, linked here, notice how the artist got a full range of colors out of only three watercolor paints and the white of the paper. In contrast to her cool three-color palette, my painting below uses a warm earthy palette of burnt sienna for the red, yellow ochre for the yellow, and ultramarine blue (fairly neutral) for the blue, which was only used to mix with the burnt sienna to make a dark neutral shade, and not used as a blue on its own.

Finally let's look at one last example, to illustrate how to use color throughout a painting to unify it. The idea behind this concept is that when a new color is added, you use it in many places in the painting, so it looks as though it has a purpose. Notice in my acrylic painting below, titled Dutch Pollarded Willows, I have used yellow in the horizon line, in the grass, in the trees in the road and even in the sky.

Today, try a small painting using one of these principles or combine ideas to create a unified painting of your own. Do a little watercolor sketch or an acrylic quickie right in your sketchbook, and note how it compares to other work you've done. Give it a try- I think you'll like it.

Jump on the Color Wheel

Let's assume that you are all pretty familiar with what is known as "the color wheel" in art. Although you may understand the idea of the relationships between the colors, do you fully understand how you can use the relationships to your advantage when painting?

There are many versions of the color wheel, and lots of controversy seems to crop up about which is best to use. Sir Isaac Newton is credited with coming up with the first version of the color wheel, when he identified six beams of color in light, and then looped the ends together to show that the system was complete- a circle.

But Sir Newton was talking about LIGHT and we need to know how it all works with PAINT (or pigment). If you want to be as smart as Sir Isaac Newton, you can read up on all the theory that is out there on color and decide for yourself. But I'm guessing that you'd rather just paint instead, so I'll try to give you an idea of a few of the main schools of thought on which color wheels work best, and link to more info, if you'd like to read more, and you can choose a color wheel to use when mixing your paints.

Here is a lot of information on the color wheel from the excellent artists' website Handprint.com. If you read through even a little of the information, you will see that it is the opinion of the author or authors of that site that there are huge problems with the color wheel that most of us are familiar with (You know, the one with red, blue and yellow as the primary colors). The Handprint site is concerned primarily with watercolors, so keep in mind that the white of the paper is used as white in examples on other pages there that you may explore.

There is some additional information here and here on other ideas about color and color theory.

But perhaps the best look at how a modified color wheel can be used with the paints that we use as artists today is a color wheel that has been designed by an artist named Don Jusco. He makes his color wheel available as a free download here, if you'd like to try it out. Basically, the colors have been moved around, so that when you mix a color with its complement- the color directly across from it on the wheel- the result will be a neutral gray or black. In the popular version of the color wheel we all grew up with, when you mixed complements (yellow with purple or red with green), a mucky, yucky brown was generally the result. On this page, another from his site, here is a comparison of many of the different color wheels in easy-to-read language.

Today, why don't you try a small painting using Don Jusco's color wheel as the basis, and see if it helps you? In the last link before this sentence, he talks about making the shadows on a red tomato, by mixing cyan with the red. I know it sounds weird, but try it! Do a little painting with something red, and see if you don't get much better neutrals by mixing a cyan-like color with the red than the traditional opposite or red- green.

Share your results with us!

Weekly Theme-The Power of Color

How can you use color more effectively in your art to get a feeling across, make a statement or to guide people to look at specific places in your pieces?
This is what we are going to take a look at together this week- the power of color.

Whether you are an accomplished artist or one just starting out, everyone can benefit from a review on how to master the use of color better.

We all know the basics (recite this in a monotonous tone of voice with me): "There is a color wheel." "Red, blue and yellow are the primary colors.".....


But learning to work beyond the color wheel, with it as the core, will make your work sing, and put YOU in charge of what you want to get across in your work. There is no monotony on learning how to do this!

This week, we will take a look at the color wheel, understanding that there are many spin-offs and revised color wheels and systems, created by people who have studied the way color works, and artists who have used and modified them.

We will also see how color can work to unify a painting, both in the types of colors used together, and how and where you apply them.

We will look at setting up a personal color palette, and the idea of working with a limited palette, which tends to unify your work. We will also look at how color can create excitement in your paintings, and direct viewers on where to look.

Each day, I promise I won't give you a "blah, blah, blah" lesson on color. I will try to use my witty and charming repartee' (ha!), and give you examples of what I'm talking about, as well as links to other stuff on the net that you might want to check out about color. I'll also throw out a fun idea related to what we talked about every day for you to try on your art journal or on canvas or paper- something quick- to illustrate the lesson.

Come along with me this week, and learn how to use the power of color to make your work even greater!

Favorite Places in Art

La Orana Maria (Hail Mary)
Paul Gauguin
1891
oil
88x114 cm
Metropolitan Museum of Art

I'm posting rather late this weekend, but was celebrating my daughter's 10th birthday with seven energetic tween girls here for most of the weekend, so the blog took a big backseat yesterday and today, as I 'm sure you can understand!

Anyway, I thought I'd still get my post in for the weekend, since it is our last one with a focus on the masters, and tomorrow we will be starting with a new topic.

I was looking through many pictures of art of some of the most famous painters, and it struck me that, integrated with their personal style was a unique view of place.

Just think of Gauguin, and what place comes to mind right away? Or Winslow Homer, or Turner (a few places...)

My point is, that how the masters painted their favorite places imprinted upon us forever a beautiful memory of that place- whether we had ever been there or not.

The Grand Canal- Venice
Joseph M.W. Turner
c. 1825-1850
91x122 cm
National Gallery, Washington DC

I have never been to Tahiti or Venice, but Gauguin and Turner transport me there, and make me feel like I am visiting when I look at their work.

What can you get across about some of your favorite places? Could you paint or draw them in a way that would make others feel that they would like to be there? Would you just paint the landscape, or would you add people, animals or objects in the scene? How can you use color or the way you apply your paint or charcoal to create a mood of the place? Look carefully at your scene before you start, and remember what strikes you most about the feeling that you get from the place. Try to make it your goal to evoke the same feeling by the way that you paint or draw it.

Take a look at some of your favorite vacation photos and work from one that you like, or draw or paint a local place that you love that says something special about the place where you live and what you love about it.

Do this in your sketchbook or on a small canvas or watercolor block, and let us know about it! I'd love to see your results!

Do a Self Portrait!

Mary Cassatt
Self-portrait
c. 1880
Watercolor on ivory paper
33 x 24 cm

To continue with a look at how the masters handled different subjects and techniques, and what we can learn from them to apply to our own art, I thought I'd tackle the subject of Self Portraits today.

Doing a self portrait is a bit daunting, if you've never done one, but give it a try in your sketchbook today, and see what happens!

You can use a mirror, or even work from a photograph of yourself, if you wish, but I would encourage you to try the mirror method if you haven't done it before.

Set yourself up to draw or paint in front of a mirror. If possible don't choose a straight-on pose. Be careful to avoid a "deer in the headlights" look with your eyes, since you will have to stare at your image, and you don't want "the stare" to come out in your portrait (unless it is intentional!)

Paul Gauguin
Self Portrait-Les Misérables
1888
oil
45 × 55 cm

I have chosen some different self portraits that show a more bold approach to self-portraiture by Mary Cassatt, Paul Gauguin and a German artist named George Hendrik Breitner. You can work more quickly if you don't labor over every detail, so try to be a little bolder in your approach, to help with the time that you spend on this. Try to capture a likeness, but don't worry if you don't. Perhaps you are saying more about yourself than you realize in doing this exercise and are capturing a mood or attitude instead. That works too!George Hendrik Breitner
Self Portrait with Pince Nez
Unknown date


At the bottom I have uploaded one of my own self portraits. It isn't my very best effort- I sort of have that "deer in the headlights look," but it was done fairly quickly with acrylics on watercolor paper.

Give self portraiture a try. You'll be surprised at how fun it is!

A Look at Drapery with Sargent

Study of a Seated Man (1895)
John Singer Sargent

How are your skills at handling cloth and drapery in your drawings and paintings?

I looked through many of my art books last night and searched the net for the artist I would like to use to show a command of drapery, and John Singer Sargent's works kept calling me, because of the lovely way he rendered it.

John Singer Sargent, though born to American parents and a US citizen, lived most of his life in France, and later, England. He was born in Florence, Italy, and in France, until he was rejected by the 1884 Salon, at age 28, for his painting of Madame X, which was considered scandalous at the time. He was schooled in France, and was heavily influenced by his teacher there, Carolus-Duran, and by Velazquez, Frans Hals and the French Impressionist painters. Sargent was loved by many for his work prior to his showing at the Salon of 1884 and its ensuing controversy over the Madame X painting. He took the rejection at the 1884 Salon quite hard, and left shortly after to live in England. He traveled extensively all over the world and painted artists, people of the streets, US presidents and American tycoons. He is best known for his portraits, but was an accomplished landscape painter and and watercolorist as well.

The whole Madame X incident is pretty interesting, and there is a lot written about it that you can check out if you wish to, but in a nutshell, it was thought that her pose was sexual in nature, and too revealing. There was also flack about her pasty white skin, which was not accepted in that time. It might be a little easier to understand some of the controversy, if you glimpse at what the actual painting looked like when it hung in the salon, because one of her straps was falling off of the shoulder. Later, Sargent repainted that part, and the famous portrait as we know it has the straps up on her shoulders as it hangs in its spot in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.

Well, enough of the background! I am here to get you excited about drapery today.

I have chosen two examples of Sargent's depiction of drapery. In the drawing at the top of the post, titled Study of a Seated Man, he has rendered the model and the drapery in the scene in a very quick and deliberate manner. Take a look at how he has differentiated the planes of the fabric as it folds, by the use of light and modeling. It is almost abstracted in its shapes and with its limited number of tones used.

On the other hand, in his oil painting titled Fumee d'Ambre Gris (Smoke of Ambergris), the tonal shifts are more careful and subtle. I chose this example out of many good drapery examples of Singer because they look achievable to do in a fairly short time frame, and when we work in our sketchbooks or art journals, the idea is to work each day for a short time- 15 minutes to one hour at the most)- and try to work a little every day if you can.

Today, try your hand at a small scene with some drapery. I highly suggest setting up a small still life with a cloth napkin or something similar included in the scene. Keep the number of folds to just a few to keep this less complicated. How will you draw or paint it? Will you choose to do a quick, bold rendering like Sargent's drawing above, or paint it more slowly and carefully?

Since we were talking so much about her, here is the famous Madame X portrait. She has some drapery you can look at too!

Doodle Like the Masters!

Pablo Picasso. (Spanish, 1881-1973). The Kitchen. Paris, November 1948. Oil on canvas, 69" x 8' 2 1/2" (175.3 x 250 cm). Acquired through the Nelson A. Rockefeller Bequest. © 2007 Estate of Pablo Picasso / Artists Rights Society (ARS),Museum of Modern Art, New York

OK, I mean no disrespect by the title of this post, but some of the most influential artists of the 20th century created certain pieces that look like they might have been thoughtful doodles. What I mean by "thoughtful" doodles, is that they are not haphazard or mindless, and make great use of the space of the page/canvas, but they still retain fun and whimsey, which I think is what makes the doodling process so appealing. I thought it would be great today to give ourselves "permission" to doodle in our sketchbooks!

I was surprised to come across the Picasso piece shown above, which I found in the collection of the Museum of Modern Art online, and thought I'd share with you here. In this piece, titled The Kitchen, you can clearly see the influence of Paul Klee and perhaps Miro in the simple whimsical linework, and the flourishes.
Look at this piece below, by Paul Klee, and note the similarities- the great use of space, a wonderful integration between the negative space of the background, and the positive space of his design:

Paul Klee. (German, born Switzerland. 1879-1940). Heroic Strokes of the Bow. 1938. Colored paste on newspaper on dyed cotton fabric on board, 28 3/4 x 20 7/8" (73 x 53 cm). Nelson A. Rockefeller Bequest. © 2007 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn

On view at MoMA

Here is another piece by Klee, titled Twittering Machine. Notice the similar little shapes and flourishes to the Picasso piece at the top of the page.

Paul Klee. (German, born Switzerland. 1879-1940). Twittering Machine. 1922. Transfer drawing with oil, ink, and watercolor on paper on board with gouache, ink, and pencil, 25 1/4 x 19" (63.8 x 48.1 cm). Purchase. © 2007 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn, Museum of Modern Art, New York

Finally, my last example to share with you is one of Joan Miro's paintings, titled The Escape Ladder. Again, there are similar shapes and a similar "feel" to the Picasso and the second Klee shown.

Joan Miró. (Spanish, 1893-1983). The Escape Ladder. (1940). Gouache, watercolor and ink on paper, 15 3/4 x 18 3/4" (40.0 x 47.6 cm). Helen Acheson Bequest. © 2007 Successió Miró / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris, Museum of Modern Art, New York

What will your doodles look like if you do them with the intention of making the page interesting as a whole? Why don't you try it today in your art journal, and see what you come up with. Everybody has time to doodle. Right??

A Look at Ingres' Drawings

From Art Renewal.org

Yesterday, we looked at some of the work of the Fauves- the "wild beasts," as they were called.

Today, I thought it would be great to look at some drawings that show control and ingenuity- the work of Jean Dominique Ingres.

clipped from www.artrenewal.org

Jean Auguste Dominique
Ingres
French Neoclassical painter, engraver, draftsman, printmaker & violinist
born 29 August 1780 - died 14 January 1867
Born in: Montauban (Tarn-et-Garonne, Midi-Pyrénées, France).
Died in: Paris (Département de Ville de Paris, Ile-de-France, France).

I studied Ingres when I was in college, and at the time, didn't fully appreciate the beauty of his drawings. One of my drawing professors was fairly obsessed with the work of Ingres, and I grew tired of trying to "draw like Ingres" every day (ha! as if I could...) At any rate, I did come away from those life drawing sessions with an appreciation of how to integrate good linework with a sense of form.

I think what I love about Ingres' drawings the most is the finished/unfinished quality they have. His drawings were primarily done as studies for his larger paintings, but personally, I enjoy looking at the drawings more than I do the paintings, because of the quality of the line, and how he was able to integrate the areas of the finished and unfinished so that the drawing looks complete.

clipped from www.myamericanartist.com

Portrait of Madame d’Haussonville ca. 1842–1845, graphite, 9 3⁄16 x 7¾. Collection the Fogg Art Museum at Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts. At this point, Ingres had settled on the composition and squared the sketch for transfer.

I thought that today, in our sketchbooks, it would be great to draw something that is both finished and unfinished. Try to work on the drawing as a whole, so that it looks purposeful that you left parts unfinished.

Pay attention to the thinness and thickness of your pencil line. Lighten up the pressure to almost nothing as you render an edge where the light is hitting the subject. Make your line heavy and dark as it goes into the shadow. Look carefully at some of the examples of Ingres' drawings, and see if your drawing is helped by following some of the way he worked.

I have uploaded one of my own drawings as well, below. Give it a try!

WDE Painting- Fauve style

Here is my one hour painting, inspired from one of deepat's photographs of this weekend's Weekly Drawing Event.

Here is the original photograph, from the WDE, hosted by deepat this past weekend

If you read my previous two posts, you can learn more about Wetcanvas and their WDE or Weekly Drawing Event that is hosted each weekend by one of its members.

In my last post, I talked a bit about the Fauves and their wild color palette and bold way of painting, and I encouraged you to walk in the footsteps of the Fauves to day and try out a Fauve-inspired style that you can incorporate into your own work.

Below, are a few of my steps along the way- my art table set up, with the original reference photo above my watercolor paper, and two Fauve painting copies on either side- one by Braques and one by Vlaminck (The Circus- shown in post just befor this one).

I also snapped a picture of my palette set-up, my gesture underpainting, and the painting at the 30 minute point.

I'd love to see your work, if you attempted this (or any previous work inspired by the daily posts here). Just fill out the contact form on the right, and I'll get right back to you!

Weekly Theme- Learn from the Masters

Today starts the beginning of a new theme! I thought it would be fun to go back to our sketchbooks this week, and look at the work of a particular artist each day, trying out some of their techniques in our own work. What works in their art, and what doesn't? You are the master now, so take the things you like and leave the rest!

I just watched a documentary last night on Ovation- the arts cable station. It focused on the friendship that grew between Picasso and Matisse, and I was reminded of Matisse and the Fauve movement. Since we are just coming off of a week spent examining what contributes to "life" in art, I thought it wold be fun to look at a Fauve painter first. They were known as the "wild beasts" and definitely knew how to stir some vibrancy into their work! Perhaps we can follow in their footsteps today.

I found one painting by Maurice Vlaminck- the wildest beast of all-in the Wikipedia Commons, a public domain collection of 10,000 works of art. The painting above, titled The Circus, by Maurice Vlaminck, is a typical Fauve work- bright, crazy color, big daubs of paint, and an energistic delivery. Here is a link to another great painting of Vlaminck to illustrate his technique. It is even more colorful than The Circus, but since I am not sure of the copyright status, I will link you there to take a look.

I thought today, you might like to start off the week by painting or drawing in the Fauve style- go grazy with the color! Make big blobby strokes and broad areas of color! Add decorative flourishes! But don't lose sight of the strength of a good composition, and the ways the light and dark areas interact.

I sooooo wanted to participate in the WDE on Wetcanvas! yesterday, but got too involved with some art that I need to turn in for a show by Wednesday this week, and didn't get to it (boo hoo, sniff sniff). But I am devoting 30 minutes today to interpreting one of the WDE photos offered this week, and will pretend I am a Fauve while doing it- AND I will upload it to the post to share with you here and on the WDE forum as well. How about you? What will you work on today?

If you have some artwork that you'd like me to share here, just use the contact form on the right to let me know about it, and I will get back in touch and tell you how to get it to me. I set up the contact form to keep the automated spammers away, but I don't want to keep YOU away, and I'd love to see your work. If you agree, I'd also love to post it here in a related topic for others to see and be inspired by it.

I hope you have fun with this jaunt with the Fauves today. Just do something bold and quick. The idea is to do something every day if you can, to keep art an integral part of your life. Don't labor over it, just make it a fun and easy sketch or quick painting!

Now, I'm off to do MY Fauve painting......

It's the Weekend!

I think I have decided to post once over each weekend for my blog, instead of trying to scramble to get both Saturday and Sunday posts done in the AM each day. The weekends are busy, and filled with family activities, so I have decided to give myself a little flexibility on the weekends.

Sooo, we were talking this week on ways to keep life in your art, and are settling in to the end of this week's theme. For my weekend post, I'd like you to consider how the energy of the brush strokes or marks made on the page can contribute to the spirit of your artwork.

Something fun that you can try this weekend, is to head on over to the Wetcanvas! site, a great website for artists that is comprised of many forums, an art reference library, projects and more.

Something that I have enjoyed participating in on Wetcanvas! are the Weekly Drawing Events (or WDE's) that take place in the All Media Art Events forum each and every weekend. This weekend's host, deepat, has uploaded 16 photos for you to work from.

The idea is that you will choose a picture and work from it, posting your results at the two hour mark. If you are not finished, post at two hours with a WIP (for work-in-progress) in your title, and then post again at the completion of the work.

I have decided to participate in the Weekly Drawing Event this weekend, so I will post one more time here this weekend with my results. I plan to focus on making exciting marks or bold brush strokes to help keep my work lively. Why don't you do the same?! If you decide to participate, leave a comment here with your Wetcanvas! screen name, and perhaps a link to your post there.

I will post again by the end of the day Sunday with something that relates to our challenge today, using the WDE reference pictures for my inspiration.

So why don't you get those lively brushes and pencils out and go to town on something too?! I know you'll come up with something great.

Artist "Field Trip"

Clip art licensed from the Clip Art Gallery on DiscoverySchool.com

This week, we have had some lessons that might have felt like WORK to some of you, so I thought it would be great to schedule an artist's date or field trip for inspiration today, and take a little break from our "studies."

Ideally, it would be terrific if you could take some time on your lunch break and see some art nearby today, but if you simply can't work it in today, make an appointment with yourself to visit a gallery, museum or art show over the next few days. Try to make it something easy to do and achievable so that you actually do it.

While there, try and find work that has life and gesture, and notice the elements in the work that make it come alive. Is the artist working loosely? Did they use a dynamic placement for the pose or objects that created an interesting composition? Does it look like they began with a gesture drawing or painting and carried the gesture through to the completion of the piece? Are the colors used and the brushstrokes working in a way that gives the painting energy and movement?

If you have a small notebook, make some notes about what worked in the pieces that you liked. If the museum or show allows it, take a picture (no flash!), to keep and compare to your notes later.

Try to carry some of the things that you noticed into your own work in the weeks ahead.

I am constantly stimulated by the work of other artists. Being around the creativity of others makes me feel more creative myself. Often, after I visit an art show or museum exhibit, I am fired up to work on my own pieces.

Where do you plan to go, or what art have you seen lately that has inspired you? Leave a comment and let us know!

Keep the Gesture Going

Yesterday, we took a quick look at gesture drawing, and how the process can create energy in your work by starting your drawings or paintings off with a lively kick!

I begin nearly every drawing or painting with gesture. Starting with a loose, quick gesture directly on the paper or canvas, I then spend time developing that gesture to completion as a finished work. This process of taking a drawing or painting to completion can take hours or days, but I try to work with the original gesture in mind always, as I continue to develop it. My goal is to keep vibrancy and immediacy in my work, and if I work in the way described, I am much more successful in reaching my goal than if I start out with a stiff, blocky, "perfect" under drawing.

If you look at the examples I am sharing today, you can see a little of the way I progress. I do not have my very first gesture drawing captured, but in the top example, you can see how parts of the bare-bones gesture looked, in the areas that are not yet developed.

Today, why don't you try beginning a small drawing that you might be able to bring to completion over the next few days? Using yesterday's post as a guideline, and perhaps reading a bit more about gesture in the two links here and here, start a drawing of your own, and begin with a gesture drawing.

Then go back into that gesture drawing, further refining it, as you progress. As you refine, try to work as much as possible on developing the entire drawing. Keep loose in some places, and try to keep the feeling of life throughout the work.

Let me know what you come up with!

Start With a Gesture

...A gesture drawing, that is!

Most of us know about gesture, and if you have studied art, remember doing gesture drawings back in college or art school, but have you continued to keep them a part of your practice?

A gesture drawing is a very quick (one minute or less, generally) drawing that captures what a figure or scene is DOING, rather than the space it takes up on the page. In a gesture drawing, you would concentrate on the reach of an arm, the feeling of weight on one foot, the bend of the trunk of a tree, etc.

In one of my very favorite art books, Kimon Nicolaides' The Natural Way to Draw, he talks about gesture through the entire book. Here is a great quote about it's use:

The focus should be on the entire figure and you should keep the whole thing going at once. Try to feel the entire thing as a unit- a unit of energy, a unit of movement. Sometimes I let new students begin to draw on a five minute pose, and then, after one minute, ask the model to step down from the stand. The students stop drawing with surprise. I tell them to go ahead and draw, that they had started to draw and must have had something in mind; but usually, they are unable to continue. The truth is that they had started with some little thing, such as the hair, and had not even looked at the pose as a whole. In the first five seconds you should put something down that indicates every part of the body in the pose. Remind yourself of this once in a while by limiting a group of gesture studies to five or ten seconds each.

Gesture drawings are best done on larger pieces of paper- newsprint pads are great. Use a conte' crayon or charcoal and work loosely, letting your crayon travel on the page as your eyes take in the whole form and what it is doing. Don't get hung up about how it looks. This is more of an exercise for your brain than it is for your hand. If you begin with a gesture drawing and can keep that energy throughout your drawing or painting to completion, you will have something that BEGS to be looked at, because the energy of movement will draw people to it. But for now, we are taking baby steps with short gesture drawings.

Try some today! We will be developing gesture over the next few days, so get some practice in today on a few quick gesture drawings.

Today, practice a few of these gestures from life. These are easy to do in public on mid-size paper, because they are fast, and no one will realize what you are doing. Pets and family members also make good models.

Study First!

Today, I'd like to share a little bit with you about the value of doing studies before beginning a painting or drawing that you will be investing a longer amount of time developing.

Don't worry, it is not nearly as painful as getting ready for an exam! It's actually fun, believe it or not, and a great day to get your creative ideas flowing. In addition to looking at the values that are already apparent in a scene, you can add and change values around so that they look even BETTER than what you are actually seeing. It is one of the great things about being an artist. YOU get to choose how to portray your vision.

Studies are great to do in your sketchbook or art journal. I usually start with a value study that is true to the scene- blocking in the range of lights and darks that I actually see, in large areas first- no detail at this stage.

These types of studies can be quick or more developed, but I generally spend between five and fifteen minutes on a basic value study. It is just a tool, and not generally very striking on its own.

Next, I will do a second value study, but this time, will edit reality to my liking. I might add some additional dark areas to balance out the composition, or move things a round a bit. It is a little like making a map at this point, and you are moving puzzle pieces around until you like what you see.

Once I get to that point, I will do a bit more detailed value and developed gesture drawing of the scene, like you see above (about 30 to 45 minutes, give or take). We will begin going into the power of gesture tomorrow, but for now, look at the values in the drawing, and how they relate to the final watercolor painting below.

I am out all morning today, but when I return, I will try to locate my original value sketches for this painting, so that you can see what they looked like in the early stages, or I will re-create them for you and revise the post. This will get you going for now.

Why don't you take something you'd like to paint or draw and try the techniques described above as a way to start. There are two reasons why this tends to keep life in your work- first, you are really looking at the full range of lights and darks and are beginning to use them to your advantage as you plan your painting. Secondly, after you have drawn the scene a few different ways, your brain relaxes, and you can get right to the creative part when you begin the actual painting.

Try this, and I think you'll find that "study"ing (in art) really pays off!

Weekly Theme-Put Life into Your Art!

This week's theme is about how to make your art more vibrant and alive, and therefore, make it more exciting to both make and view.

This topic, more than any other in art, has become my biggest motivator for teaching. My work in years' past, though fairly succesful, lacked an energy about it until just a few years ago, when I began being mentored by an artist who changed my life in terms of how I approach my art. She introduced me to the book, The Art Spirit, by Robert Henri, and also had me follow Kimon Nicolaides' excercises in The Natural Way to Draw, among many other techniques during the years I worked with her. I continue to strive to bring the principles of "The Art Spirit" to my own work.

It was Henri's book and his philosophy that I have taken to heart as an artist, and with the excellent guidance I experienced with my art mentor, it has transformed my work. I will try to encapsulate some of the most important messages and techniques that I learned over the past several years about keeping motion, spirit, life and gesture in the work that we create as artists, and share it with you in my blog posts this week.

This week, we will begin with the concept of value, go into the dynamics of gesture and line mid-week, and add brush strokes and mark-making techniques to finish out the week. Hopefully, by next Sunday, you will have an idea of how to go farther with these techniques to add life to your work, and will continue to explore their potential as your work progresses.

Today, let's look at the concept of value. It is truly a very uncomplicated subject- just lights and darks working together to make a piece appealing. But understanding how to master value is one of the most important fundamentals of art, in my opinion, and is one of the most daunting to new artists.

Almost every new artist I have ever seen, begins with a great fear of value, even if they are not able to articulate that fear. Marks on the page are light and tentative. They are afraid to "mess up," so the impressions they make on the page are barely there.

Even more accomplished artists will only be able to progress so far, if their work lacks a full understanding of how to utilize value.

As an example, I would like to use a watercolor and pen and ink painting I did of Prague Fountain (photo above), the original reference photo contributed here in the Wetcanvas! Reference Library, and featured the week of 2/4/06 in the Weekly Drawing Event, part of the All Media Art Events Forum (highly recommended!)
In the painting at the top of the post, you will see how I tried to bring more life to an already beautiful photograph, using a variety of techniques, but especially darkening values. If we look at just value alone, you can compare the painting above to the photograph to see where I made changes, in hopes of making the scene more dramatic.

If you have photo editing software, you can take an original photo and deepen the darks and lighten the lights to view the dramatic changes that you can create before you begin to draw or paint it. If you work from life alone, do value studies first (more on this tomorrow!) to see how you can use the value changes to your advantage and make your work pop off of the page.

The last thing I will do here today to illustrate this topic, is to lessen the contrast and equalize the values of my painting, so that you can compare it to the version at the top of the post. Doesn't this version look anemic in comparison?


Now, try a drawing or painting today, and don't be afraid to put in those dark darks and white whites! A full range of values will make your work much more powerful!

The Shapes of Spring

I'm inspired today at the feeling of Spring coming and Winter departing, and thought I'd work it into our mini-challenge relating to our weekly theme of shapes in art.

If it is still cold and miserable wherever you may be, perhaps looking at a glimpse of Spring might make you feel better for the time you are making art today. Making art always makes me feel better about EVERYTHING, so it especially works when I'm cold and stuck inside. But today, as I look outside my window at my lemon tree, heavy with fruit, and fuschia colored azaleas covering my bushes, I am really into the idea of Spring- and flowers!

Two well-loved artists used flowers a great deal in their work, and both really exploited the boldness of color -and especially shape- of flowers. Of course, I am talking about Georgia O'Keefe, with her larger-than-life contemporary flower portraits and their wonderful shapes, and Vincent Van Gogh, with his crazy-beautiful views of irises and sunflowers. Who could look at the flowers painted by either of these artists and not feel something wonderful? (Well, I may be a bit biased, as these have been two of my favorite artists since I was a young girl, but just go along with my bias for this little post...)

Here is a simple quote I found by Ms. O'Keefe, that I thought related to the topic today"

I found I could say things with color and shapes that I couldn't say any other way--things I had no words for.

See! Georgia (may I call her Georgia?) knew the power of shapes, and you can follow her lead and be inspired to do the same today with your art.

Above and below, you will find two of my photos of flowers that you can work with today in your drawings or paintings. Look for the positive and negative space and how you can make the composition interesting by exploiting it. Look for the repetition of shapes in the petals. If you are reading this post for the first time today, look back to the other posts this week for additional posts relating to this one. We have spent our entire week focusing on shapes in art and how to use them to make our work stronger, with individual lessons and focus on how to do it. (Tomorrow starts a new weekly theme!)

Here are some links to flower paintings done by Van Gogh and O'Keefe (See Bella Donna, 1939) for you to take a look at, and inspire you.

Get drawing or painting, and have fun today working with the shapes of Spring!

Putting it Together-Shapes

We're almost to the end of our week focusing on shapes and how we can use and manipulate them in our work to create more powerful art.

Today, let's put some of the concepts we looked at this week together to work, and see what we can do with them.

Earlier this week, we looked at the shapes that can be made in positive and negative space, repetition of shapes in artwork and how to use them to your advantage, turning reference work upside down or sideways to see the subject in terms of shape better, abstraction of reality by using shapes as a starting point and more.

Here's an idea to try today- take a photo or a scene that you'd like to use as your reference, and divide a page in your art journal or sketchbook into three or four sections. Then try a few different approaches that we discussed this week in the different areas. You can use your artistic license to decide how you'd like to proceed, and have fun with it!

In my example, I worked from an old photo of the silent film starlet, Gloria Swanson. (After all, it's Oscar Night tomorrow night!)

You can see how I experimented with exaggerating parts (like the hand in the first drawing) and with the placement of the shapes that made her up within each section of the page. I tried different papers and media, too. Which one do you think worked best??

Give this idea a try, and share it with us here!