How to be Happy as a Struggling Artist and Achieve your Dreams

I am suffering from an artistic slump.  I have a thousand really great ideas, but it seems that when I put pencil to paper, the idea falls very short.  I haven't stopped trying, but I'm not comfortable sharing what I consider to be "failures" or at the very least "failures to launch"!  I actually get the feeling that with a little focus I could tweak these ideas and change them into the light bulbs of inspiration I think they are.  This being the holiday season, however, I am finding it difficult to focus on artwork, so I've decided to commit my energy to reading and learning for the remainder of the year (likely with some sketching on the side - I could never leave it completely).  I find that the important thing to do when I get into a slump is to find some way to keep moving forward - don't lose momentum and fall behind.  Take a different direction for a while and come back when I'm ready :)

On that note, I wanted to write today about a book I finished reading called "The Artist In the Office: How to Creatively Survive and Thrive Seven Days a Week" by Summer Pierre (2010).  The purpose of this book is to help creative types (artists, musicians, photographers, crafty people, etc), who are unable to commit completely to their art full time, find happiness in working a "day job" and still continue to create as their spirits demand.

I felt a strong connection with this book.  Until recently I was working full-time in a job that I was not very satisfied in.  I was working an off-shift, Monday to Friday, with a husband and 2 small children I almost never saw (except for weekends), I was always way too short on sleep so I could see them in the mornings, and I felt like I had no time for my creative endeavours (and felt guilty when I did find the time).  Does this sound familiar to you too?  I know a lot of artists out there are working full time (non-creative) jobs just to pay the bills.  Jobs they feel under-appreciated in.  "Soul sucking" I believe would be the term used.

Having been laid off, I have decided to take this as an opportunity to improve my life.  My previous job paid well, but I wasn't happy in it.  Time to find out what I can do to make changes so that my next job feels like the positive growth experience I want it to be.  That's what I hoped this book would deliver to me.  Tips and tricks to discover what I actually needed to be happy with a "day" job to help support my family and still keep my sanity as I work toward my dream :)

So, what does Ms Pierre suggest to artists everywhere?  LOTS!!  The book is divided into four parts: Why We Work, Your Artist At Work, Doing Your Work, and Ideas For Change.  Now, she is very firm in stating that no matter what you do at work, you must still DO YOUR WORK!  The work you do is the deal you made with the company in exchange for the money they pay you and it's important that you follow through with that commitment.  However, that doesn't mean that there aren't things you can't do to stay true to yourself too.

One of the first ideas that I resonated with was the idea that an artist (no matter your art) is "always at work".  You go to your day job, work your 7-8 hours, then go home and continue working the remainder of the day doing your "art" work and "home" work.  Many creative types (and a lot of the rest of the world too), consider that when they are working on their art that they are in down time.  This can be even more true for those that must use weekends and vacation days to promote, or work on their art.  But it isn't true.  The time spent on your art is still work and the sooner you recognize that, the happier you will be.  Yes it feeds your soul, but it is still work and should not be considered "down time".  On that note, be sure you take real down time occasionally to prevent burn out.

The second idea that I needed to hear from the author was "The Obstacles Are Your Life!".  How many times have you complained that your life hadn't started yet?  Have you ever looked back at your life and regretted that you didn't start sooner?  I know I have.  Comparing myself to other successful (and frequently younger) artists always made me miserable and I frequently wished I had started sooner so that my real life, my dream, could be realized sooner.  Ms Summer argues that there will always be obstacles in your life, even when you realize your dream.  That's what life is, a stream of obstacles.  But some of the obstacles, like learning a skill, improving a skill, discovering an easier way to do things, are necessary and should be acknowledged!  However, if you want to make a living doing your art you are going to have to take action on what you've learned too.  For me, that's the act of actually making art :P  I love doing it, but I'm sometimes nervous that I don't know enough to do it justice which leads me to more research and less art.

With these 2 ideas in mind, what can be done to feel less like I am in a soul-sucking rutt, depriving myself of being myself and working towards my goal of making a living off my art?  Well, according to the author, there are many things to work with and I'm going to list some of them for you (this is only a few of the ideas she offers).

Keep your creative self at the office, as well as at home:

- find ways to keep a positive attitude: limit gossiping and complaining about work (negativity sucks the soul out of creativity)

- appreciate your job by making a list of things it provides for you (being as specific as possible in the details)

- find ways to make the commute more enjoyable (listen to books on tape, do guerrilla artwork with chalk on the sidewalk, walk some part of the way, take pictures of the trip, etc)

- take lunchtime adventures (visit a nearby store: books, flowers, gallery, etc, go to the park, write in a journal, etc)

- collect all the squiggles and sketches you make while on the phone and paste them into a sketchbook

Get out of the rutt by actively moving towards your goal at home:

- make a list of things that you could do to work toward your goat that would take 10-15 min (sketch, write, research agents/galleries/etc)

- make a list of what you spend your time on in a day - you will likely find that there are items you could remove as being "time wasters" to help give you the time you need (tv and internet are good first sources to limit)

- join a group - there are groups out there for EVERYTHING!  Some require you to pay a membership fee, others are free community groups, both are beneficial.  Joining a group can help to provide motivation to take steps toward your goal as well as provide support and advice to do so.  A quick google search can help you find something suitable.  I am a member of a group that meets once a month, and a group that is only connected online through a forum.

- write down what your ideal life looks like.  Who are you with?  Where do you live?  What foods do you eat?  What is it you do full time?  What do you do in your down time?

- look at that list and see if there's anything you could change in your life right now to make that dream life more real

- limit worrying as much as possible.  A lot of energy can be spent worrying on something that may never happen.  It doesn't help move you forward unless it's something you can take action on - in which case do so.

- Give yourself space to work (and think) by removing all the items in your home that make you feel shabby or guilty or in some way make you feel down on yourself.  Donate the items to charity or give them to people you know would enjoy them.

I truly recommend this book.  It's full of original drawings and exercises (I barely scratched the surface), and motivational quotes from famous artists and writers.  I am working through the exercises myself and finding ways to re-think my life and what happiness means for me.  I am working to be more active in the groups I have joined, acknowledge the work I have done as much as the work I haven't to achieve my goals, and I'm trimming away the clutter.  Already I feel much better about my life and where it's going, and I feel that I can be in control of my life again :)

Staying organized

(image curtesy of teachersatrisk.com)

I must start this post off with an apology.  I have been neglecting my blog lately and I am sorry.  If it makes it any better, I have felt increasingly guilty about this over the last several days. :(

Why, you may ask, have I been neglecting my responsibility and commitment?  To be honest, I have to blame multiple factors:  the up-coming holiday season, the various projects that I have planned and initiated (nothing to do with art unfortunately) for the holiday season, the upcoming plans I have been arranging for the girls' holidays since they will be home full-time for 2 weeks!  And oh so much more that my brain feels like it might collapse under all the weight of stuff to do (not unlike that desk up there)!!!

I'm sure I'm not alone in this situation.  There must be an entire planet - maybe even this one - of people feeling overwhelmed with their various commitments this time of year.  So I thought I'd try to help out a bit by presenting some of the tools I use to help keep myself in order.  Of course, these tools work best when you actually use them, which I also sometimes neglect to do.  I admit that lately I haven't been using them as much as would help me either.  Gonna see to that.

So...to my list.  Speaking of lists, I LOVE lists!  I find I am most productive when I can write down all the things I want to get done in a day; the big and the small, the easy and the more difficult, the likely and the "I wish".  But my absolute favourite thing about lists is crossing off items when they are complete :)  What I don't like is all the paper I use and the pieces lying around after.  This brings me to my first tool:  Wunderlist

Wunderlist is a free app that you can download to your iPhone, iPad, Mac, Windows, Android, Kindle and the Web.  It's a pretty basic app, but also very versatile.  You can pretty much create lists for anything you want to.  Here's a shot of my copy:

 You can see I have multiple lists ranging from things for my house (like Weekend), and Things to Sell, and of course, projects to work on in my Studio.  There are more features that I haven't played with yet, like a timer option so you can set up WHEN you want to get something done or done by.  

When an item has been completed, you just check the box and the item moves from the top to the bottom and is "greyed" out.  What's neat about this is for things like my Weekend list, where some items are the same every week, like groceries or laundry.  So the next weekend, I unclick the repeat items to return them to the top area and voila!  I'm ready with my list quick and easy!

Speaking of timing and getting things done "on time", my second tool is the good old calendar
function that comes with my OS - either Outlook for PC, or Calendar for Mac (or if you're online a lot, Google has one too).  Appointments are obvious things to put in, but other things I have in there are things I want to be reminded to do.

For example, I like to work my brain with Lumosity daily, but I don't always remember to do it.  I type this item into my calendar and tell it to repeat daily and send me a reminder message 15 min before a time I that have set up.

You could also put things in there like dates bills are due, or reminders to shop for birthday presents/cards.  You can assign priorities to the items as well so that you can stay on track for the most important things (my problem with this specific function is that I feel that if I bothered to put it in the calendar - it's important so prioritizing won't help :P).  There's almost no limit to this tool and you can print it up and put it on the fridge if there's a lot of family items on it to help keep the family on track.

My third tool might be a bit less obvious - Pinterest.  Pinterest is like an online version of a bulletin board.  Just like you could pin up notes and ideas on a bulletin board, you can collect website address links (say blog posts for example) and create multiple boards (or you can think of them as folders if you like) to "pin" or save the link for future reference.

I am a creative person and there are probably about a million things that I want to do, or see, or set up.  I'm not really sure how other people use it, but for me it's a great place to put ideas for recipes I want to try, sewing projects and other DIY things I see on the internet that I think are really cool, or even tips I might find on decorating my house or gifts I think would be perfect for so-and-so.

At the moment I have 16 boards with 617 pins.  That's a lot of ideas that I don't have to go searching around for on the internet in one of my frantic moments when I'm looking for something specific I saw, and oh man, what site was that on again?  What search words did I use to get there?  The boards are organized the way that's most useful for me.  I've actually become a bit addicted to pinterest because I love finding something new and adding it to one of my boards to read in more detail later.  Then, if I don't like it, I just delete the pin!

There are oh so many more tools available in today's advanced technological age - and many of them are free!  You can also find apps that are more specific to a particular niche - for example, try googling "Apps for artists" and you will get 186,000,000 hits!  That's a lot of potential help!

I'd love to know what tools/tricks you use to keep yourself on track!

Preparing a Composition - in 8 steps

In continuance with my earlier post regarding Ian Roberts' book "Mastering Composition", I wanted to lay out the steps of creating a finished composition both to formalize it in my mind and to share it with others.  You may want to grab a coffee or something, this may take a bit of time.

1) So, let's say you want to do a painting/drawing/etc.  What's the first thing you do?  I'm pretty sure it will be to choose your subjects.  Will it be a still-life/portrait/landscape?  Will it be from a reference photo or from life?  etc, etc...  Okay, you've answered these questions and prepared your subject.  Now what?

For an example, I'm going to use this frog clip art image.  Isn't he cute?!

2) The very next thing that should happen is deciding what size the final piece will be.  This is important because when you start your thumbnail sketch, you will need to know the proportions for each side of the thumbnail.  Otherwise you get a great thumbnail that you can't transfer properly to your final medium because the proportions are all wrong (trust me people this is very frustrating!).  So, taking the final piece dimensions, determine the dimensions required of the thumbnail sketch.

Now, there are going to be about 3 stages of drawing here, so stay with me.

3) Lay out the dimensions of the thumbnail sketch on a piece of paper or sketchbook.  It shouldn't be too large, but also it shouldn't be too small.  Start at around 2:3 to begin at first, adjust these dimensions accordingly for your finished piece.

4) Using a light touch with the pencil, divide the square/rectangle into 9 even squares (think tic-tac-toe board).  This "grid of thirds" is an important component for composition.  It allows a natural and pleasing arrangement of your subject to the final work and provides 36 reference points.  It also helps to align things up vertically and horizontally, as well as providing a simple means for finding angles easily.




When laying out your drawing, try to think in terms of composition.  What shape armature will you be using?  How will the focal point stand out?  How will you draw the viewer's eye to the focal point?

5) Now it's time to lay in your subjects onto the grid.  Try not to be  too detailed at this stage.  Just rough in the shapes, proportions, and angles.  Now, work in the values - keeping in mind that your primary subject/focal point should have the most dramatic contrast (lightest lights and darkest darks), while the surroundings should have less contrast.

                                                                                     

                   
                                                 

                                                                                                           
6) Take a step back and look at your thumbnail sketch.  Is the image appealing?  Do the shapes draw your eye?  If not, it's just a thumbnail, try again but change some element.  If your first attempt was a landscape/horizontal orientation, try again in a portrait/vertical orientation.  Try placing the focal point somewhere on or very close to the innermost square/rectangle on your grid of thirds.  Zoom in.  Zoom out.  Simplify.  I think you get the idea.

7) When you have a successful thumbnail sketch, it's time to translate that into a drawing with details.  Get yourself a piece of sketch paper (it doesn't have to be fancy, even computer paper will do).  Enlarge the dimensions of the thumbnail sketch appropriately to the sketch paper.  Copy your image, this time adding any of the minor details you left out of the thumbnail sketch.  Use your grid of thirds to help transfer the image accurately.  Be sure to keep the values from the thumbnail sketch for your drawing.

                            



You may find this step more challenging than the thumbnail sketch.  I find that sometimes it takes me a few tries to get the dimensions right with a bigger picture.  Pencil lightly so you can erase easily, start over if you have to (I know I have).  Okay, great - you now have a map for your finished piece!  The majority of the hard work is done, it's time now to play in your favourite medium to create your piece.

8) By whatever means you are most comfortable, transfer your image to the canvas/paper/etc.  If you need to enlarge it from your sketch, try another grid of thirds, or if it's the exact right size, use a lightbox/window to transfer it directly.  Block in your large colours/values first (obviously this would go a little differently if you're working in water-colour, so adjust this accordingly).  Slowly build up your colour/value layers to the detail point, all the time following your map.


                                              
                                                                                           
It's important to stay alert and focused in this step.  It can be very easy to let the mind relax and just go through the motions, but that's when mistakes happen and you can't always correct them easily.  Pause every so often to step back and check your progress against your map.  Hopefully though, everything has gone very well and you have a finished piece that you can be proud of!
  




I know that this is a lot of steps.  And I'm sure you shook your head at me a few times and said "But I just want to paint!".  Believe me, I'm with you.  This is a LOT of work, and there are times when you can just go play with your paints and see what comes out.  Experiment, have fun.  But there are also times when you'd like to do something a little more formal.  Something that reflects your skill and talent for any viewer to see.  That's when these steps become important.  And the good news is, if you like the final result, you can easily try another painting of the same subjects with different colours, or colour relationships because you already have a map laid out and ready to go!

If you're having difficulty working with these steps, I highly recommend Ian Roberts' idea of "A Composition A Day".  I've been doing it for a week or so now and it's really helped me see the steps more clearly and better understand my options (which seem infinite) and how to use them.

If you have any questions or comments about these steps I'd love to hear from you :)

An Interesting Issue

I ran into an interesting situation the other day that I feel the need to talk about.  It occurs to me that today's technology is having an unusual impact on people, that I'm not sure everyone has thought about.

Before I start, I just want to say that I don't consider myself to be "techy" (is that a word?).  I mean to say that I don't go out and buy the latest and greatest technology; I don't own a tablet, my smartphone is only moderately intelligent, I don't own the latest gaming system or even the newest games.  I try to keep my life simple, with as few complications as possible which is why until recently I haven't even been using many apps (either on my phone or my computer).

That being said, I never thought that I spent that much time typing or using my fingers/hands in a strictly technological way.  However, because my study-style requires me to hand-write my notes, I noticed that my muscles distinctly had something to say about using them in this new way.  I was not expecting to wake up the other morning with a sore hand because it was not used to writing.  How weird is that?!  How many of you have noticed something similar?  I'm sure this is an age-dependant question these days.  Anyone born prior to the '90s likely understand this better than those born after.  So to those born before 1990, have you noticed how little actual hand-writing you do in a day anymore?

It's not surprising after this to learn that schools are looking at removing learning how to write (draw letters, etc) from the curriculum.  I believe the last article I read about the subject was that schools were looking to remove "writing", but still keeping "printing".  This seems to me to be a strange concept to wrap my head around.  I guess "writing" would become one of those skills you'd need to take a special interest class in - like calligraphy, or stained-glass making.

I haven't decided if this is a good or bad thing, or if it's just a reflection of societal and technological advancement, but it hit me in a "how weird is that" kind of way.  I grew up with the primary method of written communication being hand-written and it was important that it be legible to others, so regular practice was paramount.  I have two young children and it feels strange to think that while they will likely learn more in school than I did, but also that what they learn could make what I learned to be antiquated.  Is hand-writing going to become similar to using data cards to program computers?

Spending a day with a hot pack around my hand was definitely surreal.

Mastering Composition

Have you ever had a painting that was so frustrating to work with you just wanted to give up?  Did you in fact give up with a frustrated scream?  Have you ever worked on a piece for HOURS only to find out at the end that you hated it?  I have to say that I feel your pain.  I hate when I've worked on what seemed like a very promising piece for hours, or even days, to come out at the end with something that just lacked.  The colours were great, the value scale was awesome, the details were perfect, but still it lacked.  What a waste of time/energy/supplies!!!  I don't know about you, but this sort of thing drives me bonkers!

Well, it may be that what you need is a polish on your composition skills.  As I mentioned in my last post, I am working hard studying the various aspects of artistry.  One of the things I'm studying is a book by Ian Roberts called "Mastering the Art of Composition".  An excellent book, by the way, I highly recommend it.

In this book he talks about the aspects required in design and composition of art.  What grabs your attention from across the room when you look a piece of art?  Is it the subject matter?  Not likely, as you probably can't quite see it.  Is it the colours?  Again not likely as they probably blend together a bit with distance.  It could be the value contrasts, and/or the arrangement of the value shapes within the piece.  I am simplifying here, after all, it takes Mr Roberts a whole book to explain this well.

He also talks about how composition and design have to be the FIRST things you think about, even before you start painting.  If your composition is poor, nothing you do in painting (colour, value, intensity) will correct it and make it a good painting (sound familiar?).

He discusses the use of certain tools, like a viewfinder (he even describes how to make a pretty cool one yourself with some card and acetate), a grid of thirds, a thumbnail sketch, and a perceptional shift to see in value masses, not details.  He advises studying paintings you like, that grab your attention, to learn what the artist did and improve your own compositions.  Using paintings by the Old Masters (who had much fewer tools to work with than we do today) to discover how they achieved so much with so little.

Above all, Mr Roberts recommends doing "A Composition a Day" for a year or so.  These should be small (4" x 5"), in pencil (say B, 2B, 4B) and use objects that are around you in your life.  He compares it to practicing the scales on a piano every day.  Nothing too drastic - keep it simple.  If you work attentively and with purpose, daily for a year, you will see a dramatic improvement in your compositions - or so he says anyway.  I intend to find out for myself and have started today with my first (hopefully of many) composition sketch.

 This is my setup.  I picked some toys from the girls that were simple shapes.  He also advised that an object in space alone is not a composition.  It's important to have a background to relate the objects to/with.  Many of his examples showed a light and dark divided background, so I picked a black sketch book and a white binder for mine.  My light source is single (mostly - I tried to ignore the light coming from the window on the left as it wasn't strong enough) and coming from the right.

And this is my composition sketch using the 3 recommended pencils.  I can't say how well I followed Mr. Roberts' direction, but I think I did OK for my first attempt.  It didn't take too long either - I'd say about 30 min from setup to finished drawing.  The hard part was squinting to see the value masses and eliminate the detail from my setup.  White objects would work better I suspect.  I look forward to continuing this exercise tomorrow.

I'm not quite finished reading his book yet, only about halfway really.  But so far it's been a highly educational read and I can see that if i stick to it, how my art will improve.

The art of studying

I've been hitting the books pretty hard the last week or so.  I'm learning about composition, negative painting, setting up an online store (website), and marketing strategies for artists.  It's so much information in fact, that I'm having absolutely no time to do anything art related (even sketching)!  Add to this the Christmas season is upon us and forget about it :P  I have so many ideas jumping in my head, from drawings, paintings, learnings, gifts, gifts to make, supplies to get, that my head is spinning!!

Don't get me wrong, I'm loving all the stuff I'm learning, but I find it hard to switch gears from reading and making notes, to being creative.  It's ironic isn't it, considering that what I'm learning should improve my ability to be creative?!  I'm not sure why it is, especially as the books, etc I'm learning from all keep pushing for the reader to practice, try it out, work it through, etc.

Maybe it's because I'm learning from home, working at my own pace.  I want to get all the information in before I sit down and try to apply it.  Sounds kinda backwards doesn't it?  Ah well, you've pretty much summed me up right there :)

Anyway, I have so much stuff that I'm learning and that I REALLY want to share with you!  This may take a few more weeks, but I promise to send out some interesting information your way soon.

Happy creating!

Learning about colour from Linda Kemp: Intensity

Painting to create contrast by colour intensity is a more challenging concept for a watercolorist, or at least it goes against everything I've ever learned about painting in watercolour!  The one thing every  watercolorist is terrified of is creating MUD!!  This can happen in so many different ways, but it's generally a result of using too many different colours in the painting.  Sticking to a few pure colours reduces the risk of mud and keeps the painting vibrant.

However, as Ms Kemp points out, a painting done with contrast by colour intensity can have a softness and elegance to it that a more colourful, value contrast painting won't have.  

Intensity contrast comes about when an artist takes advantage of complementary colour relationships.  These are the colours that are opposite each other on the colour wheel.  When these colours are mixed, they create a neutral colour (also known as mud, grey, dull, etc).

In this example, I followed Ms Kemp and painted pure orange, then mixed very small amounts of blue to gradually create a firm neutral colour (neither orange or blue).

With this in mind, I followed along and created this painting.  Again, the point is to have the contrast be a result of the intensity of the colour, not any dramatic changes in value.

I'm not sure I got the exact right shade for my neutral, but I think it still works.  The orange and green stand out very well without the neutral colour being too dark.

I found this to be the most challenging of the three concepts to work with, but I also think that I can better appreciate paintings that have been done this way.  I know I used to look at paintings that were done only in neutrals with some hints of pure colour here and there, and wonder why - what was the point.  But now I have a better understanding of what the artist was trying to do and why.  

The trick with this type of colour relationship I think, is to find an appropriate means of using it.  That's probably the trickiest part about it.

Well, this was the last colour relationship in Ms Kemp's workshop and I definitely learned a lot!  I found that she broke it down very nicely and easily conveyed each concept.  If you haven't read my previous posts on Value and Hue, just go to my blog page - they were all posted very close together.

Learning about colour from Linda Kemp: Hue

Today I followed Ms Kemp as she introduced to me the concept of contrast by hue (or colour).  Basically by this she means following the colour wheel in analogous colours, creating contrast by the hue.  Analogous colours are those that are beside each other on the colour wheel and as such are related.  The nice thing about working with analogous colours is that you can't create mud, or neutrals by accident because all the colours are related.

To create a contrast painting by hue, it's important to remember that colours at the top of the colour wheel are lighter by nature (yellow) than those at the bottom of the colour wheel (red, blue, violet), but also the range of value does not go as far as with a value scale and will tend to stay in the mid-ranges.

Following along with Ms Kemp, I created 2 analogous paintings; one using warm colours (yellow, orange, orange-red,  and red), and one using cool colours (yellow, yellow-green, blue-green, and blue).

Unfortunately the camera washed out the yellow in my warm painting, but I think you still get the idea. Both paintings were done completely wet-in-wet, with LOTS of pure paint loaded on the brush.  The shapes don't really matter here, the idea was to learn the principle.  If you're thinking that the cool painting looks a bit more like a value painting - I have to agree with you.

Here I placed my value finder directly on top of the painting to see just how far the value range went.  From the scale, I think the yellow likely represents a value 9 (very light), and the blue looks to be around value 2 (very dark).  To me this was not a correct representation of a painting with hue contrast which should have a much smaller range of value contrast, so I decided to try again.

The only thing I really changed was the type of blue I used.  I went from cobalt blue (who knew it was that dark?), to phthalo blue which has some white in it.  Please forgive the rectangles in the background - I used a piece of watercolour paper that I had used before, just painted on the back.  I guess it shows through :P

Here are the two paintings right next to each other.  You can see that the one using the phthalo blue has got much less of a value contrast than the one on the bottom with the cobalt blue.

This was a very fun exercise and super quick to boot!  I can't wait to try this out in a painting!!

Learning about Colour from Linda Kemp: Value

In my never-ending quest to improve my skills, I started following colour-theory lessons by Linda Kemp, a renowned and well established artist.  I know, I know, "Colour theory...ewww how boring!".  I can't agree more!  I also find the topic incredibly terrifying!  There seems to be no end to the rules and arrangements of how and when to use colour.  However, the title of Ms Kemp's video "Simplifying Color" does give me a sense of hope that I may be able to finally grasp this usually very dull topic :)

She's approached this subject very systematically, which I appreciate.  The video starts out by outlining the 3 properties of colour: Intensity, Value, and Hue.

You can see in this strip that Intensity contrast is when you contrast a pure colour with a neutral colour, thereby making the pure colour stand out.  Value contrast is when you paint from the lightest light to the darkest dark (here the orange is lighter than the black).  And Hue contrast is when you paint contrasting colours (i.e. orange and blue) to make either or both stand out.

In this post I will be focusing on my work following her Value contrast lesson. 

First, it was important that I understand the relationship between light and dark values.  Similar to a black/white value finder, I followed along to create a gradation of values using only water to change the colour.  I'm not sure I succeeded too well here, as I seem to have a lot of gradations that are very similar in the lighter values, but hey, I tried!

Next I was to learn the difference between "low key" and "high key" paintings.  Low key paintings use values ranging from mid to high (very light/white), while High key paintings use values ranging from mid to dark (black).  I think I did okay representing the high key values, but the low key values gave me some trouble.  I'm not sure if they were supposed to have more blue in them to increase their value levels or if I was supposed to keep the colours pure and specifically choose ones that would have a high value level.

Now onto the fun part :). 

To illustrate her point, Ms. Kemp chose to demonstrate how to paint a value contrast painting (following is my attempts to follow along).  The really fun aspect to this demonstration is that Ms. Kemp LOVES to work in the negative.  This generally means that instead of painting the shape directly (i.e. a circle), you paint everything else in the space EXCEPT the shape and voila, your shape appears!  You'll get a better idea of what I mean if you follow along :)

First I drew some flower shapes on a piece of watercolour paper.  Then, selecting a colour that could easily go from lightest light to darkest dark, I painted around each flower shape in the lightest value of the colour.

Next, when the paper was completely dry, I drew in some stems for each flower and mixed a slightly darker value of the colour.  Then I carefully painted around ALL the drawn shapes.

After the paint had dried completely, I drew in some leaves and a few more stems.  I mixed an even darker value of the colour and repeated my painting around the shapes.  At this stage, smaller "captured negative" spaces have been created that must be painted properly or it all falls apart.  You see the tiny dark green spaces between the flower stems in the upper-middle?  Those are captured negatives.

This was by far the coolest step for me.  I have always been told that in watercolour you MUST NOT ever use white or black, and I gotta say that this has been darned inconvenient at times!  But Linda has generously given permission to use these values to mix with colours to aid in creating the values necessary.  In this case, I mixed some black in with my green paint to create the darkest value.  I drew in a few more leaves and painted around everything accordingly.

It's really important when painting like this that I take a step back periodically to see all the shapes and how they join, and where their spaces are.  I came very close a few times to completely messing up the exercise by painting the wrong thing!

While I can't say the painting itself is incredible, you definitely get the idea of what a value contrast painting should look like.  Now, there's nothing saying that you have to do this process in the order presented here.  Depending on your preferred methods, you could probably mask out the white flowers, leaves and stems and start dark, lifting mask and painting lighter as you progress.  This would be an example of painting in the positive.

I plan to continue the video and present my efforts in my next post.  Wish me luck!

New Art Supplies!

I don't know about you, but I LOVE getting things in the mail - especially when it's art supplies that I've been anxiously waiting for!!!

So guess what?!  My order from Jerry's Artarama came in!!  I now have my very own gray scale and value finder, erasing shield, and proportional divider.  Theoretically, I should now be able to do much more accurate drawings (like portraits, etc) and paintings.  Now I just have to figure out how to use these fancy gadgets :)

Guilt, stress, and getting back into art

What emotionally fragile creatures we artist’s can be.

I have spent the last week suffering from stress and guilt - all studio related.  For almost a week I have not been able to get my foot in the door of my studio (which is quite a feat since it’s the spare bedroom right across from the master bedroom).  I have struggled with myself trying to discover the whys and potential workarounds: taking a sketchbook out of the room, reading up on getting back into art, trying to figure out why I can‘t get back in there.

The sketchbook thing didn’t really work.  For one day it worked just fine.  I managed a bit of sketching, laying out some future painting/drawing ideas and trying out some thoughts in general.  But after that hour or so, the sketchbook pretty much didn’t move from the coffee table.  Even though I had everything I needed in the room, I just couldn’t go any further.

I went to the internet for some much needed advice.  I hit on a few sites that basically said the same thing:

     1)    Buy a new (fun/pleasing) sketchbook

     2)   Spend 15 min everyday doing something creative  

     3)   Find inspiration (visit galleries, read books, watch DVDs)

None of these options really worked for me.  First, I have WAYYY too many supplies to justify buying one more sketchbook.  My sense of fiscal responsibility completely rebelled at the idea.  So that was out.

As I noted above, spending 15 minutes everyday drawing/sketching/painting won’t work either.  I can’t even put myself in my studio for 5 minutes and bringing my sketchbook out didn’t work either.

Examples for finding inspiration I have actually done.  I spent a lot of time watching DVDs, reading books and checking out finished work on the internet.  I did get a stirring of inspiration for techniques and supply, but nothing lasting or strong enough to get me working.

So.  When all else fails, what do you do?  Time to think back to my last full attempt in my studio.  What happened then?  If I remember correctly my last real attempt in the studio was when I tried out that new technique using charcoal to make a painting plan.  My first try was a fantastic success of an image of my daughter playing at the creek. 

My second attempt was disasterous!   What felt like a wonderfully successful portrait turned into the biggest horror story I’ve had in a long time.   In fact, the drawing is still in there, mounted on the drawing board and turned away so I won’t have to look at it every time I pass the studio….I may have figured out my problem…

Okay, so step one, get rid of that horrendous drawing!  Done.  A bit of tidying up and the room looks ready to come into.  With a big sigh of relief, I pulled out an old line drawing idea of a farm I did many years ago, a sheet of newsprint, and the charcoal stick.  Even though my last attempt with charcoal turned out so badly, I was still impressed enough with the technique to want to try again.  I didn’t go as dark this time, and I only put down enough to get the general idea in.

With that done, I had a brief inspiration to do a floral in the same manner.  I was really drawn to doing a sunflower image, but since I don’t have an sunflower to work from I pulled out some fakes to try.  I set up a container and some light and started sketching.

I think I worked in the room for about 45 minutes, with about 35 minutes of total drawing time.  I decided to quit when I was starting to feel tired and frustrated with the sunflowers.  Best to end on a high note :)

Only time will tell if I fixed the problem and can once again live guilt free and productive in my studio, but hopefully I’ve found the solution, at least until the next disaster :)

Wanton and Wild Creativity

With Hallowe'en approaching and the fall leaves in the air, my brain has been working overtime with creative ideas!  This has been both a positive and a negative.  I believe that any creative idea is a good one as it helps to exercise a very important part of the brain.  The trouble comes (for me anyway) when I have so many ideas that it seems like I am surrounded by a thousand butterflies and I just want to catch one, without breaking it!

Usually when this happens to me I do one of two things: I either frantically grab at whatever's closest and easiest and then ruin it, or I do nothing and am disappointed.  Well, actually either way I'm disappointed.  Whenever I grab at something I tend towards the project that's been bugging me the most.  Something that I should take my time over and think about.  But instead I do a half-bummed job of it and end up frustrated and disappointed.

I guess the trick needs to be to find a way to channel all that creative energy into a really great project.  Instead of trying to catch one butterfly in a swarm of one thousand that all look alike, to see where the most unique butterfly is.  It may not even be in that swarm you are focusing on.  I don't catch butterflies, as a rule.  I prefer to watch them from a distance.  But I do know that any time you want to catch something precious, it's best to find one that's a bit more isolated from the crowd.  Unless you're eating it of course, then it shouldn't matter, but I digress...

So, you can guess from all this rambling that I haven't started a new project yet.  I have been very productive doing sorting and organizing, collecting, cleaning and storing.  But no real project just yet.  I wonder how others deal with this type of thing.  Has it ever happened to you?  Please tell me I'm not alone in this!!

Fall Leaves Inspiration

I went out today, in the cold and rain, with my camera, in search of amazing leaf images.  I did not come away disappointed!!  The area I live in is awash in all the colours of fall.  We are fortunate enough to live near a forest trail, and every day when I walk my daughter to school, we walk through a small section.  To be surrounded by so many reds, oranges, yellows and golds, with just a hint of green here and there - fall sets fire to the trees and the imagination!

I will be the first to admit that I'm not much of a photographer, but I can make do with the pictures I take to try and create paintings from them.  I've also been watching lots of videos teaching colour theory.  What I want to create from the pictures I took today is a simple painting, hopefully taking full advantage of all the warm colours of fall.  Maybe it will help me feel warmer in the coming cold months of winter :) 

Lessons in Charcoal

In my last post I included a link to a youtube video showing how to use charcoal to map out a landscape watercolour painting.  I found it very inspirational and immediately set to work on a piece that had been in my pocket for some time:

This is modified from a picture I took of my daughter playing on the rocks at the stream near our house.  I felt it was a very busy composition so I used a matte that I had in my studio (for just such a purpose) to see if I could simplify it at all:

I really like the way the simplified version looks so far.  And the cool thing was it only took me a couple of hours to sketch this out!  It was incredible!!  I was so jazzed about how it turned out that I thought I'd try it out on a portrait I've been wanting to do.  

If you are looking for the image of how that idea turned out, you will look in vain.  Suffice to say that it turned out very poorly.  There's a thing in computer graphics termed "the uncanny valley".  It's when you get a picture of a face that is just so disturbing to look at because it's just "not right".  You've seen some of the talking humanoid robots that are supposed to look human, but there's something just not right about them?  That's it.  Well, my portrait looked like that.  I couldn't even look at it to fix it, that's how bad it was.

I won't lie - I was very disappointed.  So much so that I doubted my abilities and drawing sucks anyway, blah, blah, blah.  After a while, when my brain calmed down a little, I came to realize 2 things: 1) the demonstration was for a LANDSCAPE not a portrait - likely for good reason, and 2) that I need a better method of quickly sketching out portraits.  

The problem with portraits is that they need to be accurate.  There are numerous ways of getting that accuracy, and I've tried out a bunch of them.  One method I liked to date is using a grid to transfer/draw the portrait.  The only flaw with this method (other than having to draw all the lines and then erase them afterward) is that you really need a LOT of grids to have an accurate drawing - the more squares the better.  Then I watched a video by Carrie Stuart Parks on drawing animals and I found a new way - using a proportional divider.  It allows you to take measurements of say a specific spot on a small image and enlarge it proportionally to a larger drawing (with out needing to do math! Yay).  

I had no choice, I had to find and order one right away.  And now I can't do any portrait drawing until it's delivered in a few weeks :(  Whatever will I do?  Everything I can think of drawing right now seems like it would come out sooo much better with the divider!  Well...I guess I do have a map of a painting that I could do, don't I?  Hmmm.  We'll just have to see :)