Where to draw the line?

in #art7 years ago (edited)


Where to draw the line? Boundaries are needed otherwise things end up in a horrible mess. Certainly there can be a sense of adventure in it all if you have the time and energy.

Oh? You thought I was talking about life. Well, artwork gives you a chance to reflect upon life. So for me the phrase, "Does art imitate life, or does life imitate art" rings true.



A drawing requires boundaries to give it definition, but also there is need to leave other parts open and undefined. That is the creative balance that allows the magic to happen.

The same too applies to life. If your life is so rigid with boundaries, it ceases to be life, and is well, "dead". Life itself is an artform; harmonious or jarring.

So thus in modern life coaching speak, we have to know where to set healthy boundaries, lest we let others over step the mark and scribble all over our page. It is incredible how much we are pressured to leave our lives open as a blank page for others to impose their own designs upon at will. But, we always have to examine the flip side of the coin and ask, are we doing the same to others? It is all too easy to point the finger of blame at others and project our shadows onto others.

Herein lies the secret to discovering our own healthy boundaries. We first of all need to examine our own blind sides, unconscious or shadow selves. When we can bring to light, the mechanisms of trespass within our own selves, then we are better equipped to deal with the external, the other/s.

Coming back to that piece of paper and the defining lines, art can be a useful tool for insight, introspection and therapy. Through it we can manifest a self portrait of our shadow and come to recognise it and start to own it. Then it becomes our healthy ally rather than our bitterest enemy in our definition of self, of where we draw our lines of self.


figure 13, Leo Plaw, 24 x 34cm, pastel pencil on paper
Leave a comment below, upvote and resteem if you like it.
More of my artwork can be found on my website. LeoPlaw.com
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This is some raw beauty, I love it. I came to congratulate you for being nominated by @vermillionfox to win some SBD in my new contest! (https://steemit.com/art/@flaccidfervor/name-drop-showdown-sbd-giveaway) The winners are chosen at random, and the contestant and their artist get to split the entire post payout 50/50. The point is to help artists to gain exposure, and be rewarded for being awesome, while giving people an incentive to promote them. You and anyone else is welcome to enter and nominate your favorite artist as well and spread some of that love <3

Thank you @faccidfervor! I had no idea about the nomination. Thank you for bringing it to my attention. It's a little hard to find out what is happening on Steemit sometimes.

And a big thank you to @vermillionfox! =)

UH- what a painting/drawing - perfect - love it :-)
resteemed

Remarkable work!

Beautiful... I thought it was chalk before I saw you'd used pastel

Thank you @vaderdelux! I used Derwent pastel pencils.

Beautiful work. This is something I struggle with right now. Have been attending figure drawing lately and because usually I am into graphic there is this habit to outline almost everything. One of the people who paints there and who gives me advice stresses very much to let my hand free, have different thickness of lines and play with shadows, as in life there are no outlines. Never thought about the metaphor with emotional life, so thank you for that. It may help

This is what came out from my first class there this year :) when I think about it though, he also says that the details which are closest to the viewer should be mostly worked on and just a small dark like can stress on a detail, to play with the viewers attention. Here is his painting from the same model

You seem like a person who will appreciate his work. Check hom out at nasimo.org :)

Hi @gabchik! The trick is to see the forms, the shapes that make up the image. If you work graphically, think of it as the posterise effect that you find in most image editors. Regardless whether you work in pencil, paint or digital, this is the way to approach realist images for the human eyes and brain.

The other trick is LOSE detail. Our eyes are wonderful at adjusting to different environments. But when creating an image, we must consider the overall image and how that reads. So while our eyes may adjust to darkness to allow us to see what is there, for the overall image, we have to loose detail in the shadow.

Take a look at most of the Old Masters. This is the Renaissance revolution, where Western art moved from medieval illustration to near photographic images in paint.

When considering the forms I mentioned earlier, we also pay attention to how they interface with other forms. When they meet, do they form a contrasted hard edge, a blurred soft edge, or does it just transition into an abstract form of colour or shadow.

Your painter friend is quite correct. We should use the details to capture the viewer's eye on the most important place. However, when we leave out the details in other places, this is where the real magic happens. The human mind will fill in the missing details. Hence, don't paint details in the shadows. You can never compete with the power of imagination. That is your job as the artist, to invoke people's imagination. It also saves you a great deal of work. ;-)

There copious amounts of tutorials, including videos online that will step you through this process.

Thanks for the link to his work. I'll check it out.

I love that you describe the connection between art and life. I feel that too and it´s one of the main points, why art is so important for me.

The art of life. ;-)

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