In this article I will show you how I created my painting Dance! As this piece is abstract-expressionist one it is important to catch some interesting idea and do not think much about how it could be done. Just come with something interesting and do it as fast. as possible – that is the key to successful work! And do not think about spoiling it – you can always throw it into the trash or give it to your loving neighbours :o)
Okay, so lets start! Yesterday I had an idea. One simple thought that left stacked in not so deep corner of my mind wanted to show up. It was day after friend’s birthday party in a pub where there was almost everyone dancing. So we have great general motive. Dance – almost every painter – at least once – painted this motive. It is very easy, very natural, old as mankind and can be created in such a many ways it has to be original every time – there are many many aspects you can do your creative way but only few that are always same. Curves of human body and dynamics of movement – this tends to be strong expression. That’s why this theme always attracted so much people… Let’s take a look on my little abstract approach.
First when I was sitting at home and doing ordinary things, fresh yesterday’s memory flashed through my mind so I didn’t wait a moment and grabbed piece of paper and sketched few lines representing two dancing bodies – their curves – tried to be as much dynamic as possible but not generally thinking much about it. Curves that are not horizontal nor vertical al always very dynamic. Placing heads near the canvas border multiplies this dynamic feeling even more. Here is the result – drawn within few seconds:
Next after catching this wonderful moment on the paper – making sure not to lose idea when preparing colors and canvas – I moved on to next stage and I sketched this on the canvas adding colored pencils to determine working colors. I was thinking about green grading to blue as a background and pink to orange for both figures to make a decent contrast used to separate foreground from background. With this combination it is fairy easy and it looks great to every eye on our planet because this is kind of combination used widely in nature – but not so usual - so we have it somehow coded in our genes. Remember one nice rose. Pink with green leaves. Swarm of flamingos on green background and so on….
In next step I picked these (acrylics) colors: cerulean blue hue, light green permanent and of course titanium white and ivory black. I did not wanted to have very saturated background so I mixed some white and black to gray it out and be able to fade away more into the distance. Then I started very fast with green from top and finishing with blue on bottom making nice gradient with fast and long strokes. After painting this gradient from premixed colors I layed over more using not-too-well mixed color that I prepared on palette (same colors – blue with white and black, green with white and black but only barely mixed together) to create visible lighter and darker strokes that mixed right on canvas with pure saturated blue and green.
Okay, let’s move on! Don’t forget to leave free space for the dance! Now you can nicely see silhouettes of dancers left white in the blend of background colors. I prepared pink and orange colors. Pink was easy one as you only need red and add some white into it. I used standard primary red. For orange I picked cadmium red medium hue and mixed some of the cadmium yellow deep hue into it. And white of course. I started to create dancers, but here I slowed down little bit to be careful and not touch any of previously painted background too much. If that happen, you can always wash it out with water – this is good and possible with acrylics (once they dry). But that’s not my case and if you want to make really strong expression I advise you to not turn things back – just not make any mistakes – or turn any mistakes into nice looking ones :o) It can be always done! And it is important to not interrupt the flow. It must flow just from your box right into the canvas. A lot of people make the worst mistake – they fear to mess up what they already painted. Do not fear, just paint. And if it looks great you are lucky. If not, try to practise – everything can be learned – but it is better to have it from beginning :o) And If you tried so much with poor results, please, do not try more and leave it. Or maybe try something different. Some people are wonderful and creative room painters and it is bad to miss any opportunity life gives you!
Oh! I forgot. These red drops between figures are made by toothbrush – try it as it is very good to make tiny random points and gives your painting a little touch of something not too much prepared and constructed. And what it means here? Now it is time for some thinking about!
Work in progress: Dance!
In this article I will show you how I created my painting Dance! As this piece is abstract-expressionist one it is important to catch some interesting idea and do not think much about how it could be done. Just come with something interesting and do it as fast. as possible – that is the key to successful work! And do not think about spoiling it – you can always throw it into the trash or give it to your loving neighbours :o)
Okay, so lets start! Yesterday I had an idea. One simple thought that left stacked in not so deep corner of my mind wanted to show up. It was day after friend’s birthday party in a pub where there was almost everyone dancing. So we have great general motive. Dance – almost every painter – at least once – painted this motive. It is very easy, very natural, old as mankind and can be created in such a many ways it has to be original every time – there are many many aspects you can do your creative way but only few that are always same. Curves of human body and dynamics of movement – this tends to be strong expression. That’s why this theme always attracted so much people… Let’s take a look on my little abstract approach.
First when I was sitting at home and doing ordinary things, fresh yesterday’s memory flashed through my mind so I didn’t wait a moment and grabbed piece of paper and sketched few lines representing two dancing bodies – their curves – tried to be as much dynamic as possible but not generally thinking much about it. Curves that are not horizontal nor vertical al always very dynamic. Placing heads near the canvas border multiplies this dynamic feeling even more. Here is the result – drawn within few seconds:
Next after catching this wonderful moment on the paper – making sure not to lose idea when preparing colors and canvas – I moved on to next stage and I sketched this on the canvas adding colored pencils to determine working colors. I was thinking about green grading to blue as a background and pink to orange for both figures to make a decent contrast used to separate foreground from background. With this combination it is fairy easy and it looks great to every eye on our planet because this is kind of combination used widely in nature – but not so usual - so we have it somehow coded in our genes. Remember one nice rose. Pink with green leaves. Swarm of flamingos on green background and so on….
In next step I picked these (acrylics) colors: cerulean blue hue, light green permanent and of course titanium white and ivory black. I did not wanted to have very saturated background so I mixed some white and black to gray it out and be able to fade away more into the distance. Then I started very fast with green from top and finishing with blue on bottom making nice gradient with fast and long strokes. After painting this gradient from premixed colors I layed over more using not-too-well mixed color that I prepared on palette (same colors – blue with white and black, green with white and black but only barely mixed together) to create visible lighter and darker strokes that mixed right on canvas with pure saturated blue and green.
Okay, let’s move on! Don’t forget to leave free space for the dance! Now you can nicely see silhouettes of dancers left white in the blend of background colors. I prepared pink and orange colors. Pink was easy one as you only need red and add some white into it. I used standard primary red. For orange I picked cadmium red medium hue and mixed some of the cadmium yellow deep hue into it. And white of course. I started to create dancers, but here I slowed down little bit to be careful and not touch any of previously painted background too much. If that happen, you can always wash it out with water – this is good and possible with acrylics (once they dry). But that’s not my case and if you want to make really strong expression I advise you to not turn things back – just not make any mistakes – or turn any mistakes into nice looking ones :o) It can be always done! And it is important to not interrupt the flow. It must flow just from your box right into the canvas. A lot of people make the worst mistake – they fear to mess up what they already painted. Do not fear, just paint. And if it looks great you are lucky. If not, try to practise – everything can be learned – but it is better to have it from beginning :o) And If you tried so much with poor results, please, do not try more and leave it. Or maybe try something different. Some people are wonderful and creative room painters and it is bad to miss any opportunity life gives you!
Oh! I forgot. These red drops between figures are made by toothbrush – try it as it is very good to make tiny random points and gives your painting a little touch of something not too much prepared and constructed. And what it means here? Now it is time for some thinking about!
Have a nice day ladies!