Becoming an Artist

Progress on my value study a day? Slowed to a halt. But I have been making progress and moving forward on my goal of considering myself an artist by the time this Corona Virus ordeal is over. Mostly working on things that make me happy during this summer of staying home. No need to add any more stress to the anxiety we all already feel.  For the past week, I've been using a  previous value study  to work on my my color theory knowledge while continuing to explore acrylics. I'm not a new-comer to color theory. It's a subject I love and find fascinating. But I will say, there's a difference between reading about it and actually using it for a painting.  I picked up a used copy of Stephen Quiller's  Acrylic Painting Techniques , and I've been devouring it. (I have several other books by him; his theories aren't new to me, but they were challenging to use with watercolor). The first exercise asks you to paint six small, simple paintings using two complementary c...

Value studies #14, #15, #16. I thought I was getting better, but then I realized they really don't look like anything. Oh no.  Took a little break there. Not a good one. Prescription drug-related side effects. But I've got the issues worked out (I hope) and I'm back to work on my year of value studies. (I'm also rereading " Coaching the Artist Within ," by Eric Maisel, which is a GREAT book to use to tame the inner critic so that you/I can get back to making art.) A few days ago I watched a great promo teaching video from the Tucson Art Academy Online on value. Afterwards, I created three value studies from vacation photos. Studies #14 and #15 are from the same photo, but they don't read as masses that make up an interesting scene. Study #16 reads as three distinct value masses, but you really don't know what it is (a canyon in Zion). I'll need to think about these some more. Barn near Holdener Park, Livermore, CA Meanwhile, I reread ...

Composition #12, working on value masses. Today I challenged myself to create my value composition in five minutes. The goal was to construct a landscape, loosely based on a photo I took at Arches National Park, with a focus on distinct value masses. I set my timer and got to work. When it buzzed, I took a few more minutes to see if I had a "papa, mama, baby" distribution of lights, darks, and mid-values. I didn't, so I reworked the composition a bit until I did. Success. Papa: mid-tones. Mama: white. Baby: black. My finished landscape.  I then worked out a color palette for my small (5"x7") test painting, choosing a triadic color scheme of yellow ochre, naphthol red, and both phthalocyanine blue and ultramarine blue. I added in titanium white and that crazy baby blue I'm using up (see it in the sky), and started painting. My goal: staying true to my value plan. Overall, I'm pleased with my little painting. I think it holds true to my value ...

Untitled. Abstract following composition #11, trying to find some peace and joy in these crazy times. This morning I woke up angry. It started with the crow at 5 a.m., and I never got back to sleep. But really it might have been the day before, when I went to work in my studio and decided on four things I wanted to get done. I tackled the hard one first, a full-scale drawing for a "real" painting I'm working on. That took an hour and a half, at which time I was tired, hungry, and had a headache. I never got back to the studio to finish the other three. I enjoy drawing, and this morning when I looked at the drawing, it actually made me smile. So I'm not sure why I was so angry about my studio time yesterday. I drew on drawing paper instead of directly on my painting, so I can reuse it for future paintings. It was time well spent! I think my anger (maybe it's just frustration) has something to do with how "easy" making art is for everyone else and ho...

Trying different color approaches using open acrylics and composition #7. Recently I realized it might make sense for me to have three painting projects going on at a time: a landscape, a floral, and a still life to use as a vehicle to hone my skills. I've never been one to work on multiple paintings as I get confused (read frustrated) easily, and I haven't had enough time to work this way. (OK, I admit, I haven't prioritized enough time to do that. I could have easily fit in some art time by not watching Big Bang Theory reruns.) Trying two versions of my scene, one that focuses on the sky and one that focuses on the land.  Here's the interesting part—I'm already starting down this path, almost by accident. I finished composition #9, which is round two of trying to figure out a scene from Arches National Park. I think I'm getting somewhere! I like the second version better, which surprised me as it was the sky that originally drew me to the scene....

So much for posting every day, for doing a daily composition. I am moving forward but being kind to myself when my progress is slow. When I wasn't working on my compositions because I was—once again—discouraged, I spent several hours loading my photos from my new camera into the classic version of Lightroom. I had been using the cloud version, was frustrated, and my husband had determined that the desktop version would suit both our purposes better. So I had a chance to revisit my 500+ photos from our trip to Arches National Park over Christmas. I also applied the "auto" filter to many of the photos, and poof, like magic, the photos were taken from good to amazing. I have some really good photos in the bunch! It got me to thinking, why aren't I satisfied with the photos as a means of artistic expression? Why do I want to paint from them? What can I not express by printing/sharing the photos that I want to express via painting? And furthermore, what do I want to ex...

Over Christmas we spent three days in Moab. Glorious. Arches National Park is one of my favorite places in this country (not that I've seen everything I want to see yet). We both had new cameras and set out to capture this beautiful park. We first entered on Christmas day after a fresh snowfall. No one was there, literally. So amazing. I didn't do any sketching or creative journaling when we were there and I regret that now, five months later. I wish I had captured my feelings there and then; now I have to rely on memory. Both weak. Need to try again. It would have been so easy to do one of these composition sketches right there, in the car, with the scene directly in front of me. Then pull out my mini travel watercolor set and capture some of the colors and values that were intriguing to me, along with a few words to describe the joy I was feeling. But I didn't. It was cold, it would take time, I just wanted to "be" and not do. About a month ago, working ...