When is a landscape a landscape?
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When is a landscape a landscape?
When I hear people talk about painting landscapes I must admit I think about gum trees and ocean views. Beautiful subjects to paint. Gorgeous colours. I’ve enjoyed seeing my friends paint some amazing works of landscape art.
Recently I’ve been considering what landscape means to me. Is the built form that surrounds us? Is it the story being told? Is it simply a painting that is not about people? (Although I always think of people in the landscape whether they are seen or not!).
I’m still not sure if I can define completely what a landscape is for the purposes of what I create … and in the end it probably doesn’t matter. For me, it is all about colour, shape, the story. If the end result happens to be considered to be a landscape then it’s a landscape 🙂
Celebrating 100 hundred days!
Create something, learn something, be better at something for 100 days ... 100 day project challenge accepted. I am delighted to be able celebrate the completion of the challenge! 100 days done and dusted!
I started this project on January 31, 2021, setting myself the goal of drawing people for 100 days. Totally out of my comfort zone and with no idea of whether I would even complete the project, but I figured any drawing is better than no drawing.
I started with a simple sketch in an art journal ... probably the first time I had even thought about using a reference for a drawing. Incredibly obvious now ... but hey, I was 100 days less wise ;-)
Over the 100 days I experimented with pencil sketches, using coloured pencils, gouache, acrylic paints and eventually digital tools as well. The transition across to digital was actually a happy accident. I had been doing a sketch at a coffee shop and just couldn't get it to work. Came home, uploaded the sketch to Photoshop to see if I could do something with it and the fun began from there.
Creating digital drawings from initial hand drawn sketches is such fun. I can have a total "mixed media" moment and incorporate painted backgrounds or even drawings into each piece ... oh yep, sky is the limit!
I also got braver and had more fun with my painted people. It is a totally different approach when I paint instead of draw so that was fun.
Another benefit of the project was the push it gave me to explore drawing in ways I hadn't before. The timing of the project aligned beautifully with a life model drawing class that was being offered at BIA. And so, without no experience in drawing with charcoal and ink and absolutely no experience at all working with a model, I started the class. Wow. once again I was out of my comfort zone and once again I was all the better for the experience.
It took me about 2 more weeks longer than the actually 100 days to get the 100 days of drawing and painting complete (life just gets in the way sometimes) but I am so pleased to have stuck with the project. It was great fun and I think 100 days of deliberate practice has gone a long way towards making me more confident in drawing and painting people!
Inspired by alebrijes
Alebrijes are Mexican folk art creatures. The weekly pattern challenge created by Jessica Swift in Pattern Camp this week was "inspired by alebrijes" ...
OK - so I had never actually heard of the art form before taking up the challenge. So that in itself was awesome ... how cool to learn about of whole style of art form! ... And really I was always going to have a soft spot for mythical folk art creatures!
I decided the best way to approach this pattern challenge was to draw my art work first and then create my patterns. Two patterns using the same artwork but in different ways ... I think I like to the one with the blue background best. Do you?
And the hands have it ...
The prompt for Jessica Swift's Campfire this week was "hands" ... it was a good challenge to get me thinking about creating a pattern based on a prompt by someone else. I am still figuring out how to really incorporate my own artwork into my patterns in a style that works for me and then how to make the patterns work beyond a basic grid. Still, it's all about practice and more practice ... if you can call thoroughly enjoying being creative "practice".
Actually "hands" was a timely prompt - I am busily trying to learn to draw and paint hands anyway. Hmmm, I still have a long way to go in this particular area. I suspect it will take me years to finally master that particular skill ... but again, hey, years of painting and drawing ... I'm all for that!
Here is a first attempt (just so I know what to look back on as I keep practicing ...):
A repeating flower pattern
Woohoo - I think I am beginning to get the hang of things. I finished another repeating pattern using my own hand drawn flower as a starting point. Slightly more complex this time - a little bit of recolouring and some slight variations in the tossed repeat to start with.
Still a fairly simple pattern - but I am pleased with the step up from my first effort! Now, for some more practice and then a step up to something more complex.
Got moose?
Well, ok, so a moose isn't green ... nor does it have yellow ears ... but here is my very first repeating pattern! Woohoo! And yes, I don't think it is going to win any design awards nor are you going to be seeking it out as your next fabric design ... but I had to start SOMEWHERE.
Adobe Illustrator and I have had a few long conversations this weekend. Frustratingly, most of the conversations have been one-sided ... I try to create a pattern and Illustrator just blinks and does what it wants. Ugh. Finally, though I think I have figured out the basics. So ... got moose!
My creative brain is already mulling over the possibilities ... hand-drawn, image-traced, live painted, repeating patterns ... oh my.
Hello facebook!
Inspired by some social media work I have been doing for an awesome baseball club ... (go Carina Redsox!), I decided I needed to better coordinate my own social media space. In addition to this blog, I use instagram, twitter, pinterest and up until now sort-of Facebook. I had my own unloved personal Facebook page but no space just for my art. But now, voila, I finally got around to creating a Danfeen Facebook page. It's early days yet, but I'm pleased I have applied my own social media advice and have started to get everything moving in the right direction! Woohoo.
Ink, watercolours and digital paint
Jane's challenge in her Miss Quoted lesson this week was to start with a water colour "face" (or at least the underlayer) and then add pen and ink lines to create a face. I had fun trying this technique. Some of my faces worked wonderfully well and some, well some were an abysmal fail ...
One of the sketches I did, really didn't work - I just didn't get the proportions right. But it did prompt me to take that sketch and use the Procreate app to see if I could improve on it. I'm not sure if I improved the sketch but it was an interesting exercise. I'll definitely try some more drawing like this.
This is the original watercolour and ink sketch:
And how does the gradient tool work again?
At the start of 2016 I set myself some goals. Some I have achieved, some I am working away on and am on target for the year ... and some of the goals have been sitting lost and forlorn in my "to-do" pile. :-(
One of those lost and forlorn goals was to improve my Photoshop and Illustrator skills. I am reasonably ok with Photoshop but Illustrator and I have along way to go. Given we are mid-November and I have about 6 weeks before I will reflect on my 2016 goals and set some new ones for 2017, I thought I should take action!
I found a great site: designcuts.com and I have been steadily working through some of their tutorials and I am pleased to say I'm getting there. OK, I am convinced the gradient tool in Photoshop and the pen tool in Illustrator were deigned simply to give me grief ... but that is just my opinion.
Anyway, I've updated my Facebook banner (ala Photoshop) and have created some basic designs in Illustrator. Let the learning continue!
Anna
Say hello to Anna. She is waiting and watching ... she is hoping.
(Drawn on my iPad with Procreate ... 100% digi)