Painting in Liberated Style
Welcome to my creative space to see how I create this mixed media painting “March Still Life”!
Watch the video and listen to my thoughts about creating and teaching art while I paint in a liberated style.
Liberate Your Art!
The workshop mentioned in the video is currently unavailable
but come and join me on the course that is based on it:
Liberated Artist Revisited – Buy Now!
Roses with Colored Pencils – Draw with Me!
I know some of you prefer abstract themes, some more realistic. But maybe you are like me who loves to combine realistic themes, for example, roses, with more intuitive and abstracts shapes.
Copying? – No!
There are people who say that you have to copy photos to create realistic art. I don’t believe that. If you fairly accurately know the structure of the subject, there’s no need to have a photo in hand. Instead, you can focus on your point of view and express how you experience the subject.
Perspective Drawing? – No!
Some people say that you need to fully master perspective and shadowing to make your drawing look dimensional. I don’t believe that either. If you know how to work with colors, you can do a lot.
Blind Spots? – Most probably!
I do believe that most beginner artists have blind spots. Maybe you use too raw colors, maybe your every element is similar in size, maybe your lines are too stiff, maybe you get discouraged in the very beginning when not knowing what to create. Whether you love abstract or realistic, the blind spots are often the same. My workshops help you to get through the blind spots.
Coloring Roses – Draw with me!
But even if the workshops didn’t interest you, grab your colored pencils and draw the roses with me! Namely, thinking doesn’t boost your imagination and grow your skills in the way doing does.
Get more instructions for colored pencils: Buy Coloring Freely!
Add More Creativity to Your Art!
Here is my abstract still-life with watercolors, acrylic paints, and colored pencils, called “Harvest Stillife.” It’s created very intuitively, without any idea of the end result when started. But like so often before, when I selected images for this blog post, I found recent photos that must have been in my mind when I made this.
I love the complexity and the number of details that can be seen in these shots from my garden. Many who struggle with creating art overlook the complex nature of reality. In these photos, they only see a flower, bush, and some berries. Instead of labeling the obvious, you can examine all the color variations, different shapes, sharpness and blurriness of the elements, depth, patterns, the way each color connects with the next … Then you can try to summarize what the hierarchy of all these factors in the photos could be, how all this could be modeled. It seems too complex to describe in a simple way. That’s when creativity starts working for the solution, figuring out what things to bring out without losing the connection to all of it.
A big part of the visuals today has a simple, graphic look. If you get exposed to that a lot, you might think that simplicity is the key to creating good art. I believe it’s totally opposite: complex things are the best source of inspiration. Trying to see complex systems behind simple stereotypes feeds our creativity much more than trying to simplify the simple.
The same idea applies to painting: Embrace the complexity by adding a lot of variation and then bring out the essential.
Painting an Abstract Still-Life
Watercolors and acrylic paints:
Placing a plastic wrap over the wet watercolor paint to add more delicate details:
Ready for finishing:
A detail of the finished look, done with colored pencils and a black drawing pen:
Creating abstract still lives so that they appear naturally is so much fun!
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Thank You for Being There!
Two things happened yesterday. First, I sent my 100th email newsletter! I know there are people who have subscribed to it from 2010 when I sent out the first one. (If you are not a subscriber yet, click here!) Thank you!
Second, I saw sunflowers in full bloom and thought how they are like art: bringing joy and relaxation! I was working in my recording studio today, remembered the flowers and made this video for you. Thank you for being there, remember to nurture your creativity!