Orchard

// September 2nd, 2010 // 3 Comments » // Uncategorized, creativity, painting

Wouldn’t it be nice to have some sort of magic wand, or marvelous technological art alarm that could replace the tricky business of determining when a creative piece is finished?

I’ve always found finishing a stressful act, whether it’s a poem, painting, blog post, or drawing (drawings are the absolute worst for me). Calling the piece finished is just so difficult.

Part of it is being critical of my own technical limits. There are always weak spots that can use a little tightening up, some editing or a wee addition to make it just so.

But too often that last little dab, or word, or pencil stroke can just throw the whole thing off. I’ve had that happen way too many times.

I called “finished” on this painting today, and signed it.

Then I saw a small section that could use a little work, so I worked it. Then I waved it round to dry those last few dabs of paint and scanned it before I could change my mind.

In the time I’ve spent writing I’ve checked out the image a few times and noticed small changes I could make.

But, no. No!

Stop it I say to myself. It’s done.

*****

How do you go with finishing your creative projects? Does it stress you out? Does it just make you sigh with relief?

Bubble Muse

// August 23rd, 2010 // 7 Comments » // creativity, illustration friday

This is my latest Muse piece, my painting style is swinging around like crazy at the moment. I’m experimenting a lot with trying to make my art more enjoyable to make and to look at.

I thought this would make a great Illustration Friday picture–the theme this week is ‘Atmosphere’. When I was painting this, the qualities I wanted the Muse to represent were air and lightness.

I’m preparing for a big art project that involves lots of Muse paintings–this is not quite the look I’m going for but I felt good after finishing this one, I feel like I’m progressing and getting closer to the look I want.

It’s very different from the Gypsy Fire painting, and also from the earlier Muse painting I posted. I’ve only recently switched from Goauche paints on paper to doing acrylic paintings–it feels like a whole new world is opening up for me. My studio is starting to fill up with paintings, some surpisingly good and some total crash-and-burn efforts. I’m learning some great things from the failures though, and they can always be painted over.

I’m doing a lot of thinking, and writing about the creative process and how we get inspiration. When I’m not writing I’m painting, and a part of my mind is tracking what’s going on there as well. The more I keep the idea of muses in my mind, the more real they seem to me. It’s like having a koan ripening inside me, I’m just waiting for all the pieces to come together.

Gypsy Fire (Part Two)

// August 17th, 2010 // 5 Comments » // curiosity, painting

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Wrestlemania with colour. That’s what yesterday’s painting session felt like.

Colour is something I really have difficulties with, most of my art has taken the form of black and white inked cartoons or drawings. One of the ‘rules’ I have for my blog is that each post is illustrated by me, in colour.

I’m slowly getting there and have noticed a shift with my level of confidence. Whenever I used to hit a ‘colour wall’, where I had totally messed up, I used to thow my hands up, throw the artwork into the nearest bin, and either start again or, more often, return to familiar ground and work in black and white for a while. What I’ve noticed more recently is that when I get stuck with colour I start getting excited about the prospect of getting in there and figuring it out.

This is a real shift.

I’ve made some total messes with my blog illustrations, but the pressure I put on myself to illustrate each post is starting to pay off. I’m still stumbling around colour-wise but I’m starting to see a difference.

So, the Gypsy Fire painting is moving along and I can see real colour problems with the backgound, it’s very gaudy and needs work. I’m using it as an opportunity to play a bit with glazes and try to experiment and pull it togetjher.

What I do like is how the Gypsy caravan came out. It’s almost exactly how I had envisioned it. The caravan is gaudy too, but it’s a Gypsy kind of gaudy and I was going for that. Intentionally gaudy is o.k., it’s the unintentionally gaudy parts of the painting that I’d like to sort out.

I don’t want to be a realistic painter, i never have. I want things to be off-balance, and wobbly, and weird, when it comes to form and colour (I actually think the world is off-balance, wobbly and weird, so maybe I’m a realist painter after all!). But, as much as possible, I want these to be choices that I make. I love happy accidents, but also want to be able to get the effects that I want without having to rely on happy accidents arriving.

The way I see it, the more skill I’m able to develop, the more value I’ll get from those happy accidents anyway. I’m looking forward to the next wrestling match.

Illustration Friday: Star Gazing

// August 14th, 2010 // 8 Comments » // illustration friday

Hi Illustration Fridayers!

When I saw this week’s theme I remembered an old sketch I had done, and knew I had to do a colour version just to have another shot at it. I love the idea behind this–that there are galaxies outside of us, but also within. I really want to develop it a bit more and make a painting from it one day.

Fortune Cookies For Breakfast

// August 12th, 2010 // 6 Comments » // curiosity, painting

The project I set myself today was to make use of the fortunes from the fortune cookies that came with last night’s Chinese dinner. I used them in the painting above. My son and I cracked the cookies open this morning and munched on them while I read out our fortunes.

It sort of went like this:

*crack*

Your blessings will multiply this coming month. Good luck!

Me: Well Finn, that’s good. Who doesn’t like blessings? I do! Like them, I mean.

Finn: munch munch. (Stares, unblinking.)

Me: What’s next?

*crack*

Patience is your alley at the moment. Don’t worry!

Whoops! Alley? What kind of fortune cookie creepiness is this? (Yes, it really says ‘alley’–click on the image to read )

Ally maybe? Is that  a mistranslation? It must be a mistranslation.

ha-ha-ha that’s funny. Ally good–alley bad.

And thank goodness too, alleys freak me out. You never know who might be lurking in one. Not me, that’s for sure. Isn’t that right Finn?

Finn: chomp chomp.

Me (thinking): I’m not sure I want a fortune cookie telling me “Don’t Worry!” Seems suspicious to me, does it know something I don’t know?

*Crack*

Finn: chomp chomp.

Me: chomp chomp. read read.

Remember three months from this date. Good things are in store for you.

Me (thinking): I can barely remember what kind of  Chinese food we even ate, good luck remembering todays date in three months time.

Finn: “Are there any more?”

*crack*

A bold and dashing adventure is soon in your future.

Me: Wow. Dashing? Bold is good–adventure and what-not–but dashing just sounds strenuous and unnecessary to me.

Finn: chomp chomp.

*****

A half hour later Finn is running (dashing?) in circles around the living room and through the kitchen whooping it up.

I’m left pondering the merits of feeding a four year-old fortune cookies before breakfast. I can feel my blessings multiply as he runs.

Gypsy Fire (work in progress)

// August 9th, 2010 // 6 Comments » // work in progress

This is a painting I’m working on for the Creative Every Day challenge. The theme for the month is ‘Fire’.

I’m enjoying this one, I’m really trying to play with vibrant colours and more movement in the figures. This one started with a beautiful fiery orange underpainting and then I layered that buttery blue all over.

I could paint blue and orange paintings every day for my whole life and not get bored–it’s my favourite colour combination. So this one is a pleasure to work on.

I’ve had it out all afternoon thinking it over and just letting the painting speak to me. I’m getting very fond of this couple, having loads of fun imagining their history together.

At this stage, I think there are a couple of elements that I want to add in tomorrow, I have something in mind. I’m nervous to shove in what I think needs to go there, but I’m sure it’ll work out. We’ll see how things go when I wake up.

*****