And so, let the submissions for the Friday Art Challenge begin!! If you followed me over to facebook I will be posting this there too, somehow, sometime, when I recover from all this mental strain!! Thank you for your patience and I hope you join us and find yourself challenged by these little Friday exercises in creativity! Below is the first link to our Friday Art Challenge-Enjoy!
So I chose the letter A as our inspiration for the first Friday Challenge. At first I thought I'd try and do an alligator, but then Apple popped into my mind. I've always loved fruit and flowers, so I took an apple out of the fridge. I decided not to use watercolors because I feel like I'm in slump and the best way I know to get out of a slump is to shake things up a bit. I toyed with the idea of doing it in oils since I had them out last week, but I pulled out the pastel pencils instead. I knew I would do at least two and thought I'd do them with different techniques but I just didn't get the feel or punch I wanted with the pencils so I pulled out the sticks. I think my real motivation for not using oils or initially pulling out the large box of pastels is that I've grown lazy!! I don't want the set up, mess or clean up!! When you don't have a lot of time, those things factor in. It's a good thing I love watercolor because for me it's the lazy girls medium!!
These are small works, both on a 9x11 Canson Mi-Teintes Steel Grey paper. One of my favorite colors. It is a middle value and a neutral color so it's good for just about any subject. I used hatch strokes in one direction with the pencils because I have always loved the work of Elizabeth Mowry. She does such incredibly sensitive work. Sticks can be used with broad strokes from the side of the stick or lines with any sharp edge. I did both broad stokes and lines with the one on the left. I also followed the form of the apple with my strokes and lines with the one on the left. I had a lot more color and value to chose from with the sticks, so the results are more vibrant and the values are better. And now you know way more than you ever wanted to about my Friday Art Challenge! But I want to share all the details of the creative process as well as my work.
Even though they are not large and it's just a single object, this little venture is all about the process and getting me to make some art, any art, on a regular basis. And I have to say, it felt great to play with the pastels. I love them! I have the hardest time sticking to any one medium because they each lend themselves to expression in different ways. It's a blessing to have so many rich and varied ways to express ourselves!
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