TAKING THE RISKS TO CREATE SOMETHING THAT IS "ALL YOU".
All the "rules" and formal principles can be helpful, but in this workbook we've been attempting to develop sensitivity and awareness to the role that Value__ the inter-relationship between light and dark__ can play in a painting or drawing.
* First: Consider your painting (or drawing) medium__ watercolor, oil, acrylic,
pastels, gouache__ whatever. What is it about this medium that makes it
different from other mediums? What can it do that other mediums cannot?
* How can you use some of these factors to creatively have fun and say more of
what you feel about the subject?
* Let yourself go in a wet-in-wet technique, or use palette knives, cardboard
pieces, putty knives__ roll rags, sticks, stones or feathers in the wet paint.
Press textured fabrics or dried plant materials onto the painting surface.
You can find all sorts of ways to become looser and create something
uniquely yours. Explore and exploit your painting medium until it
Becomes One With You and You Become One With it!
Look at your more successful paintings or drawings and ask yourself:
* What was I trying to say?
* How did I use Values to say it? How did I use Lights, Darks &
Midtones... Rhythms... Pacing... Texture... Patterns... techniques?
* If I didn't use these factors... how can I use them next time?
This esthetic response to your work is not a critique. It is a grasp of recognition of MAGIC__ the sum of parts that have combined to take on a life of their own.
HOMEWORK.
Take one of your earlier paintings and apply what was presented in this workbook to create a new version. Bring the old and the new paintings to a meeting with artist friends and share what you discovered with the group.
Thank you for allowing me to share my discoveries with you. We hope you have enjoyed this workbook and have been able to lift your artwork above the ordinary. Good Luck in your future endeavors and remember:
"NO HEART__NO ART".
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