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While painting today, I was thinking, "Wow, this isn't anywhere near as messy and clumsy as I remember from my college art classes. Cool!"
A bit later, I thought, "You know, I should try one of those bi-color technique pieces that Stephanie Pui-Mun Law recommended trying in the Fantasy Art Resource Project... the ones where you use a color and its contrast and black and white and nothing else. That would be fun." So I did. At that point, I suddenly discovered why my college art classes were so messy and clumsy.
I seem to have two primary painting techniques.
Technique #1 is like working with Photoshop. I locate the color I want from among my gazillion little pots of paint, I apply it neatly and carefully to the areas where I want it, and then I let it dry and work on something else for a bit. This is the technique I was using to paint Christmas ornaments this year.
Technique #2 is the one from my college art class, where I have to blend colors together and then (this is the part I forgot) I will waste paint or beat the canvas senseless with it. I have no ability to figure out in advance how much of a given paint I will need to cover the area that I need to cover, so I make too little repeatedly until I've suddenly made too much. And then it's drying into a plastic rock, so I need to paint now and paint fast and get it all onto the canvas where it will at least do a bit of good.
Consequently, instead of following my neat, precise little sketches about what I was going to do and how I was going to do it, I've produced a couple miscellaneous, tiny seascapes, one of which includes some rather spiffy clouds. This is a little weird.
I'm going to slink off to sketch something new for Technique #1. Technique #2 produces neat textures, but I can't afford to blast through paint like that right now. It doesn't grow on trees, and, even if it did, there aren't enough trees available.
Or maybe I'll just get something to eat. Mm... macaroni.
A bit later, I thought, "You know, I should try one of those bi-color technique pieces that Stephanie Pui-Mun Law recommended trying in the Fantasy Art Resource Project... the ones where you use a color and its contrast and black and white and nothing else. That would be fun." So I did. At that point, I suddenly discovered why my college art classes were so messy and clumsy.
I seem to have two primary painting techniques.
Technique #1 is like working with Photoshop. I locate the color I want from among my gazillion little pots of paint, I apply it neatly and carefully to the areas where I want it, and then I let it dry and work on something else for a bit. This is the technique I was using to paint Christmas ornaments this year.
Technique #2 is the one from my college art class, where I have to blend colors together and then (this is the part I forgot) I will waste paint or beat the canvas senseless with it. I have no ability to figure out in advance how much of a given paint I will need to cover the area that I need to cover, so I make too little repeatedly until I've suddenly made too much. And then it's drying into a plastic rock, so I need to paint now and paint fast and get it all onto the canvas where it will at least do a bit of good.
Consequently, instead of following my neat, precise little sketches about what I was going to do and how I was going to do it, I've produced a couple miscellaneous, tiny seascapes, one of which includes some rather spiffy clouds. This is a little weird.
I'm going to slink off to sketch something new for Technique #1. Technique #2 produces neat textures, but I can't afford to blast through paint like that right now. It doesn't grow on trees, and, even if it did, there aren't enough trees available.
Or maybe I'll just get something to eat. Mm... macaroni.
