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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.
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I like how you handle the colors, really creative. I am painting through synesthesia which makes me see colors when I hear names and numbers. These colors I transform in paintings. Colors are my life.
Thank you for visiting. Painting through synesthesia sounds wonderful, my wife has synesthesia? is synesthetic? and I’m a little bit jealous
How could I not be all about a post that starts out with Wrestlemania with colour?
I love the work. And the shift in your relationship with color. And, most of all, what you said about the off-balance, the wobbly and the weird.
I have never painted realistic stuff. I totally appreciate the work of people who do. But it’s never been my thing for my work. And I’ve always resisted the people who said I should.
Here’s to the wonderfully weird and weirdly wonderful nature of life.
[...] very different from the Gypsy Fire painting, and also from the earlier Muse painting I posted. I’ve only recently switched from [...]
Hi Fabeku,
I totally appreciate Realist painters too, and I’m glad you don’t listen to anyone who says you “should” paint or create in any way. I love how ‘wonderfully weird’ and ‘weirdly wonderful’ are so interchangeable, and harmonious.
Cheers
[...] painting has been a tough one to complete, I kept messing it up, then getting it back. But it’s finally done.What a relief to sign off on [...]