Nothing is better than spending time in your studio space. Time that allows you to be completely involved in your own creative exploration. Researching and studying artists of the present and the past and reacting to this through your art. That is what your independent studio time is all about. I’m constantly having a discussion with myself about what I find interesting about a painting and why. What exactly makes me appreciate the painting; is it the use of the paint, the colors, the composition, the style, etc. I could go on and on about what I can observe. The more important question to address is how to apply the things you are learning from other artists to your own work without copying or trying to recreate someone’s style. To do this you need to figure out why the artist makes certain decisions in their work. Ask yourself why they put a color next to another color or why a shape is exaggerated or why was something painted over and changed. How and why are those things important to that painting? Basically this is like teaching yourself how to make these types of decisions in your own work.
Recently I’ve been experimenting with what the paint can do when different mediums are applied in one painting. So I decided to do something similar with drawing by just playing with shapes and mark making to create and interesting composition. I was in the studio real late one night and instead of pushing myself to keep painting I started working on this little project. I may use these little pieces as a reference or inspiration for the start a new painting.
Drawings of the Week:
