Saturday, May 24, 2008

Artist Block from, well, you know where...

Who me? Yeah me. I am seriously blocked artistically. Big time. Like there is a semi sitting on me. With little evil elves standing on top of it. Hopping up and down to make sure the semi stays in place. They're twittering all their little evil elf friends to come join them and hold my arms down so I can't rip the semi off me. Won't let me do anything. I have had the largest artist block of my life. I know, people say 'just relax, read mags, watch tv, do something else and it will come back.' And to that I say, 'Nuh Uh!' I keep trying to work through it but I've amassed a pile of work that is all unfinished. Only a few have made it to completion. I think I may just have too much crowding my mind. Anyway, I thought to share all the uncompleted projects so that others know, no one is perfect. We all have times of struggle. I hope the evil elves are leaving you alone so you can be highly creative.

Pages for a Fairy/gods/dragons type altered book.
1. 1st 2 I gave up on. Felt like I was in Kindergarten, doing art while watching the Smurfs. Wasn't working for me.

2. 2nd set of pages I quit on. I thought adding a drawing I did of a fairy would be great. I found a fairy online and sat and drew it. The whole set of pages are just ugly. Even my children said so. Bleck.

3. I'm moderately happy with this 'gods & goddesses' set of pages. They were a headache and a half. I tried a Claudine Hellmuth technique involving Dish Rinse to make the background streaky red. It caused so much trouble, the top images wouldn't stick to it until it had dried for 2 days. And I could have just swiped paint on and incurred the same results. I may use her technique for other things though. I think they just need a bit of stamping and they'll pass the muster. I refuse to make any more for this book. Can't. Won't.




I was working on a piece for Creative Therapy (I'll post it tomorrow) and was getting no where fast. The transparency image I was trying to transfer smear. All over my canvas and pics. I scraped it off. Then my printer wouldn't print anymore images. I was going to print a transparency again and just tack it on. Nope. So I gave up. Grabbed another canvas and started throwing paint on it. It was either that or start throwing things. I quit on it too. I'm 'sorta' liking its composition so I may come back to it at sometime. Maybe make the pier not look like a centipede at least. lol




I've had these 6x6" canvases with painted backgrounds sitting around forever. I pulled them out this week and painted on them. Since I'm so blocked, I pulled up ads to look at. The 'Who Me' piece is inspired by an Anthropolgie ad. I believe its actually finished, hallelujah. The Park piece, the tree was inspired by a recycle article. The bench I painted from a real bench pic. If you notice all the greyish stuff in the void, I keep trying and erasing a title for the tree piece (oh yeah, and oil pastels don't like you to erase pencil.) Haven't found anything I like yet. Any suggestions?




I think I'm sufficiently done complaining for the evening. Have a wonderful Sunday!

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

I love the owls on the bench. You can imagine a lot going through their minds. My strange sense of humor would have me adding bling to the gods/goddesses pages even though they are nice as they stand. I think I once did a page with Winged Victory and put sequins on the statue somewhere.

Angela Harris said...

I think all of your current creations look great. As for artist block. As much as I breathe art. I need a break sometimes. you will naturally take the break as long as you need. Love the owl Je's so cute.

claudine hellmuth said...

hi there! sorry you had trouble with the rinse aid tech from my book. If it's not all washed off with lots of water after you add the rinse aid and dry the paint, it can be slippery so use lots of water and maybe that will work better.
keeping finger crossed!

Contessa Kris said...

Thanks for stopping by, Claudine. I think it did work well after the 2nd day because I went back and wiped it with water and wipes too. I think I used too much rinse agent too. I will definitely try again. Thanks!

Rhonda Langley said...

I love the owls especially the 3 on the bench.
You just need more pink glitter & sparkles on your fairy pages. Think Pink! Although I do see a fair amount of pink on those first two pages! Really-I think all your pages are great! Your artwork is beautiful and unique!