Cay Denise

This is a really interesting video from Louise Fletcher an English Abstract Painter.  Her message is about letting go of the 'good bits', especially if you intend to treat it as precious (e.g. cutting it out from a larger piece and selling it).  Treating parts of pieces as precious is a back-handed way of sending yourself a message that you don't do that much good work.  So, she suggests artists consider letting those good bits go -- ultimately validating your ability to create more good from your unlimited supply.   An example she uses is a painting on canvas that you're working on.  You consider one small area in a corner of the canvas as a 'good bit', while the rest of the elements on the canvas are beginning to work well together and it's going somewhere.  But you really like that good bit in the corner.  So you start altering what's working to connect with the good bit.  Unfortunately, it doesn't really work.   Her point is that rather t...

This is a continuation of the concertina sketchbook - another two-page spread using Sharpies and Posca pens. This one with the prior day's two-page spread looks like this:

This is a two-page spread of fun colors, shapes and embellishments from my concertina sketchbook.  For the play of it!

This effort started as a sketch that was then colored in -- all with Sharpie pens.  The only other tools used were black and white Posca pens for the background dots plus the white also used for the reflective dots in the eyes. The substrate was 140 lb. watercolor paper (9" x 12"). I could have left the background light because the image did 'pop' with it.  But the contrast between the off-white paper and the colored image was so intense they seemed to compete with one another for the viewer's attention. The grey tamed the background down though the white dots may compete with the colored image too though they work. This was another project done over multiple days.  I again liked pacing myself and not pressing to complete the piece the same day. 

This is a fascinating biopic about Yayoi Kusama's life and work.  She is passionate, driven, assertive, rebellious, bohemian, and mental health-challenged in her constant pursuit of art-making.   From Georgia O'Keefe whom she asked to be her mentor, to Frank Stella who bought one of her pieces for $75 to later sell it for $750K, to Andy Warhol and other male artist contemporaries who used her ideas for their own exhibits/works, she has been an amazing force in contemporary/abstract art.  Now, she is even recognized in her home city of Matsumoto, Nagano Prefecture, Japan (not so at one time).   The film is an engaging look at the phases of her growth, productivity and fame as an artist.  The link below is to the show's trailer hosted by Rotten Tomatoes.  For any artist, I recommend this film. https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/kusama_infinity  

What fun to learn Mr. Brosnan is has a love of painting and wanted to be an illustrator but ended up becoming an actor.  I would consider him more of an emotive painter as he uses the canvas to 'process' his feelings or 'relay' his experiences -- at least when he initially returned to painting as an avocation.  The Vanity Fair article about his work and a current exhibition of it can be accessed at this link.  Vanity Fair Article - Pierce Brosnan Paints Interestingly, his son is also a painter with a completely different approach.  The son's works (see them at the Instagram link in the article) are quite Basquiat-like but with more graffitied/busy areas the fill the entire canvas.  

This is a first in that all the work on this piece was done while outdoors enjoying some marvelous days of sun and warm weather, AND I didn't press myself to complete the piece the same day I started it.  Nor did I press myself to get it done the second day.  It was finished on the third day of three spent working on it.  My efforts were nicely paced so that I didn't tire looking at the piece to decide on color placement that can be difficult with this kind of complexity. The materials used included a 140 lb. piece of watercolor paper from a Strathmore Visual Journal, a Bic Intensity pen for the initial sketch (black ink), Sharpie pens for color, and a bit of Golden acrylics (Titan Buff and Zinc White) + Faber Castell Albrecht Durer Watercolor pen in grey for the windows. In this piece, I generally worked from the left side of the image to the upper right part of the page.  The center and lower right areas were the final ones done. I liked the experience of working a...

This was not a normal effort in that a full sketchbook page has been used plus its orientation as well as that of my reference were horizontal.  The sketch and black areas were done with Muji pen and the shading was done with mechanical pencil.  The white dot reflections in the eyes were made with Posca pen.  I started with the sofa (drawing from the bottom right to left), then did the arm, the gloves, and on to the head. You can see that there wasn't enough room at the top for all the hair...an oops, but survivable.   What amazes are the number of lines completed in this 5-minute sketch and that you can tell the image is of someone lying on her stomach on a some kind of cushion.  So, it has essence! What I like most in the finished effort are the eyes, the believable gloved arms/hands, and the shading on the pillows in the background that adds a sense of depth to the couch. Note for future work:  When working from bottom up when sketching, I need to reduce...

In today's practice effort, the 5-minute sketch captures some essence.  The most helpful elements in giving this sense are the hair, eyes and arm shapes.  The hair was interesting to do because there are three different types of mark-making used in this drawing:  echo lines, oval shapes with layer over layer of them, and free-hand strokes to show more unkempt hairs.    I like the pose and the arm that hides a bit of face.  It is a very useful way of creating depth right off-the-bat in an image.      

In the photo below, you may be able to guess who the character is from the 5-minute sketch--because there is 'essence'.  That begs the questions of what is essence, how does one select minimal elements to convey essence, and how do you tell if you've captured it? What gives the sketch below the sense of essence I'm talking about?  First, you have to recognize  the person being captured.  This particular image is based on Lady Danforth, a character from the Bridgerton series.  If you don't know the series, you may not have perceived 'an essence' that you can relate to. If this true for you, make a mental note of the sketch you've seen here.  Down-the-road you may see one of the shows with her in it and recall you've seen her somewhere.  That is the kind of recognition between one form and another that clues you in that the work has that essence. What do you look for in selecting the elements to help convey essence?  First, essence can come fro...

'The Creative Act', published just this year (2023), is filled with pearls of wisdom!  I've done one read-through without marking up the book.  But I will be re-reading it to digest it much more fully.   With so much in the book, I sometimes felt like I was hearing familiar voices communicating similar thoughts. That includes art course instructors, Ardith Goodwin and Louise Fletcher; words spoken by Goenka-Ji when leading Vipassana meditation retreats; and books by others.  Some of those authors include Brene Brown, John Cleese, Lynda Barry, David Bayles & Ted Orland, Cat Bennett, Austin Kleon, etc.  Without a bibliography or reading recommendations list, I'm really curious about the breadth of reading done by the author.  What/who were his favorite books/authors?  How did he develop his insights into the creative process?     The book is well-suited for marginalia.  If you're wondering what that is, it is writing in the margins to ...

Yesterday's effort was done with a Muji pen for outlining and mechanical pencil for shading.  White Posca pen was used for the eye highlights and colored pencil for the color. What I like about the finished work is that you can tell the female face has dark skin.  The lips' thickness as well as the nose width also suggest a dark-skinned person.  The parts that look lighter on the face are basically the true color of the paper coming through, since no pencil has been added in those parts or has been removed through erasure. I'm also liking the unfinished parts of the sketch that if colored in, would distract from the focus on the face and the complementary stems and winding vines next to it.   Do you ever leave parts of your work unfinished and if so, how do you think it serves the work?     

It can be so interesting to watch a piece evolve from a preliminary sketch to a finished piece.  What do we choose to work on first, next, finish with, etc.? For finishing this sketch, the first part done was the face, then neck, and then hand.  That was followed by the portion of the garment around the neck, the headpiece, and finally--the portion of the garment over the arm. What is the order of areas you would have worked on?  Is this the order you generally follow in your own work? As is typical for this type of work, I used a Muji pen and mechanical pencil.  The eye highlights were done with white Posca pen.     

I've had fun experimenting with a repeating pattern made from a quick sketch adjusted with an offset filter.  Then a mix of gradations, blending modes, filters, and various adjustment layers have been applied.  The result is certainly eye-catching!  Can you guess what the repeating pattern is?