“Art is never finished, only abandoned.” – Leonardo da Vinci
When do you know when to stop working on a oil painting, acrylic painting, watercolor painting, drawing or other work of art? I often hear artists complain that they overwork their art. Or, they will state that they should have stopped before that last brushstroke.
I have had art teachers that instruct that you must place each brushstroke as though it might be your last artistic statement on the canvas. And, certainly that is great advice if you have the experience and control. And, as you achieve painting mastery of color, hues, values , shapes and composition you will begin to move toward this goal. Personally, I don’t have the skills or the interest to paint with that degree of control or intensity. I enjoy the freedom to experiment and adjust colors, values and shapes. I enjoy the painting process more than the process of finishing a painting. The beginning of a painting is a wonderful expression of gestures, shapes, values and colors.
Taking guidance from da Vinci, consider being willing to abandon your artwork before you might think it is finished. It is interesting to walk away from your art for a day or two. When you come back, you’ll see your work with fresh eyes and appreciate the work you’ve done. You may also recognize areas that might enjoy compositional emphasis. Or you might be happy with your artwork as is. Personally, I have found that I must stop myself from “pushing” a painting to completion. At this point as an artist, I believe my work is best when left abandoned.
Avoid the common tendency to over think and overwork your art. Stop fussing about. Abandon your artwork to keep the freshness and originality that inspired your original gestures and brushwork.
For more information about Leonardo da Vinci, consider the book Leonardo’s Notebooks. This book contains illustrations and information about Leonardo da Vinci drawn from more than 7,000 pages of sketches and writings found in various rare books, papers, and other resources throughout the world. A preview of selected pages is available from the book at Amazon.com.
Memorable artwork attracts attention. A goal of artists should be to create memorable artwork.
It does seem that artists are having to work harder to capture the audience attention and create a lasting impression in today’s world. With media seeming to ratchet up the visual noise and competition for our interest, where does it stop?
Compositional use of value, contrasts, colors, and shapes can be used to create eye-candy to grab attention. However, once you have the viewer’s notice, you must make sure you work to keep it from wandering to the next artist. Composition helps here as well. Up close, the eye follows paths through the artwork. You don’t want to provide easy paths that direct attention away from your creation.
However, even if the artwork is a masterful work of composition, is it interesting? Is it new, fresh and exciting work? I was at a recent event and one person commented on an artist’s work “that’s the same painting they’ve painted the past 10 years.” Meaning, the artist has been using the same compositional elements, subject and general approach to the painting and not evolved over the years. From the collector’s perspective, they have become stuck. An artist needs to be able to offer collectors choices in composition, subjects, values and colors for their selection.
An excellent book on composition for beginning to experienced artists and on of my most used artist reference books is Mastering Composition by Ian Roberts. A 40-minute DVD is included with the book that illustrates the concepts. It is available at Amazon.com and most major book stores.
I’m not suggesting you throw out a successful approach and technique that you love. However, I would encourage you to continue to open yourself up to an evolution of expression through your artwork. If you’re beginning to find your artwork boring, so will your audience and collectors. Do you have to drag yourself to your easel instead of drag yourself away? Then explore what part of the artistic and creative process brings you the most pleasure and satisfaction. Focus on bringing more of these expressive elements to your art and explode you passion into your art.
I was at an art show and overheard a visitor ask an artist “Is your art recyclable?” This question simply left me speechless. I wondered how I would have responded. Certainly, I would not have wanted my work to end up in the recycle bin. However, I also recognize that many of today’s art collectors are also sensitive to environmental concerns.
One of today’s hot environmental topics is “sustainability”. What is sustainability and why should artists be concerned with the concept? As artists, should we be concerned with trends and fads? In environment terms, sustainability is used to encompass strategies, practices and policies to meet society’s present needs without compromising the ability to meet society’s needs in the future.
There is another side to sustainability. Over the past 30 years, EPA, government, environmental groups and business have all been looking at ways to encourage environment sustainably. Today, there are waves of green businesses and green jobs being nurtured, funded and developed to hopefully be the next dot com wave of the future. Can you spell “opportunity”? How should artists respond to sustainability and environmental responsibility?
Recently, I visited the Scottsdale Artists’ Festival. The Festival featured a public art project made from thousands of colorful recycled plastic bags by Austin-based artist Virginia Fleck. There were large plastic-bag sculptured shapes that clung to walls, floated in fountains and lightly floated over lawns. Was this a sustainable artwork? Not in the true sense of the definition of sustainability. This installation of recycled plastic bags, however, did get the audience thinking about recycling and the environment.
Is the purpose of art to be pretty? Or, as artists, should we work to motive views to think and act? Art that provokes an audience may disturbing. It may not be “commercial” as or marketable as artwork that is aesthetically pleasing. An art collector may not want to pay your price to have it on the wall in their home. You have to ask yourself a question. What is more important to you? Do you want to help save the environment or earn a living? Maybe you can do both! A compelling environmental or sustainability story just may help you sell you next artwork.
Sustainability is a term used to encompass strategies, practices and policies that meet business and society’s present needs without compromising the ability to meet needs in the future. Do artists need to be concerned with sustainability?
Let’s look at sustaining, building and maintaining your own art business. Unfortunately, the days of the art patron seem to be long over. Most artists must balance efforts to product works of art with efforts to sell and promote their artwork. Very few artists ever reach a point where they can afford a dedicated staff, agent or line of galleries handling all their business affairs for them.
To be successful, you have to invest time selling, marketing, promoting and doing all the hundreds of activities necessary so you can have the time to produce your artwork. But if you spend too much time trying to sell or promote your work, you’re not creating. In my experience, you have to find the right balance of time and priorities to sustain your business that fits you. You must make a commitment to schedules and time. You must have the discipline to keep to your priorities and schedule.
Over time, you’ll probably find your own balancing point where you create during the week and sell some weekends when there are shows. You’re probably much more productive as an artist than you are a sales person . However, I have observed a number of really great sales people who are selling their art at a high price but having problems with the creative process. You have to search to identify the balance that fits your lifestyle, interests and passion. And, this point will change over time as your artistic reputation and marketing skills changes.
It takes an initial investment of time and energy to kick-start your sustainable art business. And, you need to reinvesting if you take unusual amounts of time off or withdraw large amounts of work from the business. It’s all about balance and sustainability.
Have you walked around galleries or art shows and seen some of the artists displaying glossy hard cover books featuring their work? Wouldn’t you like to have a book highlighting your artwork on display? A book of an artist’s work adds instant value and credibility. It is an excellent way for the artist to market and promote their artwork. And, if the artist can sell a few copies of the book, this helps cover show expenses and distributes the artist’s images into the world.
Today, many artists are self-publishing their own books featuring their art. When done correctly, the average person should not be able to tell that an art book is self-published by the artist. These professionally printed books can be produced one at a time or in small runs at a very reasonable price. For example, nationally recognized portrait artist Chris Saper offers her book Mostly Monochrome at Blurb.com. At the time of this writing, Blurb will print up to 80 pages of 4 color 8×10 inches in a soft cover for under $30. You have options for hard cover, premium and custom paper, dust jackets, larger and smaller sizes. Check out their prices. Blurb will even sell and ship books for you. Have your art customers order your book directly from blurb and avoid the hassles. Or, print up a small quantity of your own books and sell them at your shows.
The real challenge is that artists are not art book layout, copy writers or editors. And, most artists have no interest in investing time to become book editors or book publishing experts. Artists want to paint, sculpt, draw, perform, photograph or just be artistic. So, how do you get your artistic work in a format suitable for publication? Blurb does have a program you download to your computer to help you build your book. Blurb’s Quickstart Book templates encourage you to select template or guide, then drag and drop images and text into the desired page. You’re ready to go!
Still hesitant? It shouldn’t be the investment of under $50 to give this a try and see how it works for you. It’s probably because either you don’t have the time or you consider yourself technically, computer or online challenged. In these cases, I would suggest you find someone who loves your art and is technically inclined. We don’t need a rocket scientist, just someone who has a “computer gene” floating around. You know the type. Maybe you can trade or compensate for time for them to organize your words and images for you. Remember, it is still your book, so you must proofread, double check and recheck. It’s always a good idea to have a second pair of eyes on your project. However, since you can print one at a time, you can always make revisions and enhancements.
You may also find independent self-publishing editors available for reasonable to non-reasonable fees on the Internet. Remember, it’s easier to catch someone else’s mistakes. Try to work out compensation that is fair to you. You don’t want to invest too much money experimenting in a process that will change over time. Make sure that you retain ownership and receive copies of all publishing materials.
If you have any questions on this process, please let me know! I would enjoy hearing from you. I apologize in advance if I am not able to answer all questions in a timely manner.
Richard F. Farrell
4/5/2010 Update: Another self publishing site that has come to my attention is lulu.com. Let us know what you know or think about their capabilities and ability to promote your books and art! – RFF
“You need to work on artistic composition.” Have you heard this from artists or judges? Many artists struggle with the concept of composition for their landscape, still life, life study or portraiture. It does not matter if you an oil painter, acrylics artist, mixed media, water media or creating a collage. As artists, we need to think about composition before we start applying your media to a canvas.
A compelling composition will attract the eye from across a room and attract the viewer. It is often the reason why one painting is preferred over another with a similar subject. The eye is responding to the contrasts between light and dark values, warm and cool colors, hard and soft, shapes and contours, large and small objects. At first glance, paintings are seen as object masses. The mind then interprets these blobs of values, colors and sizes as a still life, portrait or landscape. You have to provide elements of interest for eye to attract the mind.
Composition provides the underlying structure or framework for subject material. Many artists will draw or paint smaller test samples or thumbnail designs to see how different layouts appear and appeal to the eye. This may involve moving the subject around within the composition to find the right placement. Adding or subtracting objects may also be necessary to develop paths for the eyes to follow.
Composition is more than object placement on the canvas. An objects and masses have characteristics that attract and focus the viewer’s attention. A thumbnail drawing will appear to have a completely different composition impact when light and dark values are place, moved or adjusted. Think of an old faded photograph you might have seen or even a sepia toned photo and compare with a sharp high contrast photo with strong contrast of lights and darks. Both photographs may reflect the same subject but have a different impact on the viewer.
Thinking about composition before you begin is critical to the success of the artwork. One of my favorite books is Mastering Composition by Ian Roberts. A 40-minute DVD is included with the book that illustrates the concepts. Mr. Roberts covers a number of composition topics in a clear and easy to understand manner including advice and examples how to:
Choose good reference materials and creating thumbnail designs.
Identifying structures and basic compositional layout techniques.
Using viewfinders to help crop and frame to develop the best relationships between value masses.
Analyze paintings from a composition perspective of colors, values, hue and intensity.
As we progress as artists, we begin to have favorite colors that we prefer to have on our pallet. If you paint with oil paints, acrylic paints or watercolors, you probably have 8 to 12 colors you use on a regular basis. At times, the colors in the painting or composition requires we go back to our paints to pick up a tube with a specific hue, but we find we can paint with a few color standards or use a limited oil, watercolor or acrylic paint palette. However, even these can be narrowed down to achieve stunning artistic works.
To begin, it is interesting to approach a painting color or monochromatic subjects with only a few colors in our limited palette. An artist will choose as few colors as possible to add to their palette and mix the rest of the needed colors from this limited color palette. This helps to remove some of the palette confusion and riot of colors that often produce mud colors and challenge the artist and painting.
What are the right colors to work with or add to a limited palette? Of course, your reference materials or subject has a significant input on your color choice. An underpainting for your work will often begin as tonal (monochromatic) or one-color rendering of your subject. Even though only one color is used, the transparency of different colors or the use of media will allow you to create different values or lights and darks. Underpaintings created by this approach are often beautiful works of art and stand on their own.
An interesting limited tonal palette is white and black. You can create all the values of grey just by using white and black. Often, an artist may add a middle-value grey and mix several pools of grey values by adding white or black paint to the grey. This gives you the value range without having to remix and guess as you paint. Chris Saper, a nationally recognized portrait artist is a master of this painting with monochromatic palettes and limited palettes. She conducts workshopsdemonstrating and teaching monochromic portraits, and has several books and videos that help artists become proficient in these techniques
Other colors are often added that are not easy to mix but might be required by the subject. This limited palette for oil paints, acrylics or water colors is often extended to include greens, oranges and reds where the hue, chroma and intensity of the color is not easily obtained by combining the limited colors in the palette,
Mr. Gury also illustrates a limited color palette artwork by Arthur DeCosta using a limited oil color pallet for painting including burnt sienna and ultramarine blue with white. You’ll also find a list of selected historical palettes used by Titan, Francisco Jose de Goya, Renoir, Rubens, Pissarro, Cezanne and more art masters. Each art master seems to have found a limited set of favorite colors they used on a regular basis to create their master works of art. Many of the colors were based upon the pigments available in their day.
The challenge for many artists is to simplify their works and to loosen up. A limited palette is a good step to help reduce the temptation to add unnecessary extra colors which may confuse the artwork. Remember, just because you can add a color doesn’t mean that it adds measurable results to your artwork. Try working with as few colors as you can and see the results you may obtain.
What inspires you as an artist? Personally, I am inspired by movement. The changing of lines, shapes, forms, hues and values as they transition from one stunning composition to another. Capturing and developing these transitional moments onto canvas or sculpture motivates my attempts to develop and improve artistic skills.
Recently, I found this beautiful video on YouTube.com of the ballerina Polina Seminova. She embodies beauty and grace in motion in this demonstration of her skills and artistic talents. This inspires me. What inspires you?
In my opinion, you can not call yourself an artist until you invest the time and have a passion working to produce artist creations.
I know a number of people with enormous potential to become artists. When they pick up a pencil, charcoal stick, brush or camera they show natural artistic talent. And, they may call themselves an artist because they can draw a clown, a cow or a barn, write a poem, take a picture, or deliver a “line”. But, there is no “passion” in their work. They are not driven at regular intervals to capture the light, the movement, the change, the joy or tragedy in an artistic expression.
Artists pick up their tools and work to produce art or “artwork”. And, artists are internally motivated to accomplish these works or demonstrations on a regular basis. Producing artworks can be relaxing, therepeudic, connect you with the artistic community and a be a wonderful experience. Don’t “want” to be an artist. Become one. Commit to developing or performing a piece ofyour art on a regular basis. Without this commitment to Art and your artistic expression through artwork, you can never honestly call yourself an artist.
How much do you spend on art materials and supplies? If you’re like me, you probably wait until the last minute then run down to the local art supply store and buy whatever you need.
Many local professional art supply stores will give you a discount card toward purchases if you can prove you are an art student or are enrolled in an arts class of some type. These discount cards are generally worth about 10% off non-sale and non-clearance items. Just ask!
Every artist today is concerned with the cost of art materials and supplies. Finding the best deals and discounts on professional or artist grade paints, canvas, brushes and other supplies is a time consuming effort. If you wait until the last minute, you’ll probably pay more than you need to. Here is what I’ve found.
Always enroll to receive the “email” notifications of sales, discount coupons and special events. These emails will let you know when and where your best art supply and materials happen. And, check your email inbox and flag these emails so you can find them when you need them. If the coupon is good for a month, print several copies or keep the email handy.
In most cases, you’ll get your best deals for art supplies materials online, even after the 10% “student discount” savings. Today, most local art stores do not match their own online prices! You may get a coupon or prices in an email that are only good when buying online. And, if you look at the online price catalog, it will often be less expensive than their own store down the street. Their justification is that the online environment is more competitive. You may find local stores with clearance, discontinued or their own “buy one at 40% off” deals, these savings generally don’t go very far. Companies like DickBlick Art usually offer Weekly Hot Deals and Specials on Art Supplies that you can explore.
Another advantage of buying online is the potential savings on gas, taxes and shipping. Most online stores such as Dick Blick Art, Utrecht, Jerrys Artarama, and Cheap Joes offer free shipping with a minimum purchase amount. Usually, this amout will be posted on their website. And, if they don’t have a retail outlet in your state, they might not charge you sales taxes.
Online companies such as DickBlick also usually post a coupon code right on the home page for extra savings.
In many of the art classes I have taken, one person or the instructor acts as the online buyer. He or she will consolodate an order to meet the miminum for free shipping and to get the best discounts. Buying online can then mean savings of 25% to 40% what you might pay locally.
Don’t wait until you down to the last squeeze of paint, your last canvas, sheet of watercolor paper. Start making a “art materials buying list” now that you will need in the near future. Then go online and see who gives you the best deals.
Personally, I would prefer to support a local professional art supply store. And I would do so if I could get the same deal as I could get online. However, in today’s economy I can not afford to pay too much for art materials when it is too easy to save by shopping online. Take your online prices into your local store and ask if they will match the prices. They may be happy to get the business!
Click Here for a list of some of the merchants that are online and check their values and prices.
And, let us know where you find your best deals for art materials.
