Raven © West Hardin
Raven, 8.5″ x 11″ mixed media on paper.
Lately, I have been doing a lot of exploring of techniques that I’m interested in and how I may apply these techniques to my own artistic style. The works that I like the most and have the most fun doing are one’s like “Raven.” I call them stream of consciousness works. I start with pencil or pen on paper and let go. It’s very relaxing for me. I let the shapes start to appear and if I see something I will bring it out more. Like in “Raven” I saw the raven head and so worked to make it more recognizable. It’s a very intuitive process. As things start to appear and develop into images, I start making more conscious choices about how it’s developing.
This past week I watched a couple videos by watercolor artist Cheng-Khee Chee. While his subject matter isn’t something I’m drawn too, I love how his paintings look, how he handles watercolor. In his paintings I see effects I think could really enhance my own artwork. The videos are great, he his an amazing teacher and no detail is left out in telling you how he accomplishes what he does. But one of the things his techniques has done for me is to expand my thinking about how I work in watercolor and to think outside the box more.
Another bad habit I have found myself getting into is wanting to paint in watercolor when I’m working on my oil paintings and vice versa. I might have to do my subject matter in both mediums and see where they go.
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