REDON by Michael Gibson

Redon by Michael Gibson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The author captured the development of Redon as a person as well as his art. In this series I enjoyed this book more than the others. Redon as a person I think apart from his dreamlike paintings i.e. the grandfather of surrealism, I think was very calculated in what he did. Some comments in the book are fascinating - "The merest sketch or scribble...in my portfolio took on a new sense. And that was the true date of my determination". I think he is one of the artists who started out dark (his black era) and moved towards the light and colours - exactly the same happened in his life and he ended not in poverty and as a well-known artist. This is material for a longer more exhaustive biography. This was a good read.

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GET INSPIRATION!

It is never a good reason to take a break from your art. It is also never good if you just work at your art but it is easy because you just follow a process without any inspiration. That is just not good! I think it is better to think of some projects when it is like that...An artist once said "It is not just inspiration but perspiration!" But honestly - what do we need to do when there is no inspiration? I will share with you what I do.
1. Variety the spice of life. It is never good to work in only one art medium! Take on another medium and it will give you some real art exploration and many challenges. My favourite art mediums are pencil drawing, painting in oils and prints(lino and woodcuts). But most of the time if I do not work in oils I draw. And that is good because it keep the creative juices pumping!
2. Study! Study your art - show yourself approved. Mastery only comes if others call you a master. A Master must "know" everything about his particular art. For me there are a view places or sources of study:-
2.1 Books about artists - I love to read biographies and auto biographies about artists.
2.2 Books about Art Techniques in your particular medium - maybe, just maybe there is something that you can learn from one of these books.
2.3 YouTube and the Internet - Ah here is a visual or a good read with photos etc. - I regularly watch some technique or website about an artist. Maybe in my mind I think it is not that good but then somewhere the person has some technique or does something where I learn something new.
2.4 Obviously - yes! There are official courses and studies if you have the stomach for it - certainly that will challenge you greatly!
3. Balance between chaos and order – A good thing to do is to bring order to your creative environment - clean the brushes, sharpen the pencils - file the drawings. Put things in order that needs to be in order. For me I thrive on chaos but sometimes I just have to bring order and change everything in order to progress further. This is a great exercise and it gives you a moment to reflect on some drawings which can be developed into paintings etc. Do not be afraid to throw away some stuff - destroy it! On the pc also create order make folders and keep stuff so that you can find it again. Search in the process for inspiration. From perspiration to inspiration! Order also implies organization. Sometimes I make a list and then look at what I haven't done and what really need my attention. Prioritize, organize and get on with it!
4.Time! Some things cannot be altered - you know it is all wrong when you look at the drawing or painting but your mind does not give you the answers or changes. You have to wait and study your own work - put it aside but still in view; as you see it regularly, it will come to you exactly what is wrong and exactly what you must do to rectify it. Then you are ready to change it.
5. Work!There is no excuse for good solid work. Just get busy. Work - it waits for no man. A good idea is to prepare a new board or canvass, finish off some work that you know what to do, sign off some work. Some things just need to get done! Do it!

Yes art is a very difficult work! Don't be fooled because if you do not find it difficult anymore please do us all a favour and get off the bus or else read through this article again and get inspired!

THE DRAWING EXPERIENCE

So I bought another drawing book with the aim of drawing more often during weekdays - at least one proper drawing per day… The process neatly defined to me from all the sources possible:-

• From real life – live drawing
• From photos
• From memory
• Mind drawings – that is pure abstracts
• Converting any of the above or previous drawings – I call it an abstraction!

One can easily do series or drive a concept or topic to the limits! My suggestion? Draw it firstly on a separate paper, maybe even more than once playing with the drawing types as well as the concepts of composition and tonal value and how to express the tonal value with shades and fading or crosshatching etc. UNTIL you have something! Play...
Something can then be transferred to my drawing book- I do it again but now carefully working it up or carelessly working it up to get the effect that I was getting on the final drawing - or an improvement on it. Obviously even now small calculated changes are incorporated but the overall drawing stays more or less the same.
This process can easily be extrapolated into a drawing tour where anything from two to five drawings per day can be done BUT NOW everything is done in a drawing book with full notes to myself or whoever - explain what I am doing adding extra notes on whichever number of the same drawing the first last or everyone – these notes freely added to express my mood, the mood or temperature of the drawing, the time of day and very important in at least one of the drawings the actual colours and maybe make notes to the colours that you would like to do and the reasons why you would choose these colours for the possible painting that could follow . Maybe a good idea is also to write freely where the place is where the drawing was done? Yes you can add a very simple watercolour sketch to it if you want to.
AND YES of course you are right! Take a photo or two but don’t neglect the drawing – it is better not to take the photo that not to draw – get that! Get that! Because you can always replace the photo with a simple watercolour done in speed, yes, in speed because now this is not the final product because at home in the studio you would like to complete the final product – the painting! Or play again with the drawing types stated above and do a final great and bigger drawing.
Ah do those drawings! Just draw! Draw…

PARTICIPATE IN GROUP EXHIBITIONS

Do you want to know the secret? The real secret on participating in group exhibitions is to carefully select the work that you think will most likely fit into the exhibition and also have a great opportunity to sell. Obviously with group exhibitions there will always be a panel that will evaluate your work and select some work. So number 1 enter more work than what is needed knowing full well that some of it will be rejected - so enter some things that will be rejected and also enter some things that you know they will most likely then accept as your better work...Give them the time to also reject some of your work!!!! Now with the pricing of those works - once you have established you price deliberately add a percentage - I add that the commission that the gallery will earn. But I must state in all integrity the artwork that will be accepted is actually worth that price anyway or even more!!!! Now I enter. I have successfully sold at group exhibitions and believe me this is a good strategy....

PRINTS – LINO AND WOODCUTS

Since I bought a print bench for etching, lino and woodcuts, I have experimented quite a lot with it. This is some of the initial observations on a possible process:-
1. Do a full scale drawing and the drawing must work. (I must say at this stage I am in such a hurry that I have to go back and do proper drawings – again and again!
2. From this drawings do some kind of design – simplify and try and “design” the drawing – alter it into simplified forms that will be easy to engrave and cut out or chisel out.
3. Get the mirror image of this design and transfer that on your medium – (wood/lino/copper plate/ etc.)
4. Do the engraving or carving or etch work.
5. Make test prints on scrap paper.
6. Make corrections based on the prints – don’t overwork – go slow at this stage.
7. Make prints.
Basically three quality areas-
1. The drawing or design work
2. The engraving/carving or etch work
3. The print work
If anyone of the three above fails, the finished product fails. I have without extensive studying made this observation from experience and would like to record it from the outset.
Obviously all the other detailed stuff that other people rave about is also true – the quality of the paper, the ink, the adjustments on the etch press and lots of other details in the carving process or etch process but these three listed are control points. All three are equally important – if you fail one, it fails; and only when all three are good work, the end result is good!

ON PAINTING STYLE AND INFLUENCES

While going to exhibition after exhibition I hear some people comment on my painting style – this is what I search for and in my opinion is that the following helps you to define it:-
1. Firstly it is qualified by how you draw – if it is in great detail and precise then your paintings could be very photogenic or with elaborate detail; if your drawing not in great detail, then your painting would also not be in great detail. If it is just clean lines then your painting will also reflect clean lines and spaces. The uniqueness of your painting could be found in the different way in which you draw.
2. The amount of colors that you use and how you use them – do you use dirty/broken colors by mixing or do you like to use “clean” paint, impasto, etc. This has a direct bearing on the brightness, contrasts, etc. etc. of your painting. Do you use it thick, thin or layers and how do you apply it with oft or bristle brushes or palette knife or other instruments?
3. I believe many will disagree with me that the subject matter that you like to paint influences your style and especially in how you interpret it or what other message you have in your subject matter, how simple or naïve or even complex it might be.
4. The fourth influence on your style of painting is your schooling or “masters” that you respect. One can clearly see some resemblances creeping in over time or there is just something that reminds you of another artist or great master.
5. A last influence is the emotional intelligence of the artist. It is very easy to “read” the personality of the artist or his emotional condition by observing his paintings. Is the artist very happy by nature or is the artist depressed, is he outgoing, does he communicate and have easy exchange with other people? One artist for example very seldom show any human beings in his paintings….Another just paint people – many people together engrossed in some activity or portraits. The emotional intelligence can also then be gleaned from observing the something more and something else in the painting.

The important factor though is to qualify your art style and to grow in it. I think a certain deliberate effort to enforce your own unique style must be made – deliberate effort and to evaluate it: put some works or photos of it next to one another and compare it.
I don’t think you have to adapt in any way if you follow the process of developing and maintaining and growing your own unique style.

In conclusion it is needed for one to from time to time experiment and play and add “new” techniques and influences to your style. Never undermine or compromise creativity and a certain artistic freedom that goes with it even if it does not look like some of your other work. Let it influence you. There are people who would copy a certain artists in subject matter and in process and only later to come back and to do their own work again; but now “influenced” and changed by that exercise. The same could be said for working with another artist or additional training etc. All these can be influences on creativity and your style.

COLOR BALANCE

A very easy process:
1. Take a photo of your work, download it unto your pc, view it on a viewer(Microsoft Office Picture Manager) "zoomed out" . This way the photo is much smaller and the colors closer to one another and you see an error so much easier.
2. Now correct that error on your painting.
3. Take a photo again and go through the same process again. Repeat the process until you are happy with the color balance.