Solid and Strong or Just Boring?

Composition #6. Unclear values; boring arrangement.

Ended my five-day streak and took a day off from these maddening compositions. The next day, for composition #6, I set up my three Roshi teapots and lit them from the side to noodle on an idea I've had rolling around in my head. These teapots are HEAVY. And when I think of them, I think solid, strength, reliability. I thought a horizontal composition would support that concept.

An hour later, I had a three-value drawing with five values, an awkward light pattern that seemed inexplicable, no focal area, and an idea that's a dud. Even my husband thought the layout was a tad boring (he was trying to be supportive). UGH. The only good thing was that I got to draw my teapots, which I enjoyed greatly. The one on the left looks like a cantaloupe, the middle is a beautiful grayed violet, and the tiny one on the right is a patterned white.

Luckily for me, a book I ordered several weeks ago, to help me learn acrylics, arrived: How to Paint Fast, Loose, and Bold by Patti Mollica. I spent a good deal of the next day devouring it (and put off my daily composition for another day). The first 33 pages in the book are about, you guessed it, getting your values figured out. In fact, she says several times in various ways, do these exercises and get this skill under your belt. Back to my compositions tomorrow.

Comments

Mean Critic Meets Scary Progress

I'm continuing to work on my value studies and bouncing all over the place, both with subject and with medium. I swear that one of these days I'll find my lane. There are things I like and dislike about oils, acrylic, and watercolor. There's not a perfect medium, but oils sure are easier for working on composition and value. As the year is coming to an end, I'm wrapping some things up and getting ready to launch other things. I went through my last three years of paintings (about 150) and categorized them as keep for myself, make available for gifts or purchase, or repurpose (at first I had labeled them trash, but that just seemed so mean, and I really can use the paper for other things). With the gift/sell category, I created a PowerPoint file with all available paintings, categorized by subject. Each was labeled and priced...a scary declaration on my part that my creativity is valuable. In the coming year, I will use this file to create a new website for my growing a...

Down the Value Study Rabbit Hole

What's the best way to create a value study for me? I'm trying to figure that out. And how to paint from it once I've done it? I'm trying to figure that out, too. Been re-reading Ian Roberts' Mastering Composition . Have re-dedicated myself to working on a value composition a day (my original goal). He promises that a year of these daily compositions will make a HUGE difference in my art. Even with the few I've done, I'm seeing improvement and I'm asking a lot more questions, which I think means I'm on the right track for me right now. Overall, I've done five value studies of the rose, and it's getting tedious. But each one had me asking another question, so I continued on. It was a great exercise, trying different methods. I should have done one last one, a pencil sketch, but I've run out of steam. What's interesting, though, is that they all look similar yet different. Referring to the quad image at right, the simplest studies (3 ...

Value Epiphany!

For the new year, I've decided that before I start a painting, I'll note the goals for that painting session and/or the finished product if I'm not painting alla prima (in one session). I've sort of informally been doing this for the last couple of months, but now I want to consciously follow these steps: 1) write down my goals, 2) paint, 3) acknowledge that the painting is crap ( see previous post ), 4) note how I did or did not meet my goals, and finally, 5) create a next steps list. Of course, these steps won't be executed until I've done the all-important value studies! Last October I painted a lesson from Dreama Tolle Perry's Flow class , a cute carafe of cream with a white ceramic basket of strawberries. The basket didn't read "white" in my painting, which I didn't like, and I wanted to figure out why...but I wanted to use my own still life to do it. So I set up a scene informed by Dreama but all my own. My scene used my own props to...

Becoming an Artist

Search This Blog