Yet again, I have started this post more than once and I am starting over again. Sometimes I’m just not satisfied with the thoughts that I first think I want to post and sometimes by the time I get around to reviewing them, they are irrelevant, or slightly out of date. While the previous attempts are not totally irrelevant, they are a little out of date, and not really what I think I want to say. So here we go again.
Occasionally I like to do a bit of experimenting. With my blog and more especially with my art. I’m always looking for the right way to create whatever vision or idea I have. Sometimes that is with pastel, sometimes it’s with watercolor, or pencil, or acrylic ink or paint, sometimes it’s something completely different, though not usually.
I’ve had some ideas for things I want to create that I thought should be done in acrylic paint for a variety of reasons and perceptions. So I got out some acrylic paints and started trying to work with them. I’ve tried oil in the past too, I chose acrylic this time for the ease of cleaning up after. Anyway. When I got ready to start trying to get used to the paints and figure out how to work with them, I got stuck. I needed a way to practice but I didn’t want to use any of my canvas or canvas boards because they are too “precious”. They are more expensive and more permanent so they are not suitable for practice. This was my thought process. And it was holding me up. Until it occurred to me that I could use watercolor paper to practice on. It’s not as permanent feeling, not quite as expensive, and takes up less space. Hooray.
So I set about trying to get accustomed to painting in acrylic. I had some good results and some not so good results. In all cases, I learned something. I’m not sure I really liked the experimenting. It was a little frustrating, though, I did have one that came out really nice. I wanted to post it on my store to share with everyone because I really like it. But, as it is an experiment and on paper and small, I hesitated for a while. A couple of weeks. Then I finally decided that it is still art. It still looks really cool and I should share it. Who am I to judge what others might like, especially since I like it. And I’ve posted a couple of other experiments that turned out to be pretty cool so why not.
I think it seems counter to everything we are taught, about how we should find our medium and niche and stick with those and become masters of them, to decide to experiment with something and share the cool outcome even if you aren’t sure whether you will ever do another piece that way. So I often get stuck on ‘do I take the time to experiment’ or ‘should I share my experiment that came out really cool’. And I hear a lot of other artists worry about the idea of finding a niche or a signature style or theme. And I think this is what has always frustrated me. The expectation that we must pigeonhole ourselves in order to be accepted or understood or appreciated. I have diverse interests and skills, and I know others that are the same. It seems a shame to not get to use some of it just because we can’t be marketed if we are “all over the place”. It’s a bit of a frustration for me, but, I see more and more people sort of ignoring the efforts to be pigeonholed and just going ahead and doing all the things they want. And it’s working. So I guess the answer is ‘to share’.
With that. Here’s a bit of what I’ve been working on.
I have been working on a pastel of a flamingo since I finished the Rhino, which was shortly after I got back from a trip to Florida. It’s a large piece and I did struggle a little with how exactly I wanted to handle some of the background, so I haven’t always stayed focused on it. It’s coming along. I have completed an entire first layer so I could do the first coat of spray fix and now I’m onto the next layer of pastel. I’ve got part of the flamingo done and parts of the background. I was showing a photo of it, as it looked just after the first spray, to a friend and they thought it was done. I explained to them that it isn’t because it needs at least another layer, the color isn’t saturated enough. A few days later, after I’d added some of the next layer I showed them another picture of it at that point so they could see the difference that additional layer and saturation makes. The flamingo is still not done.
I did that experimenting that I was telling you about. I started with a snowman because, well, I like to draw snowmen. They are fun, and simple and make for a quick way to test out a new medium or paper or whatever. So I did one with the acrylics. I’m not really pleased with it, though I like the way some of the background turned out. What I did in my acrylic experimenting and practice that I really like is a butterfly. The background is abstract greens with the butterfly as the focus and by chance, it came out really nice. I particularly like the vibrancy of it.
I did attempt another piece in acrylic that didn’t work out as I have hoped or expected. It’s salvageable if I decide I want to finish it. I’m not sure yet. Not all experiments turn out to be worth sharing, and not all get finished.
The reason for wanting to use the acrylic has to do with wanting bold and vibrant color and along with the ability to really blend and shade things well, oh and detail. But, I wasn’t getting comfortable with the acrylic paints as quickly as I would like and it was keeping me from creating the work that I really wanted to do. So. I finally decided to do it a different way. Though it did require I get past not wanting to do something that was going to eat up my pastels, as in, use them up.
When I create a piece of art using pastel, I usually use pastel paper. It has some tooth but not too much, and requires a fair amount of spray fixative to be able to get really rich color and to not have the paper peaking through. A few months ago, I watched a video by a pastel artist who was comparing the different pastel paper options and giving a review. It was really cool and as a result I decided to order some of the textured papers for pastel to try. I really liked the way they hold onto the pastels and how rich the color looks on them, but, they felt like they really ate into my pastels as I was using them, and somehow this felt wrong or irresponsible. Like I was wasting resources.
I really wanted to do another taekwondo piece in color. I wanted it to be bold and vibrant and hopefully exciting, so I decided to try the textured pastel card again and just deal with the fact that it was going to wear down they pastel faster than I was used to. I am super happy with how it turned out. When I was working on it and making progress, I’d walk past it during the day, when I couldn’t work on it, and I’d stop and look at it and admire how they color popped. And yes, I’ll be using textured pastel card, and surfaces again. I’ll just buy more pastels.
At this point I have three pieces of art at the photographer right now. They are all pastel paintings. They are; the Rhinoceros, a painting of five tulips, and the taekwondo painting. Hopefully I’ll have them back in the next week or so and can start posting them on my store.
So that’s where I’m at. And for my plans…? I have been working on a few other things artistically, as well as that flamingo, and I have another couple of piece already in mind to start. I also have more travel coming up for the day job which, I need to do a few things to prepare for. This trip will be a big adventure and I expect to have plenty to tell about it once I get back. And I’m going to try to get another blog post done before I go.
Cheers!