First off, I have to say that my main struggle as an artist is to start something. I like to feel spontaneous, and that energy fuels my process. So if I'm working on something for my own personal enjoyment, I need to wait, and soon I will see something that will inspire me, like seeing some shadows and light flickering on my bedroom wall in the morning, or finding some leaves outside. Collections of things often lead to my still lives. I experiment with materials (simple objects, light, taking photographs with my camera), sometimes creating still lives that wont last long at all (like the ceramic piece in the photo to the left, seen through the view finder). This can bring to me an interesting place to start for an image.
Before I begin a drawing, painting, or monoprint from a still life or figure, I adjust everything until I feel comfortable and pleased with the composition. I'll then make some sketches. Using a view-finder helps me to focus on small arrangements (I find that the view-finder is like using a camera, where I can make decisions on what I want to have in the image and what I'd like to emphasize with focus). Once my sketches are done, I like to use them as references, along with the actual still life, while I build my visual work.
The rest is deep observation and maintaining a sensitivity of the materials and letting both work together in building the image.
Before I begin a drawing, painting, or monoprint from a still life or figure, I adjust everything until I feel comfortable and pleased with the composition. I'll then make some sketches. Using a view-finder helps me to focus on small arrangements (I find that the view-finder is like using a camera, where I can make decisions on what I want to have in the image and what I'd like to emphasize with focus). Once my sketches are done, I like to use them as references, along with the actual still life, while I build my visual work.
The rest is deep observation and maintaining a sensitivity of the materials and letting both work together in building the image.
For the monoprint to the right, I started with a large inked piece of plexi-glass, and I slowly removed the oil paint to create the shifts in tones and the bright white. I will go back in with a paint brush, Q-tips, and cloth to dab and re-apply ink, and then take away again until the values are accurate to what I'm seeing.
I enjoy this reductive and additive process, both as an activity and as a method of filling in the composition. My personal preference is start with a dark surface rather than a blank canvas, but there are times when it makes more sense to start with an outline, sketch, or a wash instead of covering the surface with paint. For the most part, I will use the subtractive method for oil paintings, monoprints, and charcoal drawings because the materials are more allowing, and I can get messy and have fun.
I enjoy this reductive and additive process, both as an activity and as a method of filling in the composition. My personal preference is start with a dark surface rather than a blank canvas, but there are times when it makes more sense to start with an outline, sketch, or a wash instead of covering the surface with paint. For the most part, I will use the subtractive method for oil paintings, monoprints, and charcoal drawings because the materials are more allowing, and I can get messy and have fun.
One of my most relaxing, natural, and automatic ways of expressing my love of capturing what I see is taking photographs, and just using my cell phone's camera works well. I'll find something, like an autumn leaf, and save the image on my computer. Later on, I may use the photo in a collage, as a reference for a painting, or I will simply have the picture as an image of it's own. These images are quickly taken, with more of an immediate response when I find something to photograph, and so photography is more refreshing for me.
When I paint from a photograph, I will sketch out the composition on primed masonite or canvas, and then I will paint in the basic shapes and values at first. This helps me to bring focus to detail later on, as the layers build up. This I find to be more time consuming and methodical than working with the reductive process for my monoprints and some of my oil paintings. Acrylics work best for me with painting photo-realistic paintings based on my photographs. Sometimes I like to work this way because it's different, and it seems meditative for me. If there is a good balance of light and dark, and if there is natural lighting within the photograph, then I will enjoy building the image, but sometimes I take on the challenge of working form a photograph that does not provide enough visual information, or a photograph that has too much. I use my artist license in those cases. See my Acrylic Paintings page to view my work based on photographs. The cat painting was based on a photograph taken by my best friend who then specified what she wanted emphasized with color. The Van painting was based on a photograph of my own, and I made up the landscape background so that the focus could stay on the van (the original photograph had a driveway with a garage). The merry-go-round painting was painted to look like the original photograph, but I made up the colors on the merry-go-round. I think in the end, my acrylic paintings are allow me to be more imaginative after I have spent to much time referencing photographs.
When I paint from a photograph, I will sketch out the composition on primed masonite or canvas, and then I will paint in the basic shapes and values at first. This helps me to bring focus to detail later on, as the layers build up. This I find to be more time consuming and methodical than working with the reductive process for my monoprints and some of my oil paintings. Acrylics work best for me with painting photo-realistic paintings based on my photographs. Sometimes I like to work this way because it's different, and it seems meditative for me. If there is a good balance of light and dark, and if there is natural lighting within the photograph, then I will enjoy building the image, but sometimes I take on the challenge of working form a photograph that does not provide enough visual information, or a photograph that has too much. I use my artist license in those cases. See my Acrylic Paintings page to view my work based on photographs. The cat painting was based on a photograph taken by my best friend who then specified what she wanted emphasized with color. The Van painting was based on a photograph of my own, and I made up the landscape background so that the focus could stay on the van (the original photograph had a driveway with a garage). The merry-go-round painting was painted to look like the original photograph, but I made up the colors on the merry-go-round. I think in the end, my acrylic paintings are allow me to be more imaginative after I have spent to much time referencing photographs.