Rebirth

It’s almost Halloween and I feel, really feel, I need to answer the call. We’re watching spooky movies and getting into the ‘spirit’ of things. Sorry. I’ve been doing a lot of art, primarily digital, but also honing my acrylic paint skills.

I’m making mum a Christmas present by doing a step-by-step course, painting two peonies with Marianne Vander Dussen (Painting Flowers in Acrylic). So far, so good, and it looks like two peonies, but not with the same detail as Marianne can achieve. I went through the usual ‘good grief, what am I doing?’ to ‘meh’ to ‘yeah, it’s mum and she’s going to love anything I give her’. I can always give it another go in a few years and see how much I’ve improved (yes, I’m an optimist).

However, I’m not ready to try to apply a style yet to my peonies and am just following as best as I can.

I am also doing a digital illustrator course with Brooke Glaser (Brooke Glaser: art, classes and resources), and it’s here that I’m taking the lessons and applying some art movement styles. I’ve tried Pop Art, Surrealism and Cubism. I’ll put some low-res images up as the artwork is being developed within the course.

None of these are finished, but it really is about playing and trying to apply some styles!

Goal x% achievable:

We are going ‘Renaissance’ this month. I should be looking at natural elements (check), individualism (trying), realism (as close as I can get with my crayons), attention to detail (what?), precision of human anatomy (this little piggy), balance and harmony. My inspiration includes the Mona Lisa and David. Here comes Melardo da Vinci and Melangelo. Maybe I should look at other art from the 1400 – 1600s?

My rules.

1. Use Weed, but how to make it both spooky and Renaissance-inspired?

Light bulb moment

I’m looking through the Renaissance art period and decided to look at some less famous works. What struck me was, ‘Is all art made in the 1400-1600s, or thereabouts, actually ‘renaissance’ which means ‘rebirth’. I found many sketches and paintings of hares, for example, by Albrecht Durer. It looks like it could have been drawn during any period.

I have the sense that any art is not just about the time in which it was created or the influences of the previous art period. It’s also the expression and experimentation of new concepts and available materials. The artist grabs hold of what’s contemporary at that particular time and uses new techniques learned, meshing them with older, tried-and-true methods.

So, what I’m actually doing is not trying to apply an art movement per se but mimic an artist’s work from that period. It would be impossible to capture the entire ‘Renaissance’ in one quick artwork. I rather like the Northern Renaissance with its classical themes and detailed realism. This hare is done in oils and is in the Public Domain. Having said that, Durer has many ‘traditional’ Renaissance artworks to his name.

Here it is:

The work.

It feels too lazy just to add my painting, or even rough sketch, of the Weed, so I’m going to do what many artists at the time did and ‘measure’ and ‘label’ my Weed.

I’m no DaVinci, but I did learn something about my weed: here in Tasmania, it isn’t a weed. I can tell you right now, keeping sketchbooks with notes is NOT my thing. Here’s the proof.

Halloween?

It deserves its own post.