I don't think I'll ever stop being surprised at how wonderful a little bit of change can be. Whenever I'm in a funk and can't seem to find my way out, just changing up some simple details can make everything bright again. So it is that this week I have something a little different to show you, after last week's disappointing lack of content.
Not long after starting these post, I realised that the limitations of doodling with ink instead of pencil felt liberating. Since then I've often pondered the benefits of limitations and avoiding infinite choice, as a means to heighten creativity and better focus.
It's not an incredible revelation in the art world, as it's common practice to limit one's self in order to encourage originality and creation. However, I often forget just how incredibly important this process can be and tend to lose myself in the possibilities of choice. Thus, whenever fatigue sets in and every idea feels identical to the last, changing up the limitations can open doors to entirely new opportunities.
So this week I have a few little paintings that I did, instead of line drawings. I still used the same little notebook and similar subject matter as before, but handed in the pen for a brush.
The limitations of this method are fewer than using a single ink pen, as paint allows for tonal shifts to happen. In fact, that's kind of the idea with this method, which uses a single colour and a single brush, but varying levels of water to dilute and thin the paint. Obviously we end up with darker paint that hasn't been diluted; all the way to faint pigments in what is mostly plain old water.
Compared to using ink pens, the focus of this method is completely different. Pens forced me to think about shape and form, along with some rudimentary high-contrast shading techniques. Using paint in this way shifts the focus dramatically away from shape to tone.
It's difficult to think about detailed shapes when you're using a single medium-sized brush on a tiny canvas like that of my notebook. What's more, I don't have the steadiest hands at the best of time, so a lot of the marks you see on the page are approximates and tend to "go with the flow" a lot more than their ink counterparts.
Additionally, a lot of the tone is less than deliberate as well, even though there's intention and purpose with every motion. The application naturally goes from light to dark, but if you make one section too dark, there's no going back. In this way there are limits to how much the paint can be edited and manipulated once it's on the page.
In fact, one of the joys of using paint in general, is that it forces the artist to be more of a conductor than a micro-manager. Unless you're willing to go over brush strokes and are attempting something meticulous, a lot of the marks on the page are simply guided into place. Add in the high water content of the lighter areas and you suddenly have to content with drips and drops moving all over the page.
Hence, the use of a single colour of paint, along with a single brush, drives you to focus on tone above all else. There's a little bit of allowance for some rough shapes, but ultimately there are so many limitations for making quick, tiny doodles.
Recently I've been getting back into painting on canvases, which are usually as big as I can make them, but I've always been a fan of artists who are able to "sketch" small pieces in their journals. I'm hoping that pursuing this method as rough doodles might help me eventually develop some skills to create similar little notes in paint.
Having a different method to follow has re-energised my interest in regular sketching, so I'm looking forward to what's ahead. Hopefully we'll have some interesting things to share!