Thursday, October 2, 2008

NEW MONTH...NEW ELEMENT!



During the month of October, we are going to do our Frenchman focusing on the element of SHAPE. If some of you are just joining us, you can find the photo in my blog archives. I think I should have started with Shape instead of Line but now is a good time to introduce this element. After taking Donna Zagotta's workshop, I am much more impressed with the importance of shape. It is the structure of the composition. You will notice that line and shape can go hand in hand as the edge of a shape by it's nature becomes a line, even if only implied. For week one work with the Frenchman and break up the image into as many shapes as suits you. Then, consider simplifying the image into fewer shapes. Do this a number of times continuing to reduce the image to it's minimalist essence.

The above Frenchman was done on my 9 x 12 YUPO paper. I had ordered a set of SAI Japanese watercolor brush pens from JetPens the other day and was surprised to have them delivered today. Turns out they were sent from Mountain View which is less than 20 miles from my house! I had seen these pens recommended on a Watercolor Journaling blog and this company is the only one who carries them. I had a drawing from the Sunday Marathon on a sheet of YUPO that needed some color and then I decided to do one of the Frenchman, as well. I had such a good time trying lots of techniques and seeing what I could do with this new tool. I used the wire sculpture drawing of the Frenchman as my base. This was already a simplification of the shapes. I think the end result has the strongest element being texture but shape was the starting point.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Wow! What an expressive portrait! You've got even me thinking about doing one of these portraits. The shapes are interesting.

Anonymous said...

I've been working this month on the Frenchman - both drawing and attempting to paint. Would you look at my most recent watercolor and give me your opinion? You can find my various Frenchman on my blog. I'm new to this. Maybe someday I'll be able to take one of your wordshops...one day....

Anonymous said...

I've tried another sketch of what I have come to call that pesky Frenchman if you want to take a look - I'm getting closer.

I'm trying to get up the nerve to do a shape watercolor....I have this idea in my head....but since I don't really know what I'm doing most of the time I'm a little afraid to take that first step.

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