"Awkward" Is The Word That Comes to Mind

The moment I pop  the cellophane wrapper off a new canvas, my artist mind begins what can only be described as a journey.  That white canvas contains unlimited possibilities and my list of things I want to eventual paint continues to grow.  Of course I consider myself a landscape artist so most likely my new painting will be a landscape of either mountains or the desert... two environments things that are dear to my heart.  There might be a dramatic sunrise or a collapsing ruin built by some long forgotten miner or rancher.  No matter the focal point that I eventually decide upon I have to do my research.  I gather up inspirational photos and reference materials that I use to inspire my final piece.  I work up a mental image of what I'm trying to accomplish before I lay out the paint colors on my palette.

Since I have only been seriously painting for the past two years, I'm still working out my exact methods and styles when  it comes to approaching a new piece.  At this point I really start by painting my sky in.  Many artists sketch detailed renderings to consider composition and values before they ever grab a brush.  This is a discipline that I haven't gotten  into but I know that I really need to add this step into my painting process.  I know that I will be a better artist if I slow down and really plan out each piece instead of just hoping it works.

Sky is in, so I then lightly paint in my main focal points such as the trees, stream or that old building.  Often the composition will change and thankfully it isn't difficult to paint out mistakes.  There is a whole period from the first brush stroke to the point that you start painting in the fine details that I refer to as the "Awkward" stage.  Only you as the artist can see the final result in your minds eye and as you bring your piece to life you have to start top to bottom, back to front and so this takes time to create.  I'm sure that it is a similar creative process that a musician uses composing a musical score, an author writing a novel or an architect drawing the blueprints for a towering skyscraper.  There will be a trash can filled with composition paper, writing paper or long pieces of drafting paper.  It takes a while to get it right and painting has that same process.  

After painting over or adding elements, there is a point where the piece begins to emerge from the "Awkward" stage to a "Bonding" stage.  Your heart begins to feel the excitement as your piece  begins to emerge literally in front of your eyes.  I find myself walking past my studio just so I can catch another glimpse.  I take frequent photos as I work because I find it very helpful to study the composition whenever I find that I have a few minutes.

Yes, there is a love-hate process that you go through as you're creating a new piece and you just hope the end result will bring feelings of more love than hate.

Pretty as a Picture

You have probably heard of the old saying "Pretty as a Picture".  Up to this point in my painting, I have spent most of my time using reference photos to base my composition on and that has worked pretty well for me.  I really like using 5 x 7 photographs and normally will take a number of different images and use them as my inspiration. 

I recently used a photo taken by a fellow artist that was posted on facebook (very important that you obtain permission from the owner prior to copying a photo) and I painted it as a close rendition to what I saw on the photo.  I was so taken by the brilliance and color of this photograph.  It is an amazing shot full of cheerful bright colors.  There is just something about sunflowers that warm the heart of any country girl.

Original Photo taken by artist Janet Paden of Ohio

This was my original oil of the reference photo

My corrections so far have been removing the dark center under the butterfly and adding more blue to the background

The adjustments I made from my original painting was to remove the dark center that overshadowed the butterfly causing him not to stand out like I had intended.  I changed some of the background tint by adding more blue and lightened the centers of each flower by covering the paynes gray that I had over used in my first rendition. Still with additional critiquing done by a friend and an accomplished artist more changes are apparently needed.

    1.  The spent sunflower in the upper left corner has to go.  It is obvious that my intended focal point of this piece is the butterfly and yet the dark center of this sunflower draws your attention away from the butterfly.  My options are to paint it out completely or to reduce the size and add some petals of it's own so that it blends in with the rest of the composition.  
     2. I also plan to make the sunflowers less orange and more yellow so that the butterfly stands out even more.

As an artist, I needed to take a little more time considering the focal point of my composition.  Take the time to really look at your composition and consider your focal.  Ask yourself if there is there anything else in this composition that is overpowering or taking the attention away from that point?   A good suggestion is to have someone else take a quick glance and find out what they first noticed.  Which is what I did yesterday when I took my painting over for my friend to see.  I have also seen it suggested that you can also view the composition in a mirror and by seeing the image that you have grown so accustomed to backwards that it allows you too see the image from a different prospective.

The photo was an excellent start but my goal should always be as an artists to make my end result- PRETTIER THAN A PICTURE!

The rule of NO KISSING

This past weekend I subjected three of my works to the public scrutiny of the Clark County Fair and Rodeo in Logandale, Nevada. Now, I realize that a county fair isn't known for being a haven for renown art critics, but being that I am such a new artist, any opportunity for public display of my work is a learning experience.

 I had dreams that my newest piece, a large 24x36 inch acrylic painting that I call "Utah Reflections" would WOW the judges and I would arrive to find a number of large colorful ribbons prominently hanging all over the edges of its beautiful old barn wood frame. I was quickly brought to reality, when I saw only one single red ribbon fluttering in the slight breezes that blew off the 4H livestock barn.  Under that ribbon, was the judges score sheet and comments. Not wanting to draw attention to myself, I quickly scanned the words printed there. A paraphrase of the comment I found reads something like this, "Really good painting but your focal point is the bridge and you have placed in the corner."

To my untrained artistic mind, having the focal point in the corner was what I thought made the painting interesting. I also noticed, in most of my other works the focal point is off in the corner too.  Now, I realize that I am a self-taught artist and being that I haven't had intense composition training that many scholarly artists have undoubtedly received in the higher halls of art education and so I can confess I really know nothing about the official rules of composition.  Even so, I still think I have a natural eye for design, so I thought I would do a quick study on the subject.

A quick Google search and I found plenty hits on the subject but found the article written by Marion Buddy-Evans called "Art Composition Rules" at www.about.com, proved to be pretty informational and condensed enough for my purpose of a really quick study.  There are several of the rules I know I now remember my high school art teacher, Mr. Easton telling us about.  One was the "Rule of Odds".  I always arrange things with odd numbers because Mr. Easton told us that made for a more interesting composition.  I didn't consider the why to that reasoning, but the article says it is because our brains can't pair things up on the composition and therefore it keeps our eyes moving across the canvas.  Well, I guess I'm good with this rule since my compositions has only ONE bridge.

I also found out about the "Rule of No Fried Eggs".  This rule is broken when you place your focal point right in the middle of the canvas surrounded by bland background.  Since my bridge is off the to far right corner, I'm assuming I didn't break this rule either and of course there is no bland background in any of my paintings.

There also is a "Rule of No Kissing".  This rule is broken when you allow edges of the objects to touch and not overlap or leave spaces between them.  The example was giving in the article of the horizon edge touching the edge of the sun rather than overlapping it.  There is depth and interest giving when objects overlap.  I think I'm good with this rule.

I think it is the "Rule of Thirds" that pertains more directly with my pieces and the placing of the focal point.  In this rule you divide the canvas space into thirds both vertically and horizontally.  The four intersecting points are hotspots and should be considered when you are placing focal point.  Rather than smack dab in the middle, or in my case the far bottom corner, your composition is suppose to be more interesting if you place it one third up or down or one third left or right. 

I know that all rules are there as guidelines and can easily be ignored, but I think it is important for me to consider these rule each time I rip open another canvas.  Rather than just painting and hoping for a great end result, a little more planning might be just the thing.  In reality, I only had one photo of that bridge to work with and I was really struggling with the perspective of the right side of the bridge and that is why I decided to simply paint the bridge right off the canvas.  As the artist, I have the creative license to do that.  The lesson here for me is that when I find an interesting subject matter, I need to take multiple shots, at all different angles so that I have the liberty to paint the focal point anywhere I want. What is really important here is that I learned something this weekend and that I'm still pleased with my piece even if there is only a single red ribbon hanging there.