Artists and their multiple personalities

"Beyond Black & White I" ACEO can be bid on here.
Copyright Rita Woodburne

Happy Friday, dear reader!

Well, today I'm going to forego the silliness. Instead I'd like to pass along to you a few posts that were done by Maggie Stiefvater this week on the subject of style, more specifically, developing one's style. I figure that these would be relevant reading since I had touched on the subject of developing style briefly in my post this week on Van Gogh. Also, Maggie has a very dry (that's the polite alternative to saying 'sarcastic') sense of humour much like my own so you'll still be entertained. Trust me.

The relevant posts can be found here and here.

She also did a follow up to some comments/ questions that readers had asked her but if you want to read those I suggest you head to her blog yourself. I can't do all the work for you.


My own thoughts are that she's pretty much hit the nail on the head. Artists should explore, play and experiment with different mediums and styles until they find what's comfortable for them. After that, try working that style and medium to your liking in order to create art that's satisfying for you. Gently forcing the development of one's style isn't a bad thing... unless you get carried away with it in which case you're quite likely to suck the fun right out of doing art. And that should never happen.

Looking around my own studio I can see a bit of a mish-mash of styles but, happily, what I do notice is that my more recent works are more consistent. On the down-side, it makes me want to hide away those works that don't fit.
Many of the ACEO's I've done lately aren't really consistent in style. However, they're small and I do them specifically for the purpose of both experimenting with different subjects and techniques and also to supplement my income. They're not the be all and end all to who I am as an artist (or what type of an artist I want to portray myself as) because that's what the bigger pieces are for! If I start to become labourious over a piece that size then I'm going to be in a heap of trouble when I get to the bigger stuff.

There's nothing wrong with experimenting because that could be when you get your next big inspiration or revelation about what you want to tweak in your style. Artists, and their collectors, should expect change and try to harness it in the best way they can to make it work for them.


So, that's the post for today. I highly recommend trying out what Maggie suggested and putting all your work together and weed out: the pieces that almost caused you to have an aneurysm, the ones that even your Grandmother would say "Ick" to and the ones that just didn't feed your artistic soul (I know, how airy-fairy). What's left and why?

Homework? For the week-end? You betcha!

All zested out

"Upping the Ante" ACEO can be bid on here.
Copyright Rita Woodburne

"Go Forward" ACEO can be bid on here.
Copyright Rita Woodburne

Today’s the day when I wrap up my solvent experiment so let's get to it, shall we?

To catch folks up on what the heck I’m talking about (in case you’re just reading this blog for the first time) a few weeks ago I decided to take on a small project involving using solvents with my coloured pencil work. The beginning of it can be found here.

There, now that you’re up to speed I’ll continue. You can find the follow up post to that one here.

Here is the final piece. Please, feel free to comment and crit as much as you’d like. Good or bad, no worries, I have thick skin for this kinda thing.

Untitled solvent horse. Open to suggestions...anyone?
5x7, coloured pencil and solvent on pastelbord
Copyright Rita Woodburne

Looking at it now I can see lots of things I would've done differently and, because of my energy sapping cold, I really could've come up with something much more interesting for the background. However, considering this was an experiment I'm okay with it.
So how do I feel about the Zest-It solvent? I’m underwhelmed. It cost me a fair bit to get this stuff and while I do enjoy a citrus scent, I could just as easily cut an orange in half and place it next to me while I’m working...and then eat it when I’m done. I can’t eat or drink Zest-It... well, I could, but I’d get sick and... nevermind, you get the idea.
Also, having worked a bit with my watercolour pencils last year in conjunction with some of my cp pieces, I can’t really say that the solvent gave me any effects that were more desirable than what I can get with the watercolour pencils.

Okay, so was there anything that I did like about it? Not specifically about the product but what I did enjoy was the fun I had smooshing colour around with a paintbrush on the pastelbord (and Meg, if you’re reading this, your softer bristle brushes will meet a similar fate as your other brush, I’m sorry to say) and a good old colour smooshing was just the thing I needed. This little experiment also revived my interest in pastelbord. I still have a few pieces lying around and I’m already conjuring up ideas for projects to use it with!

More Zest!

"Caught in the Breeze" ACEO can be bid on here.
Copyright Rita Woodburne

Well, howdy doody, dear reader!

Today I'm going to resume my solvent experiment. If you want to refer back to the first image before we begin just head over here to refresh your memory.

Pretty ugly, eh?

Well, like I mentioned before, that's okay because all coloured pencil pieces are subject to an ugly stage at one point or another. Fortunately, because this is a small piece and because I'm infatuated with horses, I can see past the ugly stage and onto something a bit less aesthetically revolting.

I decided that while I hadn't done enough smooshing (<--- that's a technical term...really) with colour and solvent I still wanted to go ahead and start on some "modeling" of my subject. This included pumping up some of the highlights and shaping the face a bit and blocking in some of the shadows by blocking in a colour as an under painting. It also included some fiddling with the hair because, well, I love flowy hair on horses and I just couldn't help myself.

Untitled WIP with bad lighting, 5x7 coloured pencil on pastelboard
Copyright Rita Woodburne

You, hopefully, can also see that I've thrown in some of the colours I'm planning on using throughout the body and face to establish warm spots and cool spots.

In the next picture I've gone over the mane some more and applied more solvent to the pink/ salmon coloured areas and I've also started working the face and neck areas by adding in more lights and other lighter colours such as Light Peach, Putty Beige and Ginger Root.

Untitled WIP, 5x7 coloured pencil on pastelboard
Copyright Rita Woodburne

My next steps will include more shaping in the face, such as including in the fiddly bits that can be found on a horse face, as well as establishing the shadows on the body and focusing more on getting the nose area the correct value.
While I'm working on those things I'll also be rolling around in my head what I'd like to do with the background. Because this is an experimental piece I didn't really give it too much thought but I do know that I'd like to stick with a fantasy feel or something very simple, no scenery.


So there you have it, another step forward in the solvent experiment. I'd like to have this one wrapped up for next week because it ties in nicely with a project that I'm undertaking next month (I mentioned it in my Plans for 2008- in the artsy section) and I'd like to mention what it is next week as well as extend an invitation to any other artists, or hobby-artists, out there in bloggerdom who would like to participate.

Curious? Well, stay tuned...

Zesty!

"Look Up, Way Up" ACEO can be bid on here.

Copyright Rita Woodburne

Hi there, dear reader!

So in my quest to find what works for me artistically and what doesn't I decided that in today's post I'd share with you a little experiment I have going on.

Last year, I can't recall when, over at WetCanvas! in the coloured pencil forum there was much ado about solvents. What could one accomplish by using solvents? Who was using them? What types were there? And so on.
One of the solvents that came up was one called "Zest-It" that boasted a delightful orange-y scent and was non-toxic to boot. I saw what several people were doing with this stuff and I had to bite. What can I say? I'm a sucker for new artsy knick-knacks and doo-dads, so I ordered some.

A week or so later my Zest-It arrived and there it sat. I was at a loss as to what I should try it with, in terms of a subject, much less on what type of support. Ultimately I think what I wound up doing was doing a bunch of scribbles on a piece of Colourfix and then smearing some Zest-It on the scribbles to see what effects I could get.

Fast forward to this week.

I decided that if I'd spent the money on the darn stuff then I might as well use it and so I whipped out a piece of pastelbord (again, another artsy knick-knack/ doo-dad) and did a quick line drawing of a horse and started blocking in some colours. After I got the colours down, and there really weren't many, I applied the Zest-It. Here's where it is right now:

5x7, coloured pencil on Pastelbord.
Copyright Rita Woodburne

Looks pretty darn ugly, eh? That's okay, all cp pieces go through an ugly stage and I'm certainly no whiz with a paintbrush.

The reason I'm doing this is because I wanted to work on a piece "for fun" and because I want to know if the Zest-It is worth my time as opposed to my watercolour pencils. After all, I have to order this stuff from the UK and the shipping is almost as much as the solvent itself! I can go pick up watercolour pencils at my local art store.

I'm going to be playing with this one on and off for the remainder of the week and, provided I don't become too distracted, I suspect it should be finished off this week-end.

I may do another piece, a floral, using this stuff since florals seem to have less fiddly bits than a horse. I tend to be a bit looser with floral works, which will help because like I mentioned before, I'm no whiz with the paintbrush so I'll just be able to slap the stuff on and have at it.

So I hope you'll stick around and find out if this little solvent experiment works. If not, I'll be advertising a bottle of Zest-It for sale on this blog in due time. :p