Working Through the Rough Spots

Bottles,
A still life in Oils

I can't believe it has been almost a month since I posted.

Way to long.

Not that I have not been busy with art, just the opposite!

It has been a totally busy month!

I am working on two paintings and many, many projects with students at the Renaissance Art Gallery.

I am finally getting to a place where I think I will keep the paintings I am work on rather than destroy them.


Hollyhocks at that Ugly stage!

Doesn't it seem as if all works of art go through an "ugly" stage when you are sure you have ruined them?

It does for me. And the more I have invested in them the worse it seems.

One thing this does is that I can assure my students that this happens and if you work through it, believe in what you are doing it will turn out. Not necessarily as you first envisioned, but it will turn out!

I will be posting the final version(s) of my paintings next week!

Drawing From Life, June 2014

 

 

Everything is beautiful and everything is interesting. Look around and see what is really there. Notice the texture. Notice the surface. Are the edges hard or soft? How does the light hit it? Examine it. Shadow and shading change constantly.

 

Drawing from life, ea. From what you see, it different from drawing from a photograph.

 

When you draw from a photograph, you are in essence coping the photographer’s composition, or point of view. The lighting, distance, arrangement are all ready laid out for you.

 

But when you are drawing from objects you have selected and arranged, it is different. Also, your perception of these objects are much different from when you look at them in a photograph. Photographs are flat.

 

Looking at the real objects gives you to sense of 3-dimension you will never get from a photograph.

 

Walk around and move objects. Let the arrangement be your selection not  what someone else selects.