What a long, strange trip it has been

Well, I made it.  I completed 50 paintings in the month of November.  I learned a lot from this project, and I am really excited at how far I have come in terms of painting skill. Here is one of the last paintings I did:

Blue Teacup

See you next year.

Done!

I painted my 50th painting earlier this evening.  I'll post scans later -- for now, I am savoring my done-ness.

Real objects

The good news is that I am progressing in my lessons and learning a lot.  I have moved on to painting real objects and giving them form and dimensionality.  The silly part is that I have been painting toilet paper.

In my defense, that is the lesson in the book.  And it makes a certain amount of sense -- it is in a natural progression from the shaded cylinders I had been painting recently. I just feel kind of silly doing it.

Nevertheless, I pursued the lesson and have painted several rolls of toilet paper.  This is my most recent one, and the one I am most satisfied with:

the best of several iterations

On to spheres

I'm working on spheres now.  They are harder than cylinders, since the shading needs to be just so.  Here are a couple of my more successful efforts:

This one looks oddly lumpy.

I need to extend the shading, I think.

I'm going to keep working on this until I get it right.

Now in 3D!

So the next lesson involves placing shadows and shade so that a form looks like it has dimensionality.  I did a couple of other "practice runs", but this is the one that came out the best:

Blue Pencil Holder

I'm still not sure of my shading -- I'll clearly have to practice a bit, but this looks much more dimensional than what I have been doing

Creating different shades: Yellow

The next exercise was to take a color and create darker shades of it, first using black, then using its complement.  I did this with red, blue and yellow, but the only two in this post are the two I did with yellow.  I may post the other four later.

Darkened with black

Darkened with purple

Color Wheels

So the next exercise in the book was to paint color wheels of the primary, secondary and tertiary colors.  Mine ended up a little sloppy, shape-wise, but I'm satisfied with the colors (I'm not sure when my wheels became triangles, but whatever).  Here they are:

Primary Colors

Secondary Colors

Tertiary Colors

Paintings

The first painting was sort of a study for the second one, which (IMHO) is much better.  They are both paintings of the Coronado Bridge in the evening.  The third one is a sort of abstracted view of the moonrise over the ocean.  I was really captivated by the colors, so I focused on those more than on forms.

Study

Coronado Bridge

Moonrise

Only one painting

I managed only one painting last night, but I'm still up to date on my "word count".  Since I have a four-day weekend coming up, I'm looking forward to being able to paint more -- and hopefully building up a cushion for when I go out of town for Thanksgiving.

Tomorrow, I'll scan the paintings from yesterday and the day before.

Three paintings

I finished three paintings tonight, bringing my "word count" to 14,000.  I'll post images tomorrow, once the paint has dried.

A study in contrasts

The exercise was to draw a sort of looping line around on the canvas and then to fill the spaces in with paint.   The trick was that for each painting, we were only supposed to use contrasting colors (like red and green or blue and orange) together with white and black.  We could mix the paints together to make different shades, but not add any more colors of paint.  Here are the three paintings that resulted, together with one I did using only black, white and shades of grey:

Black & White

Blue & Orange

Purple & Yellow

 

 

 

 

Red & Green

Doing my homework

Since I'm such a beginner to painting, I decided to do some exercises and lessons geared for beginners.  They are in a book called Painting for the Absolute and Utter Beginner.  There are other "learn to paint" books out there, but this is the one that makes most sense to me.  It is aimed at novices, and has nice, clear, simple instructions for beginners' exercises.  Other books have vague instructions, or want me to to exercises that I don't know how to begin.  This book is nice and clear, and though it is aimed at beginners, it isn't over-simple or condescending.  I like it a lot.

I'll post images of my work once the paint dries.

Altered perceptions

So this first one was kind of a continuation of yesterday's theme -- you know, finishing off the primary colors.  I did this one this morning:

Some kind of yellow egg?

Then this afternoon, I had a root canal, and I painted these while on prescription painkillers:

strange geometry

even stranger brushwork

Is there a lesson to be learned from all this?  I don't know -- aside from my proclivity for bad color schemes and bad brushwork while on Vicodin, I don't think these illustrate much.  But there they are.

Playing with colors

So last night's painting devolved into just playing with the different colors of paint.  I ended up with two monochromatic canvases where I explored different tints and hues of the same color.  Anyway, here they are:

I call this one "Blue"

and I call this one "Red"

First two paintings

My Nose Against His Arm

I had a long discussion with my inner editor about posting these.  They look so amateurish.  But I eventually decided to post them because 1) I am an amateur (and a beginner at that), and 2) Stifling the inner editor is an important part of NaNo.  So I posted them.

I'm not sure how well the colors come through in the images.  All I did was put them on my scanner -- nothing fancy in terms of color correction or anything -- and I'm pretty sure the colors are washing out and skewing somehow.  But my purpose in posting them is mostly to keep myself honest -- not put up perfect reproductions, so I'm honestly not too worried about it.

Blue Cup of Tea

The first one is an abstracted version of a weird view I got recently as I was resting my nose against my darling hubby's arm.  The second one is my attempt to paint a blue mug full of hot tea.

Day 1

I got my two paintings done last night, so I made my quota.  I'll scan them in tonight or tomorrow and post them.

And they're off!

It is the first day of the challenge, and I'm feeling like hell.  I have plans for what I'm going to paint when I get home, but I'm uneasy about the kind of start I'm going to make.  Still, if I can get 2 paintings done tonight, I'll call it a success.

Artist Trading Cards

Artist trading card

Artist trading cards are small works of art -- about the size of a baseball card -- that people trade with each other.  Networks have sprung up so that their creators can trade them.  Cards may be created using any media or combination of media.  M. Vänçi Stirnemann is credited in many circles with popularizing the modern artist trading card movement by trading his original small works of art for those of others.  These swaps were held in his Zurich gallery during 1996 and 1997.  Today, there are websites and magazines devoted to the ATC movement.

Portrait Miniatures

Portrait miniature of Beethoven

Portrait miniatures flourished in Europe from the 16th century to the 19th century.  They served much as snapshots do today.  A traveling man might carry a miniature of his wife or girlfriend as a keepsake.  A rich man wanting to marry off his daughter would send a portrait miniature to potential suitors as a way of introducing her.

Portrait miniatures were usually done in gouache, oil, enamel, or, most often, watercolor.  Many were painted on ivory.  Some miniatures were small enough to be worn as jewelry, on snuff-boxes or on the small ivory boxes but bigger ones could be displayed in cabinets.

With the rise of photography, many miniaturists began trying to make their works look like photos.  However, this was a losing battle, and portrait miniatures as an art form had all but died out by the early 20th century.

Still here

I've been without benefit of internet for a couple of days due to moving, but I'm still here.

Ottoman Miniatures

Ottoman Miniature

Growing out of the Persian miniature tradition was the Ottoman miniature tradition.  It also featured bright or contrasting colors.  Though Ottoman miniatures were sometimes displayed in albums, the tradition of miniature painting was strongly linked to poetry, storytelling and calligraphy, so that miniature painting was one part of an overall work.

Matrakci Nasuh was a famous miniature painter who created a new painting genre called topographic painting. Anticipating Picasso by quite some time, topographic painting combined figures observed from different viewpoints in one work.  This lead to a somewhat abstract quality to the works.

With the advent of the printing press, the call for hand-created books and their miniatures declined.  Also, Ottoman painting styles became more and more westernized as time went by.  In the 1930s, it was classified as a decorative traditional art by the new Turkish Republic and new artists have emerged with the revival of training.

Beginning to freak out

I'm beginning to worry if I can do this challenge.  Forget about realistic -- I'm wondering if it is even possible to do.  This moving stuff has really thrown me for a loop, and everything is in disarray.  I'm stressed out an unprepared -- is it a good idea to even try this, or am I setting myself up for failure?

If anyone has some words of wisdom (or reassurance) for me, I could really use them right about now.

Persian Miniatures

Miniature painting became a significant art form in Persia during the 13th century.  In the Persian culture, poetry and miniature complement each other, and throughout the centuries artists have adorned great works such as the "Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam" with colorful, intricate images. In addition to illustrating texts, Persian miniatures were also a separate art form that were kept in albums.  Persian miniature painting was influenced by Chinese art, and was influential on Indian Mughal painting as well as later Ottoman miniatures.

Persian miniatures are often composed of geometric architectural elements among which figures are arranged.  In later miniatures, compositions are framed by elaborate geometrical or botanical borders. Overall, Persian miniatures are known for brilliant colors and graceful composition.

Under Drawings

So I managed to do five under drawings over the weekend.  Considering I usually paint from life, and not the "mind's eye", doing under drawings ahead of time is a bit of a departure for me.  Still, given the moving and everything, getting even a little bit of "outlining" done for November is an accomplishment.

Indian Miniatures

A Mughal-era Painting

Miniature painting began in India around the 12th century.  The earliest incarnations were manuscript illustrations of various texts -- often Buddhist or Hindu, and they were done on palm leaves.  Eventually, paper replaced palm leaves.  As time went by, Persian miniature painting began to influence the painting of Indian miniatures.  This culminated in the Mughal style of painting.  Though they were often still illustrations to manuscripts, they tended to depict the doings of royalty.  Frequently, they were PR tools that showed important events that took place during the king's reign, or depicted the king's as a mighty warrior or hunter. Scenes of court life were also frequent topics, and the small depictions were clearly designed, at least in some cases, to be realistic depictions of actual people.

It would be a mistake to brush these off as pure PR, though.  Quite a lot of great art throughout the world has been done under patronage or to flatter powerful people -- that doesn't take away from its extraordinariness.  Miniatures from the Mughal era in particular show bright colors and fine, tight rendering.

A Rajput-era Painting

Miniature painting also flourished during the Rajput era in India.  It often portrays love stories or accompanies heroic saga poems.  The colors became even more brilliant -- with the use of gold and precious stones (such as lapis lazuli) in the pigments.  Rajput miniatures, though still often used as illustrations, were also placed in albums, much like today's photo albums.

More of these "history of miniatures" posts are to come.  The opportunity to post some of these gorgeous images is just too much to pass up.

What is the equivalent of outlining?

NaNo writers are allowed to outline, but not to write, before November 1.  If my 50 paintings project is supposed to be an equivalent to NaNo, I should be allowed to do the equivalent of outlining, right?  OK, so what is the painting equivalent of outlining a novel?  And how can I do it if I'm moving in October?*

It seems to me that using actual paint would be going a step too far, but that doing an under drawing would be ok.  But how do I do an under drawing when I don't know what I'm painting in the first place?  If we weren't moving, I could set up still lives and make under drawings of them.  But my life (and all the stuff I keep around for still life studies) is all packed up.  It is hard to draw things when they are all packed up (well, I could, but black canvases are so faux-Rothko).

So I'm brainstorming things I can do to "outline" for my 50 paintings challenge without actually beginning to paint.  I could decide on subjects to paint -- simple, graphical things that will fit on one of my tiny canvases.  I could paint traditional still-life things like pitchers or lemons or apples (a blue bowl full of yellow lemons is something I have wanted to paint for a long time).  I'm sure I'll end up painting a half-empty moving box (as I'll be surrounded by them).  Maybe I'll start by coming up with a list of things to paint.

*For those of you who didn't know, my dear hubby and I are in the midst of moving.

An exceedingly brief overview of miniature painting

Ottoman Miniature

The painting of miniatures has a long history in India and Persia, as well as in the Ottoman tradition.  In fact, the miniature at left is a Turkish miniature depicting artists painting miniatures (how very meta!).  Western Art has the tradition of the portrait miniature.  So while miniature painting isn't universal, it is definitely a widespread phenomenon.

In the European and some Asian traditions, miniature painting comes out of the tradition of illustrating manuscripts, and when you think of the small size the illustrators were working with, it is no wonder the word "miniature" became associated with smallness.  It originally had to do with the word minim -- which is the Latin term for the red lead used as a pigment in these illustrations.

Artist Trading Card

The Artist Trading Card movement is the most prominent modern incarnation of miniature painting.  Artists create works of art on canvases about the size of a baseball card, and trade them with each other.  Many art forms -- from collage to drawing and painting -- are used.

Another modern incarnation of small art is the web site 20 x 200.  They market new artists at affordable prices, but in order to keep their prices down, they print their editions small.  You pay more for larger art, but only $20 for one of their standard 8 1/2 x 11 editions.  8 1/2 x 11 isn't teeny-tiny, but in the world of art where easily obtainable canvases run 24 x 36 or larger, it is definitely on the smallish end of things.

Since I like to know the history of stuff I'm involved in, expect some historical overviews in the run-up to November.

How small is small?

Post-It Notes

I mentioned that I'll be painting on canvases that are 3x3 inches big. You know those square Post-It notes you see everywhere? Those are 3x3 inches big.

While I'm not going to be painting on anything nearly as small as a grain of rice -- or sculpting the tip of a pencil, neither do I have the training (or magnification equipment) that those tasks require. I'll be going at this with brushes you can buy in any art supply store (the small ones), and regular acrylic paint (the kind they trust schoolkids with) -- nothing exotic.  So 3x3 inches is pretty darned small under the circumstances.

The funny thing is, there doesn't seem to be a phrase for what I'm doing.  Formal "miniature art" guidelines tend to refer to scale rather than actual size (that is, a 10x10 inch painting of a building is a miniature, but a life-sized butterfly is not), and while that is what I'm doing, that really isn't my intention at all.  I'm painting miniatures, but I'm also just painting small.  Maybe that is what I'll call it -- painting small.

How is this going to work?

In a word: miniatures.  I'll be working with canvasses that are 3x3 inches and some 2 1/2 x 3 1/2 inches big.  That is just a little smaller than the size of my hand.  Painting miniatures is a long tradition (especially in India), and I have a little bit of help.  I found a book called Big Art, Small Canvas, and though it is technically geared toward oil painting, and I paint in acrylics, a lot of the advice is sound regardless of medium.

In addition to the small format, I'll also be dealing with some time constraints, so I picked up a book on doing acrylic paintings in 30 minutes.  It is called (logically enough) 30 Minute Art: Acrylics.  Even though acrylics' fast drying time will be useful to completing paintings quickly, learning some speed techniques strikes me as a good idea.

While many miniatures are painstakingly detailed, I intend to use this chance to improve my overall composition and "big picture thinking".  I have no illusions about being "great", but since that isn't what this is about, that is a good thing.  I'll admit to being intimidated, but I'm also excited.

Why am I doing this, anyway?

My husband does National Novel Writing Month where the participants write a novel in a month.  And though it wouldn't seem like writing 50,000 words in a month would be a liberating thing, it is.  The sheer number of words he has to write overwhelms his inner critic.  All editing comes later, and there is no time for second-guessing -- giving him the freedom to just write. Sure, there will be bad writing, but there will be good writing, too, and most importantly, there is writing itself.  That kind of creative liberation is something I crave, and I'll admit, I am a wee bit jealous of him.

I initially planned to do the novel-in-a-month myself.  The thing is, I'm not a story person.  I love to read them, but writing is not my creative forte.  I'm much more a visual kind of person.  I got to thinking -- how can I set myself up for the same type of challenge and creative liberation, only using a visual, rather than written medium?  So as I was brainstorming one day, the thought that a picture is supposed to be worth a thousand words drifted through my brain.  And if the NaNo writers write 50 thousand words, wouldn't that mean that painting 50 pictures would make for the same kind of challenge?

Thus, 50 paintings in one month was born.  Wish me luck.