Kick-Starting Creativity
This month in the gallery, it has been uncharacteristically busy for a February. This is a good thing. (A really good thing.) But it has left me very little time for painting. I did manage to finish up my Earthmovers painting today. Whoohoo! I will post it, just a soon as it gets scanned for the print making process.
Last week, I had some small snippets of time in which I wanted to create. But, I was pretty sure I wouldn’t have enough time to offer my full attention to the Earthmovers piece. So I decided to do a small, brightly colored painting of Budda. My creativity muse was seemingly out sick that day. So I decided to try something that I had been planning on doing for years, but just never got around to trying. That is, taking some photos and playing around with them in Photoshop.
Original Photo
This first photo is an untouched image.
The following photos only had minor adjustments. It wasn’t so much that I wanted something to copy. As it was, a desire to spark a new way of looking at the image.
Increased Saturation
When I printed this out, I thought…”Well thats interesting, but it really doesn’t do me any good.” And I tossed it aside.
The next day I had my art group, so I took the painting along with me to work on, while we all sat around and talked. I also took the original photos (not the Photoshop’d versions) for my reference. It wasn’t until I got home that, (to my complete surprise) I noticed how much my finished painting resembled the color saturated image. Apparently on some level, I had soaked it in. (osmosis perhaps?)
Posterised
I don’t think I used this posterised image at all. (not even by osmosis.) But I included it, as one of the two adjustments that I did. I really like the look that posterising creates and may try it again on another project.
Cropped and Rotated
This photo has not been digitally manipulated and was my main reference image. It was cropped and the image was rotated by about 45 degrees. (I did this by hand, by laying strips of white paper over the photo until I got a composition that I liked. No computers necessary.) I really wanted to keep it a small, easy, and fun painting. So I elimated all the extras in the background and simplified the whole thing with cropping.
Bright Eyes - Oil Pastel 8×8
Copyright by Mona Majorowicz
Finished Painting
It is quite a bit darker here than in real life. But you get the idea. The painting’s greens. blues and purples are quite vibrant, and is actually what makes the painting. This isn’t great art. But it was a good way to loosen up a bit and have fun with color.
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I really like this pastel Bright Eyes work…it has an Impressionist (Van Gough) feel to it. I sometimes think alot of energy and character is lost when people try to be too realistic. There seems heaps of realism in art these days, I like the imagination taking over. You have created a great art resource here, you have plenty of talent. Thanks for sharing. ~ Anni
What a great creative site…heaps of talent too. I really like the oil pastel ‘Bright Eyes’ it has plenty of spirit and character. Very much an Impressionist cat to me (Van Gough)…I like that. Today it seems that realism is so highly prized…I often feel it then loses it’s spirit and energy. Thanks for sharing this…quite a gem.
~ Anni
Thanks so much Anni, I tend to swing back and forth a bit between realism and impressionism. At one time it was my goal to make things as “real” looking as I could. I still occasionally enjoy this challenge.
But more and more I am moving farther away from that, and am challenging myself in new ways. Like using more expressive color and creating a believable image in less strokes. To me this kind of work is more about creating essence and spirit through color and line.
Ooops, there I go. Get me talking about art and I expound on it.
Again, thanks for taking a moment to comment. Feel free to ask questions or offer comments.
Blessings,
Mona