As you know, or if you didn't I have been working with some images that were inspired originally by Elisa Mazzone, creating works in my style inspired by elements that I pulled out of her work. Some of the things that initially attracted me to her work were her use of color, and also the contrast of the color with areas of tight rendering, in what looks to be pencil or black colored pencil. Add that contrast to the finished and unfinished, I was hooked. Amazing, simple amazing. What totally made my day? I sent Eliza a message via Facebook to let her know that 1) she was awesome, 2) her work was an inspiration to me and, 3) to let her know about the pieces I was creating based on this month's challenge. Folks, she sent me a response. I got art kudos from my muse. Seriously? Wow. So...with that bit of background...here are the images I had created from August 1-4th (below), all based on her work. Good and Evil by Innes McDougall After I am done jumping up and down and celebrating Elisa's message, I am on Pinterest, pinning some images to my 'Inspiration' board...and I come across this image (below). Holy crap. Those eyes looked right into my soul. Amazing. The quality of the rendering, the eyes look so realistic...the contrast of the black against the color...add that to some splats and drips...which I love...where do I sign up? The piece is called, 'Good and Evil' by Innes McDougall, of the United Kingdom. Here are some more links where I found more work by the artist...
Of course...I have gotta make some art after seeing this, right? I had started a piece late last night, decided that I needed to go off on a detour and focus on eyes...and I was really feeling the butterfly imagery...so I was thinking that I would add a dragonfly wing, and just focus on one eye. That is where I left off that night, and the next morning I come across this image? Meant to be. Sunday morning, I finished that eye poolside. Some detail drawing and shading on the eye and then watercolor on the wings. Honestly, I wasn't going to add any drips or splatters yet, I was thinking after I saw this piece by Innes McDougall that I would gradually work towards this after a few pieces. Then I got a smudge on my paper. Can I digress? Okay, thanks. Being a left hander. I am forever smudging. I know, I know...I should just pay more attention, or keep a paper under my hand....blah. It turns out, my accident gave me permission to go ahead and try to add some of this style to my work. I started another one, this one with a Monarch butterfly reference...then another one, using a red butterfly as my reference. Here is what I came up with; (below) Oh goodness...then I worked on CED #218...girl meets monarch butterfly...still inspired by Mazzone's work...and Alphonse Mucha's hair...started her poolside, but came in because the sky looked pretty dark. I escaped the rain but not a little sunburn. Anyway, here is a slideshow of my Sunday artin'. (below)
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So...last night as I was finishing up my self portrait for July I peeked at the CED main page to see what August would have in store. The theme? It is shadow. I went to sleep...thinking about shadows. Woke up and got ready...thinking about shadows. Went to cheer camp with my new JV team...still thinking about shadows. Went to Zumba...still thinking about- you guess it...shadows. Hmmmm...well, I could do what came to me first- include shadows in my work, I thought. Or... I could work with light and dark. Wait, no, I should work in charcoal all month. Then... I thought about working with the idea of creatures that might live in the shadows...but, alas, nothing seemed to capture my attention. Then I started to think about my 'Inspiration' board on Pinterest. Almost every day I login and look for art and artists that inspire me. I choose images because I like the colors, or the use of line. For some it is the subject matter. Regardless of whether it is a formal quality or a more expressive quality, something about that image struck me, so I pinned it...storing it away like a little art squirrel that one day might need an image to motivate me to create, my own work a shadow of some image I saw some time, somewhere, putting myself into the new creation...one of these days anyway. Well, today is that day. This is the month. My goal for the month is to choose one of the images that I have pinned onto my 'Inspiration' board, to create my own piece based on something from the work and then to write a short reflection on what inspired me about that image. Now, a few ground rules...because I like structure:
My inspiration for today. Today...I was inspired a piece by Elisa Mazzone, pinned by my friend Laura from art school. The first thing that I saw was the contrast of the positive and negative spaces. Then, the movement of the hair. The tight rendering of the eye, nose and mouth...and I guess I don't even have to mention that the fact that it is a picture of a female's face...love. What an amazing piece of art. Is the black a cloak? Is it some weird shadow that will eventually drown out the light and envelope the figure completely? I don't know. It is just amazing, haunting even. More links to Elisa's work; Website: http://www.elisamazzone.com.au/ Blog: http://elisamazzone.blogspot.com/ |
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