A Textural Project

For me abstract art is harder to make than any other type of art.  I have always been into detail and trying to make my art look "real" like a photograph.  For our last project in Design 1 we had to make a texture painting.  We had to utilize three types of texture: real, invented, and simulated.  After the texture we incorporated a simulated object of our choosing and placed it over the painting.  I choose a palette knife resting on a rock.




Real texture could be made of sand mixed with paint applied to the illustration board.  This type of texture was easy because it used real substances. I used sand and small glass beads.  This photo shows a simulated rock that has different sizes of sand incorporated into the paint.



Invented texture was fairly easy because you could make up anything.  For example, painting many tiny dots in white onto a red background or using impasto to build up a very thick area with interesting ridges.  I used pure paint from the tubes and tried to avoid mixing colors too much.  The impasto gave the background a lot of texture.



Simulated texture was the most difficult.  For this type we had to copy a real texture such as tree bark and it had to look real.  This type was the most time consuming because the colors had to be mixed correctly and tones and shades had to be put in the correct areas to create depth. This photo shows a small area of oak bark I painted.


My painting turned out very abstract and it is the first truly abstract piece I've done.  I initially played with colors straight out of the tubes with a palette knife and covered the illustration board with interesting textures.  I tried to keep complementary colors together to enhance some areas.  Once I had my background I decided to incorporate the simulated and real textures within the invented ones to tie in all the areas together.  


The last thing I made was the palette knife and rock which had to look real but were painted and cut out from a piece of illustration board and then glued on to the surface of the painting.  I wanted my focal piece to look real so I even included a scoop of purple paint on the knife as though it had just been used.





I learned that letting go and having fun with color can sometimes turn out better than if you had planned each detail.  Using the abstract method and then combining some detail made this project a lot of fun and taught me that you can have both detail and abstract in the same work complementing each other to great effect.

Inspriation

What is your inspiration? Do you get creative ideas from listening to music or taking a walk outside? Different things may inspire us to be creative in different ways, and for some of us it is knowing what to do with that inspiration. Sometimes we are inspired but don't do anything with it and the inspiration goes away.

When I feel inspired I like to use a notepad to keep notes on what painting or sculpture I want to make next. This way I don't forget my inspired idea when I don't have time to start right away. Making notes along with a rough sketch can help you to remember exactly which direction you wanted to take your artwork and I've noticed that if you wait a few days and come back to your notes you can get a different perspective on an area that will work better than originally planned.

All you need is a pen or pencil and a blank piece of paper. Keep your ideas in a folder for later reference and so you don't lose it for when you do want to work on it. It's fun to go back through all of your ideas much later and see which ones worked out and which ones didn't.You can also see which areas needed more substance and what you could have done different that would have worked out better.

Next time you're feeling inspired don't let it go to waste! Jot down some quick ideas and see where it goes. You just might be surprised at where your inspiration can take you.