Cay Denise

As part of Ardith Goodwin's Land of Ardithian Color - Color Class, one of our assignments was to paint a quick piece that conveys the emotion of disturbed.   I took a bit more time with my effort starting with a substrate that had random paint marks on it, then sketched an outline over it (see second photo).   The finished effort is the man in blue below.  The whites of his eyes are the actual background pattern/color of the paper I started with and left the way it was--because the eyes appear intense and striking that way. The blues in the piece were achieved with the use of Phthalo Turquoise (as in the nose) and dark violet (mixed with the turquoise for the skin color + grey).   The buzz cut for the hair was challenging to do with a paint brush, but works.  Another problem was my paint dried (developed a skin) far too quickly.  So, color mixing had to be done over and over again as this was coming together.  Aside from that--overall, I really like how this turned out.  The image

One of the painters highlighted as a master of color and range of styles in my color class--is Paul Klee.  When I first saw his work, I was mesmerized.  He worked very experimentally and imitated other artists.  The way he used color in many of his pieces was not an easy thing to do--but he made it look easy.  This is a painting of his titled "The Lamb" done in 1920. Since my class focus is on faces (that's what all my paintings include), I've attempted to imitate Klee's horizontal lines across the page -- while including a face (like the lamb in this one).  In the piece below to make the face 'pop', I glazed the background colors with white to reduce the intensity.  The face looks a bit like a Ninja Turtle.  Or as someone in my class suggested it could be a "super-hero".  What do you think? It was fascinating to try this imitation because of the interruption of the horizontal lines (by color, line, direction, etc.) that you have to plan in order

This piece is an effort to incorporate raised surfaces like freehand braille (with an actual 3-line haiku translated to braille that should be read by rotating the image counter-clockwise). I learned so much from painting a profile.  Some of that learning was in achieving some sense of depth, dealing with bags under the eye and lines (from cheek to chin) that occur when the mouth is open as intensely as it is.  The ear may be a bit small, but it looks much more realistic than many I've done before--so I'm really happy with that. There is also a lot of acrylic glazing in this -- used for the background and hair.     

A recent day's internal conversation:  I wonder, could I sketch that image with my non-dominant hand?  What if I tried?  Would there be something to learn by doing it that way?  Could I accept disappointment if it turned out to be a 'hot mess'? After trying successfully to sketch it, there was more internal dialogue:  What if I continue by painting it with my non-dominant hand?  This was followed by all the other questions again.   I'm so delighted with this piece.  I've learned I can draw and paint with my non-dominant hand!  Of course the brushstrokes are different in that hand...dabbing the paint on the page bit by bit.  My non-dominant hand also did the fine lines with some support from my dominant hand in the process.  It has been humbling to learn how well that side of my mind-body connection is capable of artistically rendering the vision I had for this piece!