Space and Detail in Art

"Space is the breath of art." 

Frank Lloyd Wright

"Less is more" is a concept that we sometimes forget about in art. While this may seem contradictory, it is actually a very key component. I, myself, often forget about this. I find myself spending way too much time considering every detail, not considering the piece as a whole. This results in a piece that is too busy and difficult to look at. Along the lines of this concept, Debora Stewart, author of Abstract Art also agrees. She preaches that space is just as important as areas of activity within a composition (Stewart 46). Given her writing, Stewart has completely changed the process I go through when looking for inspiration. I found myself looking at things in my environment that contained not only detail, but space, as well. This highly contrasts to what I would do before, only paying attention to things that were intricate and contained lots of detail. Now, I start to consider both components of space and detail together as a whole, coming to the decision to use my neighborhood and the nature that is visible in it as my inspiration. It contained adequate amounts of both: the sky providing the space while the houses, trees, and the smaller features providing the detail. Stewart's writing reminds me to consider both space and detail in a piece, impacting today's activity through my choice of inspiration. 

One way to add space to a piece is to ensure that the work is not entirely active and busy. Doing this often times makes the piece lack contrast and variety. Stewart would agree with me on this. She says that, "Not every area of the paper has to be filled with detail. Leave some areas open. This helps build atmosphere, energy, and emphasis" (Stewart 46). Going along with this idea, I made sure to consider space and detail while painting my piece. I started of the base of the piece by painting a blue triangle and covering a large portion of the canvas a yellow-green, hoping that the large scale of these two would help add space. Then, I painted a large portion of the two corners orange and white to create even more space, knowing that I could easily make it detailed later if I wanted to. To finish off the piece, I added lines, shapes, and strokes varying in pressure in orange and yellow across the canvas to balance the piece out with detail. To my surprise, my piece to turned out beautiful. But, this is only thanks to Stewart's writing, which reminded me to keep a good ratio of space and detail while I painted, because before, I would've just went about the piece mindlessly. With Stewart's writing, I applied crucial space and detail techniques to my piece, and consequently, my piece ended up embodying energy, atmosphere, and emphasis at the end.

First Layer of Space

Final Product

What are your thoughts on the "less is more" concept? Do you think it applies in art?

              Stewart, Debora. Abstract Art Painting: Expressions in Mixed Media. Cincinnati, OH: North Light,               2015. Print.

Lines in Art

"The line has almost become a work of art itself."

Theo Van Doesburg

When creating - whether it be in ceramics, writing, or painting - I am always looking for new techniques to add quality to my work. In Deborah Stewart's book, Abstract Art, she offers countless ways to do so. From using charcoal over paint to add texture, to putting rubbing alcohol over paper, there are so many ways to add to beauty and interest to a piece. One of my favorite methods listed by Stewart is the use of lines. Stewart suggests that lines can act as great divisions of space (Stewart 59). Following this suggestion and her demonstration of it shown in Stewart's book, I decided to take on this idea of using lines in my first piece. To create them, I put two long pieces of tape across the blank paper perpendicularly. These would act as the lines. Then, I used oil pastels and covered the canvas in yellows, greens and blacks. Finally, I removed the tape too reveal the lines. Aligning the direction of my piece to Stewart's writing and her visual example of lines had impacted my activity immensely. Using lines, it made my piece one of quality, as it would've been a very dull one without lines. The lines defined my piece. They became the main focus when I took off the tape. Lastly, Stewart's suggestion impacted my piece through the use of tape. Tape is something that I would have never thought to use as a tool in drawing before, but I am very glad I read this section of Stewart's book and was prompted to try it out.

Next, I decided to continue using lines in a second attempt. Reading on in the same page of Stewart's book, she offered various tips on how I could arrange the lines in my piece. She suggests that "it is best to avoid diagonal lines dividing the space equally. Vary the direction of the angle...Avoid corner-to-corner compositions" (Stewart 59). This suggestion particularly is the piece of Stewart's writing that impacted my piece the most. When executing this method of Stewart's, I first placed the tape down the middle on the canvas. I then realized that this was a mistake since it divided the space equally, so to fix this, I proceeded to add four different strips of tape. Considering Stewart's tip, I made sure to place the tape going in all different directions and creating a variety of angles (which is seen below). When I was finished taping, together, the lines created a beautiful geometric array on the canvas. At the end, this intricate arrangement of lines had added uniqueness, interest, and quality to my piece. Since it was Stewart's writing that acted as my inspiration behind this arrangement, it is clearly shown that Stewart directly impacted my activity today through the lines on my piece.

Final Product

Do you think art is better as simple or complex? How do you think techniques like this can add to a composition?

              Stewart, Debora. Abstract Art Painting: Expressions in Mixed Media. Cincinnati, OH: North Light,               2015. Print.

Designing Beyond the Box

Design? Maybe the first thought that comes to mind is fashion or models on the runway powdered with dozens of different types of makeup and elaborate styles of clothing. Sure, simplistically thinking, but design applies to all fields such as; engineering, architecture, science, so much more and it’s not all related to designing fashion; art is another subject that requires that field.

In the book, Basic Watercolor techniques, the two authors (Greg Albert and Rachel Wolf) introduce the “Principles of Design” and start off with, “All good paintings are done on the basis of good design… A design is the blueprint or pattern for the painting” (48). This is very true for myself and I believe to be also true for many others. To me, a design is a sketch or the rough draft before the final outcome. I followed through with this idea with a sketch that I made of a woman;

Sketch

Watercolor

I then drew another sketch from the same idea, but I changed a few details and painted it over with watercolor. It was my first time employing the method of informal balance, “Most pictures are created with informal balance, one in which the elements aren’t mirrored top to bottom or side to side, as in formal balance” (Albert and Wolf 48). It was a new and exciting way to paint, and more importantly it was a very fun way to paint. It’s the concept that a human’s face isn’t that color, but when looking past of what’s in front you, the result is entirely different. The mindset of looking at the beyond and at the full spectrum of colors, helped me develop a new style for me to paint.

This type of informal painting made it more interesting and eye-catching, and it’s to realize that the formal style or what I call the straightforward-method is bland and boring. It also made me question the reality or what is really there. Then, a surprising and a somewhat humorous thought popped up in my mind when I was thinking about the fine lines of looking at the beyond, it was what Voldemort said from the series, Harry Potter, by the author J.K. Rowling, that unexpectedly fit and connected to my thoughts, "There is no good and evil, there is only power and those too weak to seek it" (Rowling 211). Perhaps it isn’t about the topic of painting, but it fits the theme, that there’s more than just what you see in front of you,

 and to be creative is to look outside the box. 

Would you rather follow what’s in front of you or think outside the box?

Albert, Greg, and Rachel Wolf. Basic Watercolor Techniques. Cincinnati, Ohio: North Light Books, 1991. Print.

Rowling, J. K. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone. New York City: Scholastic, 1997. Print.

Brushes?

Brushes. Synthetic or Natural? Well to be totally honest, I don’t really care, or I just haven’t given much thought to it in the first place. 

I really should’ve done this at the beginning, because brushes are the main component to painting, without it, I honestly don’t know what you’re going to paint with. Which brings up a good question. What on earth should I use this brush for, I personally don’t know. Despite my passion for painting I’ve never really thought much about which brushes are supposed to be used for what. 

And for that, I’m going to bestow the knowledge of brushes upon you, by once again using the book, Basic Watercolor Techniques, by the authors; Rachel Wolf and Grey Albert, “There are two principal shapes: flats (which have a square chisel-point ends) and rounds (which are round and end in a point) … and a rigger” (Albert and Wolf 2). I looked back at my brushes, and yippee to me, I have been using the correct ones for watercolor. Though the term rigger confused me, until I learned that it was simply just a brush with longer bristles. 

Watercolor Brush

Oil Painting Brush

  

Though it should be kind of evident from my demonstration above, you obviously wouldn’t use the hard and rigid bristles for watercolor. Watercolor is smooth and it flows nicely, while with the hard bristling it is kind of like I’m forcing and pushing it to paint with watercolor.

(It’s actually used for oil painting….)

 I also used brushes that were the most convenient to me, though it seems I need to work on that; “The flats are used for angular shapes, and particularly for sharp, crisp corners. The rounds make curved shapes and details are painted last with smaller brushes” (Albert and Wolf 3). Though I can honestly see the reason behind it, would I really use a flat brush to paint a circle or a round brush to paint a square? Sure it could work, if I tried hard enough, but would I really spend extra effort on something that if I used the right brushes, it would be easier on myself. The answer to that is a no. 

Circle (Angular Brush)

Square (Round Brush)

 Do you think the outcome would change if the materials you used were different? 

Albert, Greg, and Rachel Wolf. Basic Watercolor Techniques. Cincinnati, Ohio: North Light Books, 1991. Print.

Understanding Colors

Now, as previously mentioned, in which I believe to be from my first post. I don’t follow the basic fundamentals or the more complicated styles to making art, in this case, watercolor. I’m more free-handed or for a more literal meaning, I honestly never cared much about procedure and what you’re supposed to do and what not to do with watercolor. So, of course, when asked about primary colors, secondary colors, and complementary colors, I’m confused or I have the memory stored in the darkest reaches of my mind, which basically means I don’t remember them. 

Though, I understand that to get painting down, you have to be able to understand basics, no matter how much work it is. For example, pigments, which the authors of the book, Basic Watercolor Techniques, by Grey Albert and Rachel Wolf agree that understanding pigments allow you to use your paints more effectively and use any new techniques confidently (Albert and Wolf 38). By understanding pigments, it helps me to develop ways to use my paints, since some could be rotting to dust out of pure disuse. For example, knowing how deep a color is allows me to know whether to use it in a painting or not. 

Pigments

That goes along with the color wheel, which is basically the fundamentals to understanding primary, secondary, and complementary colors. As stated from Albert and Wolf, “The color wheel makes some very basic color relationships easier to see and understand… Any two primaries mixed together create a secondary color, which is placed between the two parent colors and opposite the remaining primary colors” (Albert and Wolf 37). In simplistic terms, the color wheel is kind of similar to a formula, mix two colors together, you get a new color out of it, resulting in complementary and secondary colors, since primary colors cannot be made from other two combinations.

Color Wheel

These create new ways to develop my style of art and my understanding of art because by learning the color wheel, it gives me a deeper understanding of which colors go together and what they are used for.

Do you think following step by step procedures make a person better at what they’re doing? 

Albert, Greg, and Rachel Wolf. Basic Watercolor Techniques. Cincinnati, Ohio: North Light Books, 1991. Print.