Friday, June 21, 2013

Elephant in the Room


A good drawing doesn't necessarily translate to a good painting.
I sometimes marvel at how my final painting looks so much like my initial sketch.  Or in this case, I marvel at how much the the final painting doesn't look at all like the initial sketch.  I marvel at the loss in translation.  Admittedly, I prefer the first quick drawing that I did in pen and ink.  The more I studied the thing before me, the more I understood the physical.  The more I rendered it, the further away I went from the emotional, or my first initial response.

Oil paint isn't always the best medium to use in order to render that thing or idea you want to describe.  Think about what it is you want to describe and how you want to describe it--your motive.  Then choose the appropriate medium that will help best communicate that emotion/idea.  Another example is how a good photograph doesn't necessarily translate to a good painting.  I prefer to work from life as much as possible.

Monday, June 3, 2013

Spirit of Myself

Here lies an exercise.  Simply, a painting of an object (a toy elephant) placed on a cardboard box.  And yet, a most difficult one if the artist does not paint for oneself.

Technically:
I painted most of my groundwork with Alizarin Crimson (I don't know why... I just did... I suppose I wanted to brake from my usual approach.).  Over it, I painted thicker more accurate color.  The objective was to be imaginative, to be expressive and to have a clear motive.  I also wanted to use color in a way so that I would "feel" what color I wanted to use.  Since I instinctively chose to do most of the under-painting with Alizarin Crimson, a simple color theory of red vs. green naturally revealed itself.  Even the gray color of the elephant was mixed largely using the Alizarin Crimson red and the green from the background.

I rendered more finely only those details that helped express my overall idea and let the other less important details go.

Creatively (and more important):
My imagination and the psychology behind my vision is what drives the technical aspects of my painting.  My idea will dictate the means needed, the tools necessary and the appropriate medium required to carryout that idea--not the other way around.  So for this painting, I was searching for the characteristics that I liked and attracted me to want to paint this thing.  I wanted to express myself, create a mood and learn what things I liked from my experience with it, in this particular time and place.  Just imagine all the happenstances and past experiences that may be triggered and brought to the surface of one's consciousness just by looking at the object.  I wanted this painting to be more about myself rather than the elephant.

I did this, in part, by allowing myself to respond to color instinctively and not paint so... well, literally.  By "letting go" just a bit and loosening the noose on reality, my imagination was triggered to See other realizations.  Details which come to life and are relevant in my world.  In a way, I choose to see what I want to see--not allowing what I see to overtake how I want to present it.  A story begins to form and the painting comes alive.

Really, I look for what I like... and, to figure-out what one may like and why one may like something, may be the truest exercise to be had.