Forward Motion

I like the "whatever" painting that Michael did the other day, so thought I would travel a bit down that road too. This was also inspired by a John Salminen video I watched recently. He took 4 arbitrary objects and did overlapping contour drawings of them, then pulled shapes out of these intersecting lines. He colored them with a hierarchy based on value: white, black, and mid-tones. The largest shape was white, and the others were supporting. Mine isn't quite as dynamic as his, but his required an amazing amount of thought. So even these seemingly freeform compositions can use the ole noodle. A good mental exercise as well.

"Forward Motion" 12x12 oil pastel and oil paint on board, ©Laura Gable

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working in layers

My first mixed media project on 15 x 20 watercolor paper using watercolors, acrylics, stencils, stamps, markers, oil pastels, inktense watercolor pencils, a bic whiteout pen and whatever else came to hand.

Wanted to color block it but the blue ... oh the blue .... really BAD idea and normally I would have trashed it, but I'm working on keeping going, working through mistakes or things I don't like, so....

Added some black and white to bring out details and am pleasantly surprised.  Detail shots:

Lovin' all those layers and textures!

Although I didn't post something every day this month, I did work on something creative every day.  Once again this place proved invaluable in getting me jump started for the year after the holiday lull.  It's such a positive, supportive group - I really appreciate all the time folks took to leave comments and encouragement.  Here's to a productive, creative 2012 for all of us!

sketching: miro

Working from my Drawing Lab book again, lesson #20 is to doodle/sketch in imitation of Miro.  This was totally fun and freeing.  I went online to refresh my memory of his style and the elements he used most frequently so here's my take w/ pen and watercolor pencils: