A Reclamation Project
So, it's the middle of February, and, as usual when my birthday is approaching, I get crabby as I compare my income with the cost of living. Actually, I was in such a vile mood last year this time, my wife didn't want to be around me. This year, I have some very good jobs going, at least, even if their budgets don't measure up to where I want to be. It gets me wondering if I'll ever get to a point where I feel that I've really done well in my art career.
Today, I did some good work, just the same. Generating new sketches always takes time and energy, but that's where it all starts. I did a very nice sketch for the blues festival poster that I'll be creating; it took about 3 hours to do. The rough sketch was already done, so this was a much more refined version with some research behind it. I await feedback from the festival promoter. I am hoping that when I'm at the festival, and the public puts one and one together recognizing my work, my sales will be brisk. It won't be, however, until mid-September.
In the midst of the commercial work I've got to do, I wanted to do something that involved no clients. My eyeballs fell upon a jazz watercolor of Grant Green I had done some time ago, and never considered successful. The colors were dull and the paper I worked on was cold-press and not easy to paint on. I had tried to dress it up in a variety of ways, all of them contributing to the mucky feel of the piece. The drawing, based on a photograph, was fine, and I still felt there was something to salvage here. I then realized that I'd been wanting to do an entire piece in blue tones, and this was the one to do. I began to mix opaque versions of blue, with white paint, and started going over the browns, pinks, and greens that had made up the piece. I then got tired.
You fellow artists out there: when you hit a brick wall, go to some old piece of art and play with it. Slop some new paint on it, or cut it up and make it the beginnings of a collage. Some times this can be fun, and it's much easier than beginning an entirely new piece of art. That's my advice. It takes one back to being a kid, on some level. After all, you're working on some art that means little to you, so you can't ruin it. And if you do ruin it, you've lost little. And, you get to play.
Today, I did some good work, just the same. Generating new sketches always takes time and energy, but that's where it all starts. I did a very nice sketch for the blues festival poster that I'll be creating; it took about 3 hours to do. The rough sketch was already done, so this was a much more refined version with some research behind it. I await feedback from the festival promoter. I am hoping that when I'm at the festival, and the public puts one and one together recognizing my work, my sales will be brisk. It won't be, however, until mid-September.
In the midst of the commercial work I've got to do, I wanted to do something that involved no clients. My eyeballs fell upon a jazz watercolor of Grant Green I had done some time ago, and never considered successful. The colors were dull and the paper I worked on was cold-press and not easy to paint on. I had tried to dress it up in a variety of ways, all of them contributing to the mucky feel of the piece. The drawing, based on a photograph, was fine, and I still felt there was something to salvage here. I then realized that I'd been wanting to do an entire piece in blue tones, and this was the one to do. I began to mix opaque versions of blue, with white paint, and started going over the browns, pinks, and greens that had made up the piece. I then got tired.
You fellow artists out there: when you hit a brick wall, go to some old piece of art and play with it. Slop some new paint on it, or cut it up and make it the beginnings of a collage. Some times this can be fun, and it's much easier than beginning an entirely new piece of art. That's my advice. It takes one back to being a kid, on some level. After all, you're working on some art that means little to you, so you can't ruin it. And if you do ruin it, you've lost little. And, you get to play.
posted by Rich Sigberman at
4:18 PM
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