Thursday, April 12, 2012

Silence Explained


It is all the fault of this book.
Would you believe, it just jumped off the shelf in Exclusive Books, right into my hands and begged -  no, demanded, I buy it.
It was love at first sight.
The worst kind: like a drug.
I've hardly been out of the house for the last week.

It explains and illustrates a myriad techniques in simple terms.
There are lots of exercises - exciting exercises around colour, shapes, texture, lines - all the things that help you create particular effects.
And its Sub A stuff, in art terms. (Or Grade 1 for the younger crew)
Which I need.

I'm going to show you some of the excercises -
What I love the most is that this book invites one to PLAY
To forget about the end result and just have fun with the process -
Which I find SO hard to do when its a likeness you are trying to capture.

Being encouraged to play with shapes and colours?
Now that's so do-able.
So, here are a couple of my fun-things, just to give you an idea -


This one was to make lines that go off the page using a limited number of closely associated colours only


This was all about colours - using only red, yellow and blue (primary colours), see how many other colours you can make and arrange them in a fun, pleasing way.

I also discovered that on YouTube you can watch artists actually working
Now for me, who learns waaaay better by watching than by hearing, this was a huge find.
I spent a lot of time doing that.

And then . . .
I think I might have ruined myself for any other art forms
Bcause I discovered this man's work there -


Here's another . . .


The artist's name is Eelco Maan
And his work is sublime.
The luminosity, translucency and clarity of colour stuns me
Just one more, then I really must go . .

8 comments:

Gill said...

Oh WOW! That looks like so much fun and the results.... amazing! Hope you're going to share more as you go along!

cat said...

Now that is one excellent reason not to blog. Enjoy!

MelB said...

Wow! I love the 2 *play* pieces you have done. LOVE LOVE THEM. Can see why Dad wants them framed!

And yes on Eelco; his work has captured my heart too!

Rambler said...

Very cool... I may go spend a few hours on Youtube now...

Lynette Jacobs said...

Missed you but now I understand why. It is good to hear that you are playing with paints etc again.

Helga van said...

Allie, what you need to know is that you are TALENTED!! That looks FANTASTIC! I cannot draw, paint or sing! The book would have seen me coming and wilted! Keep going! :-)

Trix's Mix said...

Lovely but I would like to see them for real! Coffee sometime? :)

allie. said...

@ Trix - love to have coffee sometime - call me. ok?