Sunset Orange

I've mentioned before that I'm following Kelly Kilmer's Journey Of You workshop (JOY), and that I love the taped binding, paperback journals we use in the class.  I've made dozens of them since first following Kelly's PDF.  I've also mentioned that we're doing a fun project to stretch our color muscles in another group I belong to, by working our way through the entire set of Crayola colors and creating separate illustrations for each of those colors.  

I keep a lot of journals "open" (available to work in) at a time, and I work in each of them differently.  The sole purpose of these books is artistic growth.  Some are sketchbooks.  Some are collage.  Some are mixed media.  Some are watercolor.  Some are sumi-é.  There are others, each with their own purpose, as well as their own media.  This particular book combines collage and pen work almost exclusively.  

Today I'm going to outline the method I use in this book to get the color on the page and tie it all together.   I'll also tell you the general set of rules I created for this page, and how I used them to make sense of the page, by resolving the remaining disparate elements of composition.

First, I scribbled a generous amount of the Crayola color du jour, in this case Sunset Orange, onto a clean swatch of white paper.  I grabbed a small handful of magazines and a pair of scissors, and quickly flipped through each magazine, stopping only when the color on a page matched the swatch of crayon color in my hand, and I cut it out, then kept going.  

With those cut swatches in hand, I then started my page flipping fresh, in order to find various tints, shades and saturations of the same hue, located them, and cut.  Then I did a third flip-through, looking for one major, and one minor accent color, keeping in mind the (interior) design maxim, "something dark, something light, something dull, and something bright."  

Once I had all my swatches, I set the magazines aside and fiddled with a background arrangement.  I limited my choices to the shapes and textures of what I had cut out, and how they would actually fit on the page.  

In this book, I purposely make myself work with page sizes that are large in order to put myself in a position to have to strain my brain to use only the limited stash I've cut to work with.  If my pages were small, I might be able to get away with only one or two pieces.  But with larger pages, there is inevitably the need to piece some things togehter, not having enough of one or more cut colors to fill the larger space.  

At the same time, I work with another rule that I made for myself which requires the composition to be artistically balanced.  My personal rule for this book is that it doesn't have to make sense in any other regard. I'm not working with images, I'm composing with color.  If an image or a pattern springs up, it's used for the color and the balance of color, not because of what it represents as an image.  I don't lo0k for subjects;  I let the subjects evolve.

When the page is covered, I step back.  I usually take a break and walk away from it for awhile.  The break also gives the glue some time to dry, which helps the page uncurl.  Then I come back to it, and if necessary, I look at it very closely and ask it what it needs.  Maybe the answer is "nothing".

A "nothing" answer is so rare that truly, I can't rememer if it has ever actually happened.  Most often, a focal point is either lacking entirely, or needs support.  This is when I look for, or create, specific "fits" for the piece.  I ask some balance questions, too. Too chunky?  Add some line.  Too liniar?  Add some chunks.  Too dark? Add some light, Too light, add some dark, etc., etc.  I make everything , including the date, part of the composition by including it the most auspicious place.  

If you're a collage artist and not sure which of your creative muscles most need to be stretched, I'd recommend Kelly's J.O.Y. workshop.  I'd also recommend Kelly's workshop if you already know what you're doing and just want to have fun.  Guaranteed, you'll learn something new along the way.  If you're paying attention to what you're doing, Kelly's classes train you to teach yourself new things.  You'll develop a better sense of compostion, and also a better sense of detail.  Your eyes will be sharpened.  

Kelly gives you everthing you need to get started: Clear instructions for making the book you'll use, an array of design templates that you can use as-is, or customize, a place to share your work and interact with others who are on the same artistic path, and personal feedback when you need it.  

The rules I followed for my page were my own, not Kelly's.  But with Kelly's workshop, you will inevitably discover things that you are more and less comfortable with, and you'll begin to create for yourself, new and different rules each time you work.  You'll stretch.  

My advice is to push yourself in the direction of your discomfort.  Create artistic dilemmas through rules you make which severly limit your choices.  Create conflict, then resolve it.  You'll be amazed at what you find you can do after all.  And once you've become familiar with them and have learned to master them,  a lot of things that you thought you didn't like to do will mysteriously begin to appear on your lists of "like to do" items.  

When it comes to your artistic tool box, which is simply your set of skills, there is one overriding truth:  If you hate something, it's your master.  If you love it, you've mastered it.

Comments

[kelly]

Superb blog post!! I have always admired your attitude towards creating!
Thank you for the kind words on my class.
Love love love this page!

[joanne thieme huffman]

I really am impressed by your journals and the wide diversity and skill of your artistic exercises. You're very good about expressing the process.

[Rita Ackerman]

What an inspiring post. I tend to make little rules for myself, too, but AAAAI don't follow them as closely as you do so they don't push those boundaries. I'll have to get stricter...and more creative.

[Rosie]

I love when you get all "professor"! I really have to keep pushing myself the way you do. I so enjoy your descriptions of how and why you create the way you do - it's so interesting, especially when our artistic backgrounds are so different! I always learn from you. LOVE this with the white pen-work. xoxo

[Nancy B]

Beautiful orange piece and I wish I had all my ducks in a row!