Monday, May 28, 2012

Today's Discovery in Creativity

This is today's tile.  I tried several new patterns such as "purk", "paradox" and "facets".  I'm not doing so great with designs that are heavy on the squares and triangles.  That doesn't come naturally for me.  Not sure why.  So, I decided to practice some geometric designs. 

This is what I got.  I tried doing the lines differently so that it created varied shading.  I wasn't crazy about the end result.  So, I tried to do just one square at a time.  This practice was done with a Platinum Preppy inked with R&K Verdigris.   

This was the result.  Do you remember Spirograph?  I reminds me of that.  I just took a square and then made arcs from corner to corner, turning the page to draw each arc.  It's not facets.  It's different.  There is probably a real name for this tangle pattern, but for now, it's my breakthrough in perseverance and giving myself some grace.

Happy with my "outside the box" thinking with the squares and arcs, I decided to try a tile that focused on square or triangle patterns.  The square/arcs experiment can be seen in the middle/upper right.  I purposely chose an odd shape with four sides for that particular exercise.  Then, to the left of that, I tried to do half of facets, but in my own way.  I drew lines from the center to the corners.  It's definitely not "facets", but it was more fun for me.   I realize that the result does look borderline "swirly", but really it's triangles with lines drawn from corner to corner.   I used an Esterbrook with 9461 nib (dry pen) and Diamine Eclipse (wet ink) for this exercise.

And so, that's sort of where the transformation took place today.  I couldn't get the hang of "facets".  So, I attempted my own interpretation.  So, then I decided to try some other new things.  I combined "feathers", "fescu" and "sez" and made this.  You can see my humble beginning in the upper left corner.  I didn't care for the end result, so I tried again.  and I liked it.  So, I did some more.   I really like peacock feathers, and that's what this reminds me of.  This was very pleasant and made me feel as though I had a breakthrough today.  I almost actually drew something.  By myself.  I can't remember the last time that I drew something that I liked, or drew something without "copying".  If that makes sense at all.  

I was so happy that I had a little fun with Instagram to memorialize the occasion.


4 comments:

  1. I love the feathers! Very pretty.

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  2. I also love the feathery peacock plumes! That would make a fabulous art piece in a simple matted frame - it would really stand out. Lovely! I think giving yourself grace and making your challenges work for you allowed you to create something unique - the spirograph facets are original, creative, and transcend the confines of the Zentagles. That's even better than mastering the techniques! Can't wait to see what you'll create next!

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    1. Oh, you are too kind! Thank you so much for your encouragement. It means a lot. When I started, I was a little doubtful that I would discover any inner artistic creativity, and was delighted to see some new things emerge this weekend. I often struggle with that "inner critic". One of the things I am trying to do is simply not give in to that thinking and instead either practice, or simply try something else. It was a plus that it turned out to be fun and rewarding. The neat thing is, and I think you touched on it too, that I won't be afraid to try something "different" another time; I'm glad for that. ;D

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