Looking for a new direction for myself. I spent some fun time this week learning floating ink paper marbling (“suminagashi”):
Then I looked for “contemporary landscape oil painting” and found the 21st century Bob Ross: Jose Trujillo! This video link is 11:00 minutes of a conversation between Mr. Trujillo and his young son, Monet, WHILE painting a landscape! It’s very sweet and I really liked his loose brushwork and colors!
My first attempt at a Trujillo! (16×24,oil)
I’m “drawn” to illustration (sorry-not sorry!). My first exposure to art was picture books and I was born around the time of “the golden age” of children’s book illustration: Robert McCloskey, Ludwig Bemelmans, Ernest Shepherd, Virginia Lee Burton. Wonderful stuff!
And I was brought up with The New Yorker – whose illustrated covers were almost always stories, and very often stories with a wink attached.
So I realized (later) all that came into play when I got the idea for this: a mash-up of a photo of a Swedish girl and her fuzzy dog, and an Edward Hicks ‘Peaceable Kingdom’ poster that has hung in my home for 30+ years.
(not quite done . . .)
I’m participating in Figuary 2020 through the Croquis Cafe (on Vimeo). Last night LoveLifeDrawing’s instructional suggestion was to exaggerate. That inspired this – 16×20, oil:
So, this was the challenge I set up for myself. Start with a warm-up. Warm up is using graphite on 24×36” paper. Warm up is drawing with my whole arms (a graphite stick in each hand) making as many different kinds of marks as I can, but without a plan. Just moving.
Part two: using an eraser only, pull out a self-portrait. No adding any more lines. And do it ten times.
Part three: after 10 times I allowed myself to add in more lines. Still thinking about it. hmmmmm.
I am going to do at least nine more of these! Excited by a new idea.
In the past, I’ve done portraits and figures and tried to invent the background. Not always successfully, not always effectively. And not really understanding what the problem is/was.
Now I’m working on figures WITH backgrounds (from photos) that make some good compositional sense.
You know that procrastination you do about that thing that scares you? I joined a Meet Up group online that lists local live model figure drawing classes weekly. Week after week I received the notices. After week. After week. Then I made it a New Year’s resolution to go. Today I did. It was easy, perfect, relaxed, serious. Yay!
A post on Facebook declared that Picasso created about 50,000 art works, of which 100 today are known/valued. The point of the post was that art is a numbers game – and not every thing you make is going to be quality, revolutionary, evanescent.
But you/I will have made it.
I regularly put stuff up that I’ve made – but not framed – I put it up with blue painter’s tape. I’m looking at it, I’m thinking about it, but I see it all as practice and learning. It’s rarely a finished product.
That being said, I can also still get moody – up-moody or down-moody about the process, my stuff. Helps to notice that, and remember that the critical mind cannot make a damn thing.
chairs, oil, 9×12 inches
Painting a variety of Christmas cards this year.
