Art Tip for the Day...Let's do something different and low stress

Okay. I'm back. Yesterday was an extremely hard day. Just can't get over that my cat is gone. It helps to keep busy and not mope as this only makes it worse.

So, I'm moving on with more artsy stuff. When I get depressed I get busy! Do you all have a dark mug? I want you to hold it at an angle so you can see your reflection. It's going to be funky but that's half the fun. I did this years ago and you can tell by my drawing that I had a drink in the cup. This isn't necessary unless you want the reflection to blend from the mug to the drink. Anyway, get out your drawing paper and a pencil or colored pencils. Now draw what you see. Don't try to make yourself look your best. That's not the point. It's a lesson in forgetting about your nose, etc. and drawing the shapes and negative space + fluidity. Loosen up. The drawing I did was centered on the paper but you don't have to do that. Let it go off the edges but be careful about that dirty little devil, the tangent (see older posts to learn about that).

That's all there is to it.





Art History Moment: Eugene Delacroix, a French Romantic painter, was a master in the painting technique of fluidity. In looking at "Arabs Skirmishing in the Mountains" you'll see his paintings are alive with movement. Not only are the brush strokes fluid but the composition sings with motion-one element moves to another and so forth.

In keeping with the "fluid" theme go back a few days in my posts and look at the natural arch painting I did. Notice that my first attempt at it is so static. Harsh. The second painting has so much more movement and flows.

By the way.....my discussions of art history are not going to follow any sort of order. This isn't a class. This is just discussing what inspires me at the moment.

REMINDER OF URL CHANGE
Remember that my address is changing to laughinghorseart.blogspot.com. Most likely the beginning of next week.