Practice...Fun?

Painting, drawing or  any kind of creative endevour for that matter, still involves practice...I came across some of my older practice sheets and thought I'd share them so you can get another glimpse of what we artist (sometimes) do with paint and paper.

I try to play with my surfaces and my colours, make charts to see how paints react and what to expect so when I am creating a painting there are no really awful moments, but I am the first one to admit that I am not the best at this...far from it!  I admit it. I am slightly on the, er, lazy side.... I envy artists who can do this and there are many of them who do it very well, are very disciplined and it does show.

But what I keeps me coming back to those doodle sheets is that sometimes your get really nice little surprises...like this one.....

As you can see, I had a fairly nice little chart going, but kinda got bored....but the best thing is this little ankle and boot. Isn't it sweet! I love how the shape of the sole and the bend in the boot is readable with one stroke of the brush.  I can't usually paint that simple, but there it is: Awesome little surprise.


So I keep at it, with color charts and little vignettes that decorate the corners. But I do admit, Have referred back to these charts a number of times, so I must be doing something right :-)

Then there are some color studies. It is pretty neat when you can look at a composition that was done in different colours. You can understand a bit better how much that color impacts on what one is trying to evoke within a painting. The "push" and "pull" between warm and cool colours. Many artist talk about it and try to explain it, but until you get the lazies out and do some, well, I think that's when you have your "ah ha!" moment.

I hated this one (below) when I was working on it a year or so ago, trying to get different daytime lighting effects, but after looking at it now, I can see how I was part of the way there in making an afternoon lightscape and an early morning one. Not quite 100% but there is something there that I like. And that, as Martha Stewart would say, is a good thing.

Study for afternoon vs morning light

Now, back to my commission...can't show you yet. It's a present for someone!