What Are the Cornerstones of Your Art?
I have always loved abstract paintings. It occurred to me just recently that even if I rarely create realistic art, I rarely go to extremes in abstract. But then, what would prevent me from doing that, putting those cornerstones of my style to a new order.
Namely, if you know what you love to create, why not play with that? Thick black color, sharp lines, dramatic color transitions, sense of movement and muted but distinct colors – those are what I always seem to aim.
This painting is called “Cornerstones” as I like this detail the most.
When you have your cornerstones set, you can feel free to experiment: use less of something, more of another thing, express deeper thoughts or become more playful.
My favorite supplies are watercolors, acrylic paints, and colored pencils. They can be seen as cornerstones as well. If I create something a bit different, it isn’t so scary when I use these old friends.
So I started the painting with watercolors. I had some leftover acrylic paints from other projects, so I stopped to watch the watercolored surface and tried to figure out how to create something a little bit different with them.
One thing that I love in acrylic paints is to have many colors on a brush at the same time and get delicious color effects.
I worked with fairly thick brushes so no wonder when the artwork reached this point, I felt it needed some sharpness and movement.
Then I remembered the photos that I love to shoot. I adjust the shutter speed low and move my camera to doodle with light. My photos are not brilliant, but I absolutely love playing with the camera this way. These photos make me think of bit streams and all the wonderful technical innovations.
So I added a few sharp light details, and it was finished!
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Drama and Contrasts in Art
This is my latest painting called “Counterforces”. The idea for this came from the books that I have read recently. They are Outlining Your Novel and Structuring Your Novel by K.M. Weiland. I picked those books, not because I would be writing a novel, but because I want to understand more about drama and how to bring it to visual art. With self-expression, I aim for describing scenes and experiences rather than static figures. I want to experience the drama while I am creating and show the drama in the result as well.
Create Contrasts and Suspense – Watch the Video!
I recorded the process of creating the painting. While creating, I tried to bring as many contrasts as possible to the painting. The most memorable moments in our lives often include some drama – countering forces or feelings.
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Put Thoughts and Feelings into Your Art
I am excited to start the fall season with a video blog post! I will create the mixed media painting above from start to finish and show the atmosphere of my creative space as authentically as I can. I will also talk about Inspirational Drawing, my online drawing workshop that will begin in September!
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Stop to See Your Inner World!
If you watched my recent video interview, you know that I love technology and innovations. People often say that technology is a tool. I do understand that phrase and agree with that to a certain point. But if I had to define technology, I would say that like art, it’s an experience. Whether I read about innovation in technology, or see an interesting artwork, I like to stop and think how I feel about it.
Now you might ask: “Why would I take any abstract concept or inanimate object and add emotion to it?”
My answer is: “Because that’s how you boost your imagination!”
When we see technology as a crowd in a concert or a tea cup as a gentle old lady, we will open the door to our inner world.
Often it requires that we stop. Stop taking in universal generalizations, and start adding our associations. It does not mean that you should do it all the time, but in small moments, every day. Because like Terry Pratchett has said: “Humans need fantasy to be human.”
By drawing, we can work our fantasies so that they become insights. Instead of continuously searching inspiration from outside world, we can take time for processing information inside. When we integrate our past experiences with new ones, we can have an improved view of our life as a whole. As visual people, we can produce images that have that unified vision. These kind of holistic visions are almost impossible to express with words, that’s why they are called “the big picture.”
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