The Artist Challenge is well underway, with new artists joining every day! The project was started by artist Vikki North and I by challenging each other to create artwork based on a particular theme. This is my submission for Art Challenge #5 – Unrequited Love.
The first artwork is my submission, “Face of Unrequited Love 01″. The abstract face drawing/painting is approximately 11″x14″, drawn and painted with pens, markers, colored pencils, and watercolors on paper. The accompanying video shows the drawing and painting process in a time lapse format. The face was initially sketched with pen and markers. Washes of water and watercolor softened the portrait, followed by thick markers, and more watercolor washes, details, and highlights.
The second portrait drawing is entitled “Face of Unrequited Love 02″. This abstract face drawing/painting is approximately 9″x12″, drawn and painted with pens, markers, colored pencils, and watercolors on paper. There is an accompanying video that shows the drawing and painting process in a time lapse format. It shows a similar sketching and painting process from start to finish.
Expression without fear is often followed by more self awareness for me. Whether it’s through music, writing, dance, visual art, talking, or some other type of introspective activity, it helps me reach a new perspective about my life. I feel like I have some clarity. The drawing below is an abstract representation of a part of the process. The artwork is drawn on two sheets of 12″x9″ card stock paper, with pens, markers, colored pencils, watercolors, and paint pens.
This an abstract painting created with acrylic and watercolor paint. The artwork is approximately 16.5″ x 11″ on heavy foam core. Sweeping movements were used to wisp the paint onto the surface, and instead of using the brush, the brush handle was used to push and pull the paint around. The painting is primarily black and white, but hints of yellow, blue, and orange permeate the entire abstract artwork.
These are two acrylic paintings, one of an abstract Ball or Sphere, and one of an abstract Cone. Energetic and expressive swirls of color are chaotically focused on creating a recognizable image. And the darker shadows and horizon lines help to ground the objects.
Simple three dimensional shapes, like cubes, spheres, cones, and cylinders, were some of the first objects I drew when I started my art hobby as a kid. The basic shapes helped simplify the world, and I began to understand how light and dark play against each other to create depth. As a young adult, the more I learn about the nature of the physical world, I understand there is more complexity than can be perceived by senses I’m accustomed to using, like sight and touch. So the paintings are a reminder of invisible depth in unobvious places.
The Sphere (ball) painting is approximately 11″x11″ and the Cone painting is approximately 13.5″x14″. Both artworks are painted on masonite board.
As much as I appreciated all my art teachers when I was younger, I think I would have liked less focus on accomplishment or the end result, and more on the process of learning and building. There is so much sustainable joy in action.
Some days I just want to push. Bring the art to its limit until it breaks… watch it break down, learn from it, put it back together and smash it again. It’s like playing, which is part of learning and creativity. I want to do more than make mistakes… I want to lift them up, and turn on the flood lights. Swing ‘em around and test their stability, study them close, cover them up to see what shows through, highlight it and build off that. What a mess!! Yes.
Putting some paint on paper is a pretty safe place to make mistakes. And the best part is learning to trust myself more than anything… that quiet authentic awareness in between thoughts… and what I came face to face with was that a lot of my “mistakes” were just my own ‘thoughts with judgment’. It’s not easy to let those thoughts go, after all, they’re there for a reason… maybe to protect my ego against criticism, i.e. staying within the lines means you get a gold star. But today I’m pushing for authenticity.
With so much attention on process and subjectivity, it’s difficult to focus on the end result and present it with coherent significance. There were so many faces created and destroyed within this artwork, it feels to me like the last one can barely hold it all together. And maybe that’s honest. This abstract painting of a face isn’t the final representation of my authenticity… it’s a painting of the active struggle (push) to find my authentic voice, and the joy and frustration that goes with it.
This is an abstract portrait painting of an Art Goddess. The artwork is 9″x12″ and was created with pens, watercolor, paint pens, and markers. Multiple layers of medium were energetically and organically built up to create an abstract female face, with broad strokes of watercolor and detailed pen lines used to push and pull the space. The essence of creativity is playfully depicted as an Art Goddess, with the face as an almost universally recognizable lead in to the visual art.
As I’ve grown into art, I realized that I have developed a deliberate way of expressing myself visually. Perhaps the same way that some have a deeper understanding of other tools for expression and communication, like math, language, or music. I feel a deep appreciation for those other creative processes, even though I don’t understand the intricacies of them, I know there are areas of overlap and mutual insight. So I added a few subtle reminders of other tools that enrich and nurture visual art.
I also wondered, if more people were taught to convey emotions or concepts via color and shape more consistently, what new ways of thinking about the world would we discover? What unknown creativity awaits behind the Goddess’ eyes? And what flashes behind yours?
Some days before I draw, I close my eyes and breathe until I’m close to a kundalini state of mind, and I start to see amazing faces of all kinds. Barely captured in the artwork, the faces are so real, so unlike anything in this world, it feels like more than just imagination. Like my eyes have to close to this world in order to open in another.
There is a gamut of emotions they express, extreme details, and some that seem to embody the very essence of words like “beauty”, “evil”, “fun”, and some… I don’t think there are words to express what they are. I’m not consciously controlling the faces, they move, come, and go on their own, but I’ve never seen them before with my eyes open, and I don’t know where they come from.
Theses are abstract drawings of skulls, sketched with markers, watercolors, paint pens, and artist tape. The acid free tape was layered over the eyes of the more abstracted green swirly drawing. A bandaged or mummified appearance hasn’t translated as thoroughly to the digital reproduction. The skull drawings use basic shapes of color, subtle lines of structure, and semi-opaque washes of watercolor sketched quickly and energetically. A white paint pen is also used to add interesting hot spots of washed out color and blur lines that intensify the subtle illusion of movement.
These are a series of Drawings and Paintings of Characters, Faces, and Abstract Portraits with the color Blue. The artworks vary in size and mediums, but include pens, markers, watercolor, acrylic, enamel, colored pencil, paint pens, and crayon.
Epilogue | Drawings and Paintings with Red – Characters, Faces, Abstract Portrait Art
The following artworks were drawn in a digital format, with a mouse as the input using free online software at RateMyDrawings.com. The software also records the drawing process, so once the drawing is complete viewers can watch the drawing being created in a time lapse animation format. After the animation plays, the viewer may Rate or Comment on the drawing or artwork.
A few digital drawings of abstract faces and portraits that I created at “Rate My Drawings” are highlighted below, along with one time lapse animation. I encourage clicking on the artworks in order to view more animations that show how the drawings were created over time. If you would like to see more time lapse animated art, check out my complete MDE-ART Rate My Drawings Profile, or surf around the site and check out all the other great drawings people do every day. Sign up is quick, so you can try creating your own digital paintings, drawings, and animations too!
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