BLACK AND WHITE!

ODE TO SON

One of my goals this year is to work more with the element of shape.  When my focus is portraiture, shape is an interesting challenge.  I am looking forward to seeing what comes out of this exploration.  The beginning step for me is to create a two value image from my resource material.  I like to play with digital apps to create a NOTAN (Japanese word that is a black and white image)  Value Viewer is a good app to create a 2 value image.  It also will create a 3 value image.  Once I have the notan, then I like to simplify the edges so I can make a stencil to work with.  Imaengine is an app that I use quite a bit.  I save these changes to my photo roll.  I can then put them into other applications for further changes.  This image was part of a demo in my workshop where we work with these apps.  The stencil allowed me to isolate areas of the face for texturing.  

This is a fairly true representation of the color of the actual painting.. This image has been published in the book Incite 4: Relax, Restore, Renew The best of mixed media and in the latest issue of Acrylic Artist.  It appears darker in the published works.  

I hope each of you have decided on some creative challenges for the coming year.  The best way to achieve a goal, according to the latest research, is to figure out what daily small tasks will lead to the success you desire and focus on just doing the activity.  I love this idea!!  So, I have decided that each evening that I sit down to watch tv, I will use my iPad to create a new shape drawing and find another artist who uses shapes in an interesting way.   I am just sitting there, anyway.  Might as well be productive.