Are my Shoes big enough??

Today is a weird day.
I am feeling less then and not able to accomplish anything to the best of abilities.
It might just be, sorry to say, that time of the month but WOW am I feeling the pressure.
I mean who's to say that I have anything of value to show the world?
Are there not amazing and talented people already showing the world their work?
Why would the world need another "Artist"?

I have no answers to those questions but as my mother keeps telling me,

"It doesn't matter about anybody else. It is what you are experiencing and what you are learning. No one person is the same and you have a different perspective. So keep on trucking and don't measure yourself to anyone."

So, today I am not going to post a description of my process, rather the fact that I am an individual who has an opinion and am striving to find myself. I am searching for ways to express personal feelings and to better my technical skills.

I am not a great artist just one in training wheels.

Color?...have to have color??

I do not necessarily need color, but it can add a very different feel to the overall interpretation. In the art world different colors are labeled as 'Hues'. 'Tone' is how light or dark a color is. The image below I found here.


This obviously shows the different tones and a small portion of different hues. I have painted a painting starting only with two paints, black and white. From the two basic hues, I had to paint my still life showing only the tones of the subjects before me. It was challenging but helped me to think more about what I was painting.

Practice:
I have broken out the paints!! I opened my box with my paintbrushes and oh..how I have missed them! We never painted masterpieces but we had spent a lot of time together! So, I did my basic tone changes with blue and black!














I used the different tones of the black to do a little ball...

The darkest black shows the shadow and the lightest gray shows the highlight. I had fun! I cant wait to paint something! So next week I will try to find something interesting to paint and or sketch to get the wheels turning!


This is me getting in the groove.....(courtesy of my famous photographer boyfriend...he wanted copyrights)

The line...

Here we go!
Lines can have a huge impact on an image or even brushstrokes. Many famous pieces of art of line of some form. There are plenty different uses for lines. For example:


Lines don't have to be straight as an arrow; such as above. They can curve and move in all different directions. It is a technique used to define your object as well as move the viewers eye around the image. Vincent Van Gogh used his brushstrokes to help show emotion as well in the "Starry Night":


Jeez! He was amazing!! Even the dark form in front seems to have motion. WELL......now that I just place one of the greatest artists on my page I think I can go no further......but I need to.

I attempted to use lines to show a direction and ended up showing a perspective as well.



The lines proceed back to the horizon. The telephone polls and wires proceed back as well. That's my attempt at line! I would say done pretty well but yet there is...well...nothing too interesting. Jeez I need to be more creative!

There are RULES!!

Rule of 3rds that is! In photography this is stressed but I feel it can be used in painting and drawing as well.

I once did a still life painting and well...lets just say it was for my technical skills rather than my portraying skills. Well, I did a search on Google, the famous search engine, and found an article on the rule of 3rds on Wikipidia. If you center an image it seems to be stuck in the frame and cant really "breathe" as I like to say. Or it could not lead the viewers eye around the picture and there will be no mystery! Sometimes you can break the rule, and have a solid picture, but that is not what I would like to do. I want the viewer to have a good look and try to figure out what I am thinking or trying to convey.

So! I have done two sketches to start the ball rolling!

In the center

I know it is not much to look at, a pencil sharpener, BUT it is right in the middle!...I do not like it! The glimpse of the glasses does help with the interest level but I am over it...moving on...

Not in the Center

Well? What do you think? Better? I think so! I do wonder, however, what is going on in the rest of the frame but that is something I need to work on. I think I have learned my lesson on Rule of 3rds!

Wikipida does have some more information about lines and the usage in of them in an image. Next week is the line! Get excited!!

So I need help! I need help trying to figure out what I would like to paint! If you have any suggestions I would love any help I can get!