I've been reading alot about the creative process lately, and thinking about the idea of a creative muse. Your muse could be music, a studio routine, dreams, reading, talking with other artists, or maybe you have an honest to goodness creative muse that visits you.
I would love to hear your ideas on your creative muse....just hum a few bars of the old Beatles song, "Something in the Way She Muse" (sorry, couldn't resist).
My creative muse often visits me in a list. I like to take a subject like say.......Oh, quantum physics...and then write down all the phrases I can think of that go with the subject, for instance:
String Theory (did that one)
Parallel Universes
Black Hole
M Theory
Theory of Everything
Quarks
Energy
Mass
Equations
Event Horizon
From there I start to
visualize how I could set up a still life (since I mostly do still life), that might communicate some humor or a twist on one of the phrases. (I have a brand new Mr. Potato Head that I am still trying to figure out how to use in one of the above phrases.)
Try using the technique above if your muse is ignoring you. If you want to play, post your overall subject in a post, and then a few phrases that are associated. Then give one good idea for a new painting you might create. I'll be out my studio from tomorrow until next Tuesday. I'm off to Sacramento for the spring meeting of the Colored Pencil Society of America Board. It will be very productive and lots of fun. I feel like I GET much more than I GIVE by being the National Membership Director for CPSA. Hopefully, I have some pics of Sacramento to share (I've never been there).
For now the background is done. I have brushed and polished it so much that it looks like a piece of leather. I used a small bristle stencil brush, an oil bristle brush and a makeup sponge to do the smooshing and polishing.
Step 5. I have started in the background with various brands of colored pencil. I'm trying to achieve a background that looks more oil painterly (variations in color and strokes). I'm working right to left and still have work to do on the left.
Step 4. Inktense have been brushed (a smaller brush than the background) with water. The underpainting is now complete.
Step 3. Inktense were applied to the rest of the painting. Complementary colors were chosen for the shadow areas. A slightly darker color than the actual object was chosen for the lighter areas. (The cherries look like green olives with pimentos!)
Step 2. The Neocolors have been brushed with water.
Step 1. Neocolor II used in the background, and in the shadow area of the pears. It's still a dry medium at this point.
"Big Ol' Tomater" 5 x 7" colored pencil on pastel board
Step 3. The shadows of the stem of the tomato have been underpainted with Bark and Fuschia Inktense. Highlights have been added with White Neocolors.
Step 2. The shadows of the tomato have been underpainted with Leaf Green Inktense, and Green Neocolor.
Step 1. The background has been underpainted with Black, Blue and a bit of Purple Neocolors.
Susan
Lynette
Libby and Jan
Mary and Leslie
Kate (K8)
Heidi, Dorothy.... Maureen, Dee and Lynette in the background
Phyllis and Dori
Jeanne and Cheryl
Classroom at South Union Gallery
Pears (8" x 7") Colored Pencil on Acrylic Donated to PBS Auction 2006
I chose the purple underpainting for the pears so the fleck of Purple would show through the Yellow complement. The table was painted with a dark brown acrylic, so that the oranges would make a nice coppery color.