Friday 1 July 2011

Honing our skills: How to take things one step further; always!

I was looking online for some notes on the colour wheel, and about 'colour theory', and I stumbled onto this website: Wet Canvas.

It is an amazing site, and I will be visiting often to find out more about this subject of painting that I am so fascinated with that I can't get enough of it.

For me, it is not enough to paint the same things over and over again. I am following a few blogs, and see the work of people who have attended classes, and I know I wouldn't want to take a class: they all seem to be producing the same thing: if it is daisies, they're all painted the same way, and in the same colours; if it is roses, the roses look like they've been stenciled from the same piece of stencil. Yes, they look good, but for me, that is not enough. I think, with art, things must always be different - there cannot be 15 pieces, and each one look exactly like the one beside it :(

Even my own work is not good enough for me. I look at some of my pieces, and I just know that something is not right. But what? That is why you will find me trawling the internet, looking for stuff to learn and stuff to do, so that I can paint better.

One of the first people who've taught me to look further is Bob Davis. From him, I learnt about sketching, and distance and near, about shadows and how they change the dimensions on the flat page.  I talk about Bob Davis here - and I really can't gush enough about him!

Then, Neadeen Masters taught me about backgrounds and how to make them rock! A visit to her website told me I had struck gold again: it is filled with information and art lessons, and her philosophy about art. And she echoed my need to 'fix' what was wrong with my work, and how I could go about taking my painting one step further. Here homepage is here, and it has a wealth of information and ideas.

And her talking about the Colour Wheel, and Colour Theory, brought me to this exceptional treasure trove of lessons, and ideas and fellow artists:

  Wet Canvas

This is where you are going to find for a long time: because I think it is going to take me forever to read all that I want to, and see all that I want to, and learn all that I feel I must!!!

Here's where I will be right after I post this:

Colour Theory and Mixing

I hope that some of this excites you as much as it does me!

Happy painting :)

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