Monday, August 22, 2011

Back to the drawing board....


I have GOT to start hitting this art thing hard again. WHAT is WRONG with me? I am incredibly unhappy when I'm not creating things...or less happy, anyway. I'm also unhappy with my current work. So you would think a sane, reasonably intelligent person would understand that practice is in order. I get it, I do... but it's distressing when you remember how great and talented you were (or thought you were) in high school, compared to where you are now. It's discouraging and just crazy-insurmountable to overcome that fear of failure. It's been pretty much paralyzing.

So, I know I need to practice. I need to make crap in order to make masterpieces eventually. Soooo, what to draw? That is always the stickler when I decided I'm going to do something. I get all my supplies together, pencil in hand, and can't think of a damn thing to draw. After looking around for inspiration for a while, I just give up, put the supplies up, and veg out. Very impressive, eh?

My next plan of action: I'm going to start copying works by artists I admire. I need to learn to control my colors. I can draw with reasonable accuracy, but colors are difficult. You wouldn't think so, but controlling colors are a bitch. This is yet another of my stumbling blocks. Anytime I use color, I end up with a gaudy mess, or at least something that doesn't live up to my lofty expectations. My grand idea is to try to mix colors to mimic other artist's work, in the hopes of improving my own control of color, composition and space...



My first attempt is a rendering in pastel, based on Aaron Bushnell's oil painting, "Carbon Monoxide Icicles," which was published in Southwest Art Magazine's 9/2011 issue. Just to clarify, this is not to sell, not to undercut the original artist in any way, this is practice. If you want to see a good rendering of this, Google "Aaron Bushnell." I love his paintings of urban landscapes and his "Reckless Impressionism," as he calls it.

It's not finished, it's at the "stepping back and looking at it before I eff it up" stage. BUT, it served it's purpose, it had me drawing SOMETHING, ANYTHING for a moment in time and hopefully put the squeaky machine in motion again.


Monday, February 21, 2011

With this painting, I wanted to experiment with gold pigment and black ink. I used a metallic gold fluid acrylic paint, layered with a heavier body acrylic. I first applied a blue acrylic wash, allowed/pushed the paint to flow in certain areas and allowed it to dry. This was repeated in multiple layers with the different colored paints and splattered with black calligraphy ink. Interestingly, the gold paint tends to blend with other wet colors differently than other colors. The metallic pigment does not mix with other colors, therefore, it stays more prominent when it flows into other wet colors.

Verdict: I need MORE metallic pigments!