What have I been up to?
I decided to give social media a break for a while - why?
Not because it wasn’t yielding results (although about that…) but instead because it distracted me from producing the best work that I could possibly do, for the moment at least. It did this in two ways*: firstly, I spent time planning and thinking about what to post and when, which disrupted my focus and flow from doing the actual work; and secondly, there were too many good artists (and other stuff - that’s how ‘they’ get you!) on there that I got too easily drawn into at the expense of me doing the work. The latter was a shame to say goodbye to because I got lots of ideas from seeing the work of others but it did mean that my thoughts, ideas and plans started to get muddled and overcomplicated rather than trying to master or refine my current ways of working.
I think that final point was key for me because I have had so many unfinished projects in the past because I get too excited about the next thing! Now I write down ideas for future projects and ways to develop my practice - if they still excite me in the future then I will pursue them, assuming I remember what my illegible and ambiguous notes mean. Personally, this change has been beneficial in so many ways. I have produced a far more consistent and connected body of work that I am super proud of and will talk about in a few more blogs, including this one. I also don’t get drawn into the online world and lose hours, days and weeks of my life as a consumer and instead are far more of a producer, which is so rewarding for me. I could go on because the benefits are numerous and significant, but won’t.
With my extra focus and time I decided to draw lots of cowboys, cowgirls and Native Americans. Again, why?
I am not an especially huge fan of cowboys and the such like but they are distinctive in look and a lot of fun; that was definitely part of it but my number one reason was because it took the thinking out of what the subject matter or imagery would be and allowed me to focus on the drawing, mark making, painting, colour and other related creative processes, which is the focus of my creative output - art about art! Plus it gave me a consistent theme to work around and there was an abundance of sources of inspiration and reference.
As ever, my practice started with drawings in the sketchbook and the best characters would be repeated until I had something to take further. It was great fun to focus on the line drawings with a thick oil pastel and to add a few hints of colour in the early stages, especially with the Native American face paint. But it wasn’t long until I had more colours out and on this occasion I filled the negative space with colour before adding the line drawing in black oil pastel afterwards - I did this to keep the colours as clean as possible. I am not averse to getting the oil pastels mixed together but for whatever reason, I didn’t fancy it on this occasion.
I wanted to experiment a bit with some other mediums too and stumbled across a neat little technique with my crunchy charcoal pencil that helps establish some subtle tonal values as well. Adding some colour over the top but this time not keeping the pigments pure and letting it mix with the charcoal drawing produced some really wonderful results, where the emphasis is starting to move beyond just line and blocks of colour into more layers of colour and tone.
Finally, I leave you with a great artist working with cowboys, cowgirls and Native Americans as well, Matt Eddmenson - click here to see his awesome work. Got to love the boldness and contrast.
*plus I know how these companies work!