Silly Saturday: Because I Can!

Did you know that learning to create Abstract paintings is a fabulous way to teach yourself art basics of Design and Tonal Values?

I think that is why I consider abstracts one of the most Challenging genres to master.  I do not say that I have mastered the realm of Abstracts. But I do certainly enjoy the process of learning more!!

 

Abstracts….  Because I can!

With abstracts,  you typically do not have an object to look at to use to draw and paint from. Thus,  that’s why its called “non-representational” art.

 

Without an object to look at to see the tonal values of light, mid, dark;  you are in charge. This, perhaps is the scary, worrisome part for many.

You must decide how to place these 3 critical tones throughout the entire painting.

Without those 3 tones, (Light, Mid, Dark)   the painting will falter. It will fall flat….. it looks flat.

 

 

Because I Can on a Silly Saturday

 

My Thoughts for my art subject today:

clarity of tonal values, palette knife,  cobalt teal,  limited palette, smooth silky unified stroke movements, paintings in blues, to  extract an abstracted image from a recent location I’ve been,  less is more,  Wabi Sabi and  Zen.

 

ALL of the Above,  can easily be indexed in my Search box for … Many More  posts about those specific topics,  if you care to  Explore for more information.

 

 

Next.

So,  I wrote all these down.  Pondered for awhile.  Then thumbed through my photo library and found a b/w sky image from Albany, Western Australia.

 

I really liked the tonal value bands of contrast in the photograph.  light against dark, against light and so on.  Layer by layer.  It was intriguing.

 

 

Continuing….

I used a bit of charcoal and created a 2 inch x 3 inch tonal study of those bands of light, mid and dark. It was Merely as a  ‘helper guide’.

Just to help remind me about tones, …. and the place.

 

Then I put the photo away before I started in on the art work.

 

Photo is now put away.

 

 

Materials Used

palette knife

acrylic canvas

white, cobalt teal,  buff titanium, prussian blue    acrylic paints