Creativity Post 13

I decided to do something totally different than I have ever done before this week. I've obviously taken some inspiration from Jackson Pollock with the whole splatter painting technique. But I also feel really good about this painting because it's the first time I've ever painted something that was absolutely 100% done without looking at something else as a basis. I love the abstract feel of the painting and I think it looks pretty darn good if I do say so myself. I think I got pretty creative here. This ideas for this one just kind of came to me as I went along. I first put down a thick black stripe across the middle. That's all I knew I wanted at first. The light blue came down as a sharp contrast and as the lines got closer together, I liked how the white stripes looked so I left them. I looked for colors that would look good in contrast with black and blue. Red was first and it turned out well but I could tell it needed a little something more. I applied some white splatter lines and spots and I just knew I was done. This is one of my favorites for sure.

Creativity Post 12

I thought that I'd show a little more of the process in this post. As an artist, my "roots" have always been in black and white pencil sketches. I only started painting last semester but I've been doing pencil drawings my whole life. I remember back to my elementary school days having a great love for sketching like this and I still feel that way now. Because of my history and tendencies as an artist, my painting kind of relies on my drawing as a sort of crutch. I always sketch out what I want to paint first in pencil and then paint over it. I can paint pure paint if I really want to but it's never quite as good as when I stick to this process. Closing in on the end of the year I'm feeling a little nostalgic and wanted to do another version of the UGA Arch. The last one was dark and almost a little spooky. With this one, I think I'm going to go for the complete opposite and make it very bright. Sunshine, blue skies, the whole nine yards.

Creativity Post 11

One aspect about becoming a better painter is improving specific skills. Aside from the fact that I love Peanuts, I wanted to paint this picture so I could practice my color blending/transitioning. Making a consistent transition of white at the horizon up to a royal blue at the top of the sky was pretty difficult, much more than I had imagined anyway. To do this, I mixed a series of different shades of blue. I painted white at the bottom and the blue that I already had at the top. I then painted a section of each mixed blue that I had in between. I used broad strokes to mix the wet paint on the canvas to make it look more consistent. The trees and clouds offered some obstacles to the blending but it worked out. I feel much more comfortable with this specific skill now that I really spent time to concentrate on it.

Creativity Post 10

Wanting to do more simple paintings led me to this one. I can't really say why I like this painting so much. I just do. It's definitely a blend of the color scheme along with the challenge of painting the female face. I think this is an example of an image where less is really more and maybe that's what I like about it. Aside from taking forever to try and not let the female look like she had a lazy eye, the other huge challenge was to get a consistent blue over the entire background. That ended up being a lot more difficult than I had anticipated. I think I might lean towards doing some more minimal works in the future.

Creativity Post 9

After the stretch of really elaborate paintings I did for a while, I'm liking getting back into simpler images. Here's a rendition of the Batman symbol inspired by one of the original Dark Knight trailers that came out in the summer of '07. The image itself is pretty simple. The shape is basic. The painting itself comes together as a whole through the lighting effects. That was the difficult part. This was one of those paintings that I kept on having to do part of and then go across the room to look at from far away. I kept needing to readjust the colors over and over again to get it just right and make sure that it was balanced as a whole. In the end, I'm very happy with how it turned out.

Creativity Post 8

Here's the finished version of last post's painting. I used a lot of subtle strokes and shapes. Along with the shapes and lines I specifically drew, I used some layering and shading to give a feeling of depth in certain parts throughout. I really wanted to go for a kind of uneasy feeling. As compared to the last post, I really think that the black shapes and lines make it look more disconnected. The idea that this is something that has familiar images in an unfamiliar context also makes the viewer unsure of what to think. I think this turned out pretty well.

Creativity Post 7

For this week I wanted to try something a little different. This is not done yet but it's getting there. I liked the idea of doing something that was a little less colorful or rather only used a couple colors. This will look different but by the time it's done but everything will be derived from a mix of black or white. I also wanted to do something a little more abstract just to see how it would turn out. I'll post again when this is finished.