Recent Articles
Busy Week and a (non-Art) Announcement
Aug 14, 2010 Special Bulletins 2 Comments
I have to apologize for the short hiatus. I have had an extremely busy week and haven’t been able to post anything new.
My big announcement is that my boyfriend and I got engaged a couple weeks ago. We are really excited and have spent the last week nailing down a date and trying to line up a venue and catering. Thanks to my family, this has been a relatively painless process. I am completely clueless when it comes to event planning and all the little details are overwhelming!
I’ve also been teaching a mixed media workshop for kids. That was a learning process! The kids flew through things I thought would take a long time and took their time on what I thought would be quick projects. Each day I had to have several things planned, plus a few extras just in case. All in all it went well and the kids enjoyed it. It was a lot more challenging than I’d anticipated, but I’d do it again in a heartbeat!
My other news from this week is that I had another critique with my old prof. I was able to get some feedback on my recent abstract work and most of it was good! Thanks to this prof, I will be having a solo exhibition in September to showcase my new paintings at the UBCO Fine Art Gallery.
Regular posts will resume tomorrow, so please hang in there just one mor day!
Afraid of Colour? An Intro to Coloured Pencil and Pastel
Aug 4, 2010 Colour Theory, Drawing Leave a comment
For a graphite or charcoal artist, making the leap to colour can be a little scary. I was terrified of colour at first and it was really tough to get out of my comfort zone and start playing again. Paint is totally different from dry drawing materials, but luckily there are a lot of other choices to make the transition from grayscale to colour.
Here you’ll find a quick intro to the two most basic coloured drawing media with links to more information.
Coloured Pencils
A fancy term for pencil crayons, these can be a good introduction to colour. If you’re interested in experimenting with coloured pencils, it’s definitely worth it to invest in a better quality. Regular pencil crayons have less pigment (colour) and more binder. Student grade coloured pencils have more pigment and artist grade ones have even more pigment. Of course, you pay more for that. To play around with, the student grade pencils are perfect.
Coloured pencils are meant to be used by building up layers of colour, letting you create many more hues than what is available in the box. This also makes them good for experimenting with colour theory. Coloured pencil drawings can be time intensive, but they also produce very beautiful, luminous works of art.
Read more about coloured pencils.
Pastels
Pastels are another good choice for drawing in colour, although pastel artworks that cover the entire support are often referred to as paintings. Pastels are sticks of pigment and binder. You have a choice of chalk pastels, which are more dry and powdery, and oil pastels, which are softer and buttery. Chalk pastels can produce a lot of dust, which you don’t want to breathe in, and may need to be sprayed with a fixative. They also blend fairly easily, while oil pastels don’t blend as well.
When working with pastels, layering is also important. You will need to be careful that your colours don’t get muddy. Working from dark to light can help with this.
Recommendation
Art supplies can be expensive and most of us can’t afford to go out and buy everything we want. My recommendation is to start out with a less expensive student grade set. Play around with the material, experiment and see how you like it. If you find you really love it, then invest in a higher quality product.
I have a set of student grade pastels I’ve had for years which I use every now and then to do some sketching. If I ever decided to pursue pastel art more seriously (to sell or to show) I would look into buying some better ones, but until then, the pastels I have are perfect!
How to Deal with a Creative Block
Aug 1, 2010 Creativity 2 Comments
As I sit here staring at a blank notepad, I realize the similiarities between blogging and art making. Writing a blog post, like most other creative endeavors, can sometimes be like pulling teeth. And I thought to myself, “how can this be turned into a learning experience?”
Some days just are not conducive to creating art. It could be that you’ve spent your creative energies elsewhere, or that you’re not in the right mood, or that the circumstances aren’t quite right. When it comes to creative blocks, there are two basic ways you can respond: push through it, or ride it out.
Ride the Wave of Non-Creativity
There will be times in your art career when you do not create. It’s best to accept this now.
There can be a lot of guilt associated with not creating. Sometimes our minds and bodies just need a break. At these times, you need to forgive yourself and not torture yourself with things you should be doing. Instead, embrace the hiatus as what it is: a chance to re-energize, re-organize, and re-invest yourself in other activities.
Taking some time off doesn’t mean that you’re not an artist. It doesn’t even mean that you’re a bad artist. It just means that you’re taking a break.
Riding it out isn’t always the best option. You might find that your break lasts longer than you expected, or you may be working under a deadline. In these circumstances, it’s better to push through your creative block.
Pushing Through
Pushing through the block simply means creating anyways, whether you feel like it or not. This can be done in a journalistic way that expresses your frustration. Today’s image is a page from an old sketchbook of mine. I clearly remember feeling the need to do something, but being entirely uninspired. Simply writing the words “why can’t I create?” vented some of that frustration and helped me feel a tiny bit productive.
The important thing to remember when pushing through a creative block is to not put pressure on yourself. Try something simple like doodling and keep the focus on experimentation and play. You could also try enrolling in a class that will give you projects, criteria and deadlines to work with.
Once you get the ball rolling, creativity often takes on a life of its own, much like this blog post! Whatever the cause, creative blocks are frustrating. Ride it out or push through, just don’t stress about it.
And on a completely unrelated note…
Want to Write a Guest Post?
You don’t need to be an expert, you just need to be willing to share! Your experience and knowledge is a valuable resource for other artists.
Guest posts are win-win. They provide me with content for my blog in areas outside my experience, but more importantly they provide you with a chance to share your ideas, get exposure for your art and website, and network. All guest posts will include an author’s bio with a link back to your website or blog.
To submit an article, e-mail me at info@learntoart.com.
Where Painting Meets Sculpture
Jul 28, 2010 On my Easel Leave a comment
When does painting become sculpture? I have no idea, but perhaps I’ll find out!
I’ve been doing a lot of work on my abstract art recently. I’m working on a new series that involves the re-arranging of a canvas cut into 25 squares. As the paintings progress, they’re becoming more and more three dimensional. They began as layers of wood, but I’m experimenting with putting spacers between the layers, creating more depth.
Part of my strategy is working on more than one piece at a time. This lets me play with different ideas and different colour schemes while working within the same parameters.
To read more about my process and thoughts about this piece, visit the news page at my abstract art site. I’m going to be treating this section as a blog, updating it when I finish new paintings and talking about my approach to my abstract work.
To keep up with my abstract art, you can also subscribe to the RSS feed or my newsletter.
I’m finishing up three other abstract pieces based on a red/orange colour scheme, working on two smaller, monochromatic pieces and a larger contrasting piece. My studio has taken over the entire house and it’s great!
Planning a Painting - The Value Study
Jul 25, 2010 Painting Leave a comment
So, you have a great idea for a painting. You’ve done some thumbnail sketches and created an interesting, dynamic composition. You know exactly what you want to paint…
Time to jump in? Not quite!
Before you dive into the real thing, it can be extremely helpful to do a value study: a smaller, monochromatic version of your painting.
A value study strips your painting of all colour, letting you work with the lights and darks, which is just as important to your composition as form. This is also your chance to make sure you have a range of lights and darks to create good contrast. If your painting isn’t interesting at this stage, it won’t be interesting when you add colour! Stan Prokopenko does a great job of explaining how a value study can help you create an interesting composition.
Also check out this post where Stapleton Kearns critiques a painting where the artist has confused colour with value. According to Kearns, “Value is more important than color, as it is a part of drawing. Color is a decoration you hang on your drawing.”
If we digitally altered the painting on Kearns’ blog to make it greyscale, we would see a very dark, very flat painting. That’s a hint!
Doing a value study can help you solve these problems before you get to them in your final painting. It’s easier to match the value (not the intensity) of your colour to the study than it is to figure it out on the fly. The intensity of the hue can be very distracting.
When I did my African Sunset painting, I knew that getting the values right was going to be essential in making the sun look like it was shining. Doing a quick value study (above) helped me see just how dark the sky needed to be to make the sun look bright in contrast. This kept me from wasting time and paint on painting a too-light sky. Below is the completed painting converted to greyscale.
If you’re having troubles with the values within a painting, taking a digital picture and converting it to greyscale can really help. This lets you see the lights and darks without that distracting colour. A bright or intense colour doesn’t always make for a dark value. Solve these problems in a value study and you will have a much easier time with your painting!
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