Art Is Like Morality

I read this quote today and it inspired me to write a new blog post:

"Art, like morality, consists of drawing the line somewhere.” ~ G. K. Chesterton

Yes, you can take a piece of artwork too far.
This is something I always think about from the beginning of a painting to it's end.  Probably because I tend to push the line.

I was asked once how I painted, Peach Fuzz.

I told the person, in my usual animated way, "I painted it in watercolor until I ruined it and painted it in pastel until I fixed it."
Well, it wasn't as easy as my answer implies.  I had every intention of making it a beautifully transparent watercolor created solely with watercolor paint, but I pushed the line a little too far and the colors went flat.  No recovery possible; at least not with  watercolor paints.
I'm one who likes to experiment and the art doesn't always come out well, but without experimenting I would not have discovered how great watercolor and pastel work together. Most times, with the right amount of skills, a mistake is fixable somehow, someway. Even still there is a line. A line that if crossed will send the artwork to its grave.
 I don't throw away many pieces. The ones that can be saved someday, when I've gained more know how, go into what I call "my sin pile". Those that don't make it to the sin pile go into purgatory, for a short time, to be determined if they can be painted over or saved. I don't like throwing away artwork.
Okay, I admit, it's partly because I think about what the painting materials cost me.  This painting was savable. Not only that, but Peach Fuzz ended up winning first place (because of the technique, reflections and composition) in a Peninsula Art league (PAL) show. 

Here's another one that started out as an urban painting from a bird's eye view. You can still see the four way stop and the cross walks. I painted this horse, Painted By The Wind, over top of it and not only won a magazine cover award and a cash prize, but it also is in a book that is coming out in July,
Splash 15, Creative Solutions (pg. 59 not shown on link).

I've also sold the original and several prints of this image. It was the first horse I had ever painted.
Seriously.
It was also the most fun painting I've ever painted. I had nothing to lose because it was already destined for purgatory.
This painting set off a whole series of horse paintings. The second and third of the series; which were also painted over a ruined urban background, are shown below. I tried that darned urban background three times. Finally, the fourth one came out, but it isn't finished yet (see last picture).

See if you can find the urban scene under painting in Painted By The Wind.

You can see the urban four-way stop and the crosswalks from a bird-eye-view in

A Cool Morning Breeze too.

 

Andalusian Stallion is the third of the series.

Here are the photographs that I took from the Seattle Conference Center.  The first image is the reference photo I used for the first three attempts.
The second image is the one I used for the last image; which is my painted version.  

This is the urban landscape (work in progress) that I was trying to paint and was finally able to get it the way I wanted it.  My problem in the other attempts was not getting the four-way stop square.
For my fourth attempt, I decided to stick to two street corners from a bird's-eye-view instead of four.  All I have to do now is paint in the people and cars.

In conclusion:  Yes, there is a line that should not be crossed for each and every piece of artwork, but there is a lot of forgiveness while in progress.  Besides, it's only paper.  No doom and gloom if you don't push the line beyond it's limits.

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Watercolor Pencils Or Pastels Added: A Painting Or Drawing?

Watercolor is painting, but what if I use watercolor pencils over a watercolor painting?
Watercolor pencils were intended to be used by applying them over water, but they can be used just like colored pencils - dry over dry.  Simply use them after the underpainting dries. Perhaps this is were the confusion comes from - when artists do more than paint and decide to add watercolor pencil work or even pastels over the top.
When using watercolor pencils like colored pencils, I call it drawing. When using them in water to add to a painting, I call it painting.






I used watercolor pencils while the painting was still wet in this one. If you do it that way, the pencil lays down smooth as butter and feels like your using a small, very controllable paintbrush.

There is also a touch of India ink in this onion study, but the black primarily came from a black-colored watercolor pencil.

I consider this a painting.











This is one of my watercolor paintings that have India Ink added at the end.

I consider it still a watercolor painting as the majority of the work was done with paint.

The bleeding of the ink comes from applying it before the paper dried completely; which was intentional.

These have a lot of pastel over the top, but still is made up more of watercolor paint than pastel.  The underpainting is done entirely out of watercolor.  Besides, I consider most pastels I do paintings. Some would say that one is up for interpretation.

Someone asked me once, about the Peach Fuzz painting, "How did you do that?"  My answer:  I painted it in watercolor until I ruined it; than, I painted it in pastel until I fixed it.

This Poppy painting has a lot more pastel over the top of the watercolor underpainting. I would still call this a painting, but it leans more towards mixed media than the watercolor painting category.  The flowers and the background were painted in watercolor first.

The rule of thumb would be: if the majority of the painting is painted in a particular media then it is that kind of painting and if the majority of the art is drawn than it would go in the drawing category.  Otherwise it is mixed media.

For the watercolor category, if there are watercolor pencils or sticks applied over water in up to 50% or even more of the final work, I would still consider the art a watercolor painting.  Placing it in that category if it were entering into an art show, but specify in the description.


If I were to enter any of these works into a show, my decision for what category they belonged in would be between mixed media and watercolor not the painting and the drawing category.  For the purposes of google search, I tag them as drawings and paintings.  Just as I tag my work as paintings and pictures.  Many people will use either term and it is perfectly okay to use both in that case, but entries in an art show are more specific.  They want you to categorize the artwork as mixed media, drawing, watercolor or water media, and oils.  So, go with the rule of thumb I mentioned above.

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Art Is Like Morality