Practice With an Epic Gouache fail

Today was a lesson in an epic failure.  I did a self portrait drawing and then over confidently decided to try and execute a gouache painting.  It ended after about 40 minutes in complete failure.  I dont know shit about painting and this proved it.  First, I tried using the Zorn pallette.  I thought by limiting my options I could stand a better chance.  Well, I dont know much about mixing colors, especially in that pallette which is basically 5 colors: Black/White/Yellow/Red/Raw Sienna.  To get blue for instance you mix black and white.  I know... you're thinking grey.  But try it.  It is blue, especially next to red.

Well I bombed.  Hard.  So I wondered why.  I dont know how to paint with Gouache.  I dont know how to mix colors.  It's not like photoshop with a simple picker.  My eyes are poorly trained for color and this is now something i'll work on.  

Instead of feeling bad, I decided to execute the same idea again but with watercolor pencils.  It turned out much better and more agreeable.  I still think I need work on really painting form and value.  But It looks and feels much more solid and clearly communicates the self portrait.

Then I just messed around with pen and some designs

Some more creative bursts

Doing these has been helpful to just unblock and push through.  It generates weird and interesting ideas that i'd never think of.  It's important to understand your feelings and just rifle out whatever it is without giving a fuck.  that's the point!  I think most artists refuse to show the bad.  I relish in it because if you can show that you can keep pushing yourself and make better work.

Bought some water color pencils and wanted to try them out

None of this should make sense.  So don't try and make sense of it.  I bought some water color pencils and started a new process in my journal.  The first half is pretty analytical, structured, and tight.  The end of my notebook is chaos, wierdness, and really nothing in particular.  Just random spewage from my brain.

I like this dualistic approach so that I can be purely creative and purely analytical. It's fun getting frustrated at the front of my notebook and then releasing the tension in the back.  I am building my notebook to meet in the middle.  

Even these 4 things have given me some good ideas to go off of for quick stories.  

practice

A couple of notes.  I tried shifting composition to the right to make it more asymetrical.  I simplified his hair to make it straight on the right and complex on the right.  And lastly I tried to keep the values clear.  It is still very graphic and looks unfinished but I dont know at this point how to make something look "finished".  For me, I just use what I know and try new things to get it past what I did before.

I am observing that I create better when I just dont think and let it unfold how it should.  This felt too planned and looks bad because of it.  I am trying to keep conscious various design ideas principles which I felt better.  The question I have is " how do you know when the design principle is implemented well?

Practice by lending a helping hand

The david eye

Doing some digital sight size of Michaelangelo's David's eye.  3/4 and front

Each one was about 10-15 minutes.  I practiced only 3 values to really make it read. There is still some flatness in the eyeball and not sure how to really make it feel deep.

Thanks dad!