The wrong canvas

[Morrigoon]

Readers of my blog may be aware that I've recently been bemoaning the "loss" of my creativity. I recently sat down, large canvas in front of me, and proceeded to paint a load of crap worthy of a 6th-grader, which I didn't bother to finish.

So why is it, I suck with a huge canvas and wide array of paints, but give me office boredom, a pen and a desk calendar and I create mini-masterpieces?

Why can't I recreate that level of detail, only over a wider canvas? Or is it the texture of canvas board that limits me? Should I switch to paper? (Admittedly, some of my best stuff has been on random things like foam board, illustration board, art paper, etc)

Again today, as it is the 1st, I changed my desk calendar paper and found myself doodling mini-masterpieces representing important dates on the calendar (okay, Cinco de Mayo isn't an important date, but I did an awesome sombrero, confetti, maracas, and margarita in a 2"x2.5" square, and a decent looking La-Z-Boy chair for the date dad's bringing me his recliners)

[blueerica]

It's really hard to say. I know that I work better with dry media than with almost any kind of paint. It's an understanding of that realm, I think, that makes the difference. I find that I can have fun with paint and large-scale canvases if I just let myself go and stop worrying. It's in those moments I find myself at my creative best. The more stressed I am, the longer it takes for me to get into any kind of swing.

I haven't been reading any kind of LJ (I've just been too swamped, and have picked the LoT as my must-see website), but it's funny you mention a feeling that you've lost some sort of creativity. I feel it, too, and I can't help but wonder if it's a product of my increasingly busy life. I'm sure it is, but clearly, I've made a choice to shun the creativity I once basked in.

Recently, I happened upon seeing the Google or Yahoo Spider slurping up, reading, patrolling, and it was on this thread that our dear friend LSPE created. In it, she talks about The Artist's Way, and writing in a stream-of-conscious style for three pages, every morning. While I'm not doing three pages, whenever possible, preferably early in the day, when I'm not busy editing my every though, I try to do it for as long as I can, which varies between one to two pages.

I've also remembered where I left my paints. I'm picking them up next week - then I'll have a paint-a-thon after the super busy portion of the semester is over.

So I guess, don't worry. If small is your thing, do small. Do large and be unafraid of errors, and perfection. That's what creativity isn't, IMO. Just keep going, keep trying, and love what you're doing.

[blueerica]

Which reminds me I need to ask Heidi about The Artist's Way.

[Capt Jack]

thought about doing greeting card art? (no, Im not kidding)
smaller canvas, a zillion topics and subjects from deep and heartfelt to zany.

my lil brother is an illustrator. hes sold a few pieces to companies that put them together.

I'll bet ya a shiney new dime you can do better than a lot of the ones I see regularly.

[Not Afraid]

If you do small well at the moment, then do small. I love small, focused canvases. Why fight it?


EDIT: or take your mini masterpieces and create a collage of them.

[LSPoorEeyorick]

Wow! I pick one thread to read before bed (that's all the time I have anymore-- one thread) and it's one that not only relates to me, it references me!

C, I totally agree with L-- stick small if small is making you happy. You might discover a cool new method, or it might pull you into other kinds of creativity when you conquer it.

And as far as Artist's Way-- I LOVE it and we got off-track at one point and haven't been able to get back on. (And even though I'm super-busy for many things, I *am* able to acknowledge that I'm *choosing* to not get back on, even if the things I'm choosing include work-because-I-have-to and sleep-because-I-can't-work-if-I-don't.) Anyway. We are going to start again from the beginning in July, and I would love it if others wanted to join us at the same time. Extra support in the program really helps.

[Morrigoon]

well, the thing is, I LIKE large pictures, and I want to paint large pictures which have a level of detail that you find in my small images, only over a larger surface (which is to say, as if the canvas was divided up into many 3" squares and each "square" has as much visual information in it as a single one on my desk calendar.

I guess the truth of it is that my large pictures have the same amount of visual information in them as my small ones, as if they;re just a calendar date blown up. (sigh)

[blueerica]

I have found that when working with canvas, depending on what I'm going for, it helps to pencil something lightly into the canvas first. I don't know what kind of look you're going for graphically, or what exactly you're drawing, but I've found it to help, coming from a dry media background (i.e. pencil, pen, charcoal, pastel). Even when I'm going for a realistic look, I can break down where shadows go based on loose lines I draw onto the canvas. Also, if you're going for a higher contrast-look, the lines would help even more. When the lines are there, I tend to go into precision mode. My issue consistently rests in the difference between working with dry versus "wet." I don't get the desired look when working with paints.

Regarding The Artists' Way.... I'm definitely down with doing it this summer. It should be easier for me to dedicate time to doing it. I think after this semester, I need to get myself back into expression. If that makes any sense at all.

[Morrigoon]

I think I know what my problem is now. I can only "see" in one scale. And all my pictures, regardless of the size of canvas, are painted in that scale (relative to the size of canvas). That's why my thumbnail drawings have just as much "information" in them as my 18x24" canvas boards. For some reason I have trouble imagining beyond the bounds of the scale that I "see".

Some of my favorite art in terms of the classics are the renaissance paintings in which there is so much going on that you have to look at the painting one area at a time. I can't remember the name of the work, but there's a floor-to-ceiling painting in the Louvre (it may even be on display in the same room as Mona Lisa, but no promises), where there is a massive feast taking place, and there are human figures all over the canvas at different levels with different events taking place simultanously. I absolutely LOVE that kind of art, where there isn't just one subject or one action taking place. Unfortunately, the closest I've come to that sort of work is my Rose Bowl painting, which I did from a photograph, so technically I still haven't been able to assemble a work like that myself, just imitate life off a photo.

(Sigh) I'm afrad I may be doomed to working off photos... my only good art has all come from imitating what has already been seen.

Perhaps my next step will be to try and assemble photos taken at different times of different things going on and "collage" the images into one work where it's all happening simultaneously. Big undertaking for me though. That's gonna take work.