Friday, April 19, 2013

Tina - Lesson 4 - Pattern and scale

Wednesday, April 3, 2013

Tina - Lesson 4 - Pattern and scale


This assignment looks simple and easy; do a background grid and add patterns and texture on it. But the process is formidable for me. Unlike the Cruciform project, where the background has each grid clearly defined in four corners, this Pattern and Scale project has no clearly defined background. Looking at Jane’s example I see light and dark application of the paint, the grid is faintly visible, no hard edges, just a delicate balance between light and dark. This poses a tremendous challenge for me, as I am used to work and function in a clearly defined environment (Oh, attachment...).  I couldn’t get the paint mix right and when I do divide the plane in grids the lines are too pronounced. This makes me long for watercolor washes… Well there’s an idea! But for now acrylics it is and attempt I must – as you see in the 6 small pieces below. Oops - I just noticed the title of the Lesson "Pattern and Scale" - Did I do this assignment right? Ahhh --- if I have to ask...huh???
Here is my sketches of pattern and scale:  




And here are the 6x6 paintings:








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3 comments:

  1. Tina it's great to see it with the white background and then with the color. Really gives one a great feel for the medium and it's effects. Looks like a great variety you have going on.
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  2. You are FUNNY in the description of your thought process! Excellent excellent EXCELLENT job! Great studies of pattern, and really fun pieces. You definitely got the scale idea going with the pattern. In the last two green ones, I just LOVE the tone-on-tone patterns, and the playfulness of #3, the first blue one. Very nice work - looks like you had FUN!
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    1. Thank You, Jane. You're so kind! Your encouragement helps me to try harder. Here I was concentrating on the Pattern & Scale and not on the background grid, hence the one tone color background. I think the light and dark of the background is the soul of a collage; it holds all the variety of shapes together. I've been practicing to create the background grid, which is very challenging and difficult for me; I still couldn't get the mix right. So, next to come is Project 2 in this lesson. :-)
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Tina - Lesson 5, Project 1 & 2

Saturday, April 6, 2013


Tina - Lesson 5, Project 1 & 2

OK, here I just try to relax and let go of preconceived ideas about what the pieces should look like, and try to let my heart guide me. Not easy for all the resistance that wants to put mind in control. The bulk of the work and attention was on creating the background. I think I got the look I wanted - light and dark, but still need to explore more possibilities of color combinations, line and shape. Am also looking to balance time and effort in doing this work - how much time is enough to work on a piece and when is a piece complete and final? So, here they are:

Project 1:       Line & Grid Studies - 6x6







Project 2:  Open Grid with Lines - 9x9




Project 2 is a bit easier to do and more relax for me since I don't have to worry about painting the collage swatches. The only thing on my mind was to balance the colors. Hmmm... I thought I'll go back in and add paint to the white spaces and see what happens.

This morning I found and watched your video "Scribble Collage, with Hand-Painted Paper" that I bought a while back but never viewed it. OMG, I could kick my self in the butt --- everything I need to know about making the collage swatches are IN the video! Oh well, it's never too late to learn the techniques in there. I'll also be buying your books to learn more of this art making techniques and process. It's a beautiful way to create authentic and original artwork. I'm hooked! I reckon I'll be doing a lot of this type of art making from now on. The process really  stretched and expanded me, like yoga and taichi. It is good exercise for my mind and ego! :-)
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3 comments:

  1. Tina, you've done a great job here, but you are THINKING way too much! In the first exercise, you are simply asked to explore how the line can relate to the background and the collage elements. Color was not an important part of this project, yet you are worrying about color. It's always THERE, color, but for these lessons you can just narrow down your focus to a few things.

    In the first studies, your line is relating to the elements in very similar ways. Try a few more, and do DIFFERENT things with your line. Look again at the lesson for suggestions.

    In the second project I see the same thing. All really beautiful pieces, great examples of open grid, and nice line work. But the lines are relating to the collage in very similar ways.

    Focus on just the elements of the lesson. You don't need everything to come together in every piece. These are all studies; the material will take time to digest and integrate.
    Reply
  2. I like the way the almost attach to each other with the way there are laid out with the blog here...I know that's not the object but I am caught follow the black lines and I'm really enjoying it. Like little maps of the area. I do love the back ground effect your getting with the first ones and the grid ones I think your colors are very complementary and great job..I know your work here and no commented and I was affraid to before Jane did but I said to myself I can't stand it any long..I'm going for it and there you go..Also enjoy the whole hearted feeling your receiving from the process great connections..
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  3. Thank you all for the feedback. Got side tracked with other projects so I have not done much on the course assignments since my last posting. Will attempt to make up for lost time. :-)
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Tina - Lesson 4 Project 2 Composition Using Pattern

Friday, April 12, 2013

Tina -

Finally, I got three samples for this project. Tried to follow the video sample on #1 and #2 for the sake of learning, but donuts have no place in my life; needless to say, we don't get along well on paper either. In #2, I added pink and yellow accents using oil pastel for variety. And in #3, I use collage to add colors, interest and to distort the squareness of the grid on the upper part.




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4 comments:

  1. Really nice use of pattern and scale, Tina! That last one is especially interesting with the collage. I would say in that one you could add some large scale elements, though.
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  2. Thank You, Jane. You're too kind! Yes, now that you mentioned it, I could see the squares and the circles are about the same size, and the little round circles in the green quadrants, they are similar (oh, of course! It's the same bubble wrap!). This piece definitely could use some large scale elements to make it sing do-re-mi... Also, the placement of the patterns as is - is static, safe and predictable, but uninteresting = boring!. I need to get some movement and complexity in there - yes?
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    1. I'm thinking of offering a course called "Balancing Opposites: A Yin/Yang Approach to Composition". So much of what makes composition interesting, to my eye, is having elements of opposite characteristics: large, small; light, dark; bright, dull; smooth, rough; and so forth. This is, of course, not a Rule, just something I observe. And the opposites can be very very subtle: imagine a grid composition of squares all the same size, checkerboard style. You could make one variation: value, say, or color, to make it interesting, leaving size-of-elements a constant. So you don't need to create variety in every aspect, just some. Let that thought swim around for a while and see what you think.
  3. Oh, we are on the same wave length here. Am glad to hear that you will be offering this course. I certainly will sign up for it. Let me know when. I was just thinking about challenging myself to vary the scale of the elements in my pieces. I was thinking about the three bears (small, medium and large) and using elements like musical notes (do, re, mi...), and using tonal values (light and dark). I recently saw a color painting by Paul Klee that looks like what you proposed above - constant size-of-elements but vary the value. (light and dark = white and black). I thought I'll do one like that - we'll see. You've opened up the gate of creativity and I am loving it. I intent to sign up for the Sketchbook class that begins on May 15th. Thank You. :-)
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Tina - Lesson 5 - Re-do Project 1 and 2

Sunday, April 14, 2013

Tina - Lesson 5 - Re-do Project 1 and 2

Whew, this was a struggle to complete, especially being aware of the closing date. I did all pieces over but I still have a hard time drawing the lines. I looked back to my sketches of the line study. It seems so spontaneous and easy. Why am I having trouble in Project 1 & 2? Thinking too much? Yeah, that is a problem.


Anyway, below is Project 1;  I repainted the original and re-drawn the lines.







And here is Project 2. Finding monochromatic collage paper is a bit of a challenge since I did not have a collection of monochromatic papers to begin with. I may need to make some or start collecting this type of papers for future work. I like the look and the feel of monochromatic collage. :-)





Note:  I intent to complete Lesson 6. But just in case I don't complete it by closing date (April 24), I like to thank everyone now for posting and sharing your process. Many times I was stuck and unable to continue - but your work inspired me and gave me the needed push to go on. All of you are great talents, I'm honored and privileged to be part of this experience with you. I'm also grateful to have found Jane as a teacher. You are truly a great artist and an incredible teacher. Thank You for your generosity and patience. I very much appreciate you!

May you all be safe, be healthy, be happy and live with ease.
Till next time... :-)


3 comments:

  1. Really fabulous job, Tina! I'll probably leave the blog open for an extra week, so post lesson 6 if you get a chance.

    These orange ones are just gorgeous! Nice variety of line use. I love the way the orange is painted OVER something. What do you mean you re-painted the original? What original? It looks great, like there is all this space just hovering under the surface.

    The open grids are lovely. The only thing I would say is that you use a very fine line in all three. How about experimenting with different types of line?
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  2. Thank You, Jane. About the lines; oh yes, I noticed that too AFTER I scanned them. In the previous submission, I used the fine point of a black Prismacolor for all the lines. They were too thick, strong and severe. I didn't like the feel of it - too dominating for the planes especially against the white background. Then on this submission, I decided to tone down the black lines using a black Fine Sharpie Pen, which gives me thinner but cleaner lines. I thought about using different drawing tools for the lines to get a variety of thickness but I didn't want to risk messing up at this late hour. I'll try to vary the lines in Lesson 6. Are we limited to use one line only in a collage?
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    1. There is no "messing up" here. Just exploring. So do try the different lines in Lesson 6. It just gives you a wider range of visual vocabulary.
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Tina - Lesson 6 - Project 1

Thursday, April 18, 2013

Tina - Lesson 6 - Project 1 - Depth and Atmosphere, Shape and Line



OK. I followed the instructions in Lesson 6 each step: paint lifting, transparent paint, lifted and wiped with damp paper towel, veiled white paint, then opaque white paint, lifting from tacky surface, then dry-brush over textures, and obscuring depth with opaque white. Finally, I added shape and line, veiled with diluted white paint. It was fun playing with paints. But did I accomplish the objectives? Have a look and tell me what you think. :-)
On #1, I started with 3 colors using Liquitex acrylics neutral gray and cadmium yellow medium, and Reeves acrylic titanium white. Gray and yellow gave me beautiful olive green like the kind you see in autumn. I painted grids of colors gray, gray-white, yellow, yellow-gray, yellow white and just plain white. I use techniques such as paint-lifting, lift and wiped with damp paper towel, transparent paint, veiled white paint and opaque white paint. I decided to try the donut. Surprisingly, I like the feel of it – maybe because of the scale and thickness of the donut vis-à-vis the line and the paper format. It feels balanced. 
 
Ex. #1.  Acrylics on Water Color Paper, 9 x 9

Moving on to #2, I worked the same process as #1. I was in-to-it, feeling good; added blue texture on the right side, three small donuts equal size in blue, and a black line. The composition didn’t feel quite right; the three donuts looked like its floating by themselves. In my dream, I saw the three donuts in a triangle like the billiard balls. So, this morning, I added a thick black triangle around the donuts and tried to veil it and the texture with white paint. It didn’t work. The more I worked it, the more I messed up. Finally I wiped the whole paper with damp paper towel and re-drew the triangle in black and added the blue texture underneath it. Lessons learned here: (1) once I glazed the piece with Golden’s glossy glazing liquid, all the colors are locked – can’t manipulate them anymore; (2) the first impression is always the right one; if it feels and looks good, leave it alone. So here it is:
Ex. #2. Acrylics of Water color Paper, 9 x 9
Ah, just when I thought I have mastered the techniques, curiosity took over, what if I do this, what if I do that? So, I tried complementary colors blue and orange. On the first layer, I was able to hold the balance between the two colors. Then I added the white and I ran into problems. Colors became muddy and it took me awhile to recover the bright colors. I added texture by applying white paint using sea foam. The stain created a kind of lacey texture. It looked pretty. I added a rectangle in orange; hmm, not strong enough – color is too similar to the background. I changed the orange to black, ah, too strong. I added veiled white and dry-brush, and I gave up. You see, I forgot the lessons learned in #2. So, this is it, for now. 
Do you see the wind blowing through?
Ex. #3. Acrylics on Water Color Paper, 9 x 9
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