I find myself with only scattered thoughts to write about this week.

In my art school, Georgetown Atelier, I am still working on a 4 week long painting I posted about last week. More to come about that later.

One thought I had, is more about the subject of integration of the painting around its theme as the key to good art. Here is an example of how the lines of an artwork serve to enhance its theme. It’s a digital artwork I found on Deviant art. Here is the link to the page (and the artist who created it).

(Click to enlarge).

The lines in the right picture are added by me. They all converge into one direction: the direction of motion and they help convey the sense of purpose, motion and how the two of them are flying together (since these lines end up putting them in the same spot). That’s what the theme is: A a deep romantic bond based on a similar way of experiencing life: Instead of fear or weakness, finding joy and strength in this dangerous flight.

What I find interesting is that this sort of convergence of lines is not “classical”. I am definitely not an expert in art history nor in the study of composition, but I would bet ya, that nowhere in any art book about composition will you find a template that describes these lines of arrangement of focal points. The reason these lines “work”, I believe, is simply because they serve the theme – they serve the conceptual meaning of this work, and not because they happen to fall on spacial harmonies within the frame. In other words, they “work” because of the concept of the piece, not because of its precepts (it’s not the “purely visual” that makes them “work”).

Personally, what appealed to me about this digital work was the way it illustrated a deep bond: not through physical proximity, loving eyes or touch, but through spiritual values illustrated by each of them individually (and hinted by the way the male is looking at the female (I am tempted to say “man” and “woman” but am afraid of being targeted by a mob of angry nerds telling me that this is a different race than humans).

A small note: I don’t see myself painting in this style, but I very much like this artwork. I would often display different artworks here in different styles, none of them necessarily something I care to adopt as my own style. Please take it as such.
Later on I’d also like to “chew through” examples showing how value (how dark or light things are) can serve to enhance the theme or break it as well as how other elements in a painting can do that.

I’ll leave the rest for next week.
Have a good one!

-Ifat

In the next 3 weeks I’ll be working on a portrait. It will be 18X24 inches, with color! Yes, real color, not just monochromatic or 3-4 colors like I used before.

I’ve worked on a few studies this past week as preparation for this painting to allow me to work methodically during this pose.

Here are the drawing and the color study:

(Click images to enlarge)

If the painting turns out well, I shall post an image of the final result 3 weeks from now

More news from the front rows of the battlefield: I’ll be discarding my monochromatic painting of a skull which I’ve been working on for 3 months and starting over. Yes, starting over. Too many mistakes, too many re-do’s and doodoo’s. Start anew.

This project taught me a few things, mostly what NOT to do.

1. Don’t work into an area you haven’t oiled out.
2. Don’t work into an area without matching the existing paint first.
3. Don’t work all over the place, work one area at a time.
4. Don’t “improve” areas before seeing how they fit in the big picture (this is what my instructor said and I’ll be darned, I think he’s right).
5. Don’t be afraid of long-term projects. Like, seriously, girlfriend, what is your problem?
6. Beware of a subconscious “To-Do” list; it can blind you to seeing what’s actually in front of you.

Regarding the “To-Do” list: It was an interesting discovery to realize it exists and how it affects my work. My subconscious would decide that I do some systematic error, and before you know it I was making the opposite error all over in an attempt to compensate. Conclusion: Just look at what’s in front of me, the rest of the “advisers” must realize their secondary position. When it comes to decision making, I’m the boss.

-Ifat

OK, I have had so many thoughts this past week about art I don’t even know where to begin. Maybe I should just serve you, the reader, with the salad of my thoughts, although I am not a fan of random collection of things and nobody likes a salad with random ingredients. I mean, really… cabbage may be OK in some pie, but it can totally ruin a salad, don’t you think?

Nevertheless a salad it is, but I shall try to control the ingredients.

So one thought I had is Why I want to paint to begin with (vs. some other form of art).

What I like about painting vs. animation or a movie is that it captures one particular moment and by capturing a moment it can make the drama and significance of it more powerful than if it were part of a sequence of motion. I think a painting also has the power to capture motion is such a way that the painting seems to show the motion better than if it were a movie or an animation. Here is one example I stumbled upon recently, a painting by an artist named Carmen Mansilla.

Choosing that particular moment inside the sequence of motion that best represents it can show the motion more clearly.

Another reason I like painting, vs. sculpting, for example, is that a painting gives the artist the power to control the universe in which the character belongs, not just the character. Sculpting, however, sends a different message: that the figure is the only important thing. Its pose supersedes space and time, it is important by itself, regardless of its surrounding.

Another thought I had is a better understanding of something I read in “The Romantic Manifesto” by Ayn Rand. Ayn Rand wrote about the key to evaluating art. If I may paraphrase (and I may, because I am the only one here to give myself permission), she says that art is as good or as bad as the degree of integration its execution has around its theme. Apologies to the reader for not being able to provide a direct quote, please search the book if you are interested where she discusses the idea in depth.

What does this mean, then? It could take many forms. Harmony is a form of integration. Harmony of lines or of color. This is something I also learned from my teacher, Tenaya Sims: to see lines or “rhythms” in a painting of sculpture. In some cases, that is, in good art, those rhythms are not random, but they center around the painting’s theme (or main subject, or concept). I am not speaking here of the subject matter, but of the spiritual content that is communicated.

Here is one example, it’s a sculpture by Karl Jensen: http://www.cordair.com/jensen/daretodream.php

(Please follow the link to see the sculpture). Bellow is that picture but I drew the lines of “rhythm” I saw in it.

The “rhythm lines” here are variations on a theme. Each is different but they all have something in common. The lines of the folds, for example, all have the same degree of curvature and all converge into one point. The line of the fabric and the line of the stretched side of her body do the same. Now how do these lines serve to emphasize the sculpture’s theme?

The concept is hard to put into words, but judging by her posture, I would analyze it in the following way: Her body is facing one way but her head and arms are starting to tilt sideways. She looks like her center of gravity is in that previous posture (of facing the viewer in this photo), but she wants to go out to that new place. Her arms create a separation between the bottom part that is facing “in the old direction” and the top part which is facing “in the new direction” and it looks as if her arms do something like half push down that previous “direction” and half lift up toward the “new direction”. The wind is blowing from the direction she is facing and wants to go to.

Her arms create a circle that puts the base of the sculpture in the center and leave the head coming out of that circle, which implies breaking through into something new. All the “rhythm lines” created by the fabric folds, her body tilt and her arms all point into the point of compression (her right waist). Now why is that point important? It’s because that is the turning point. If you try to follow the movement of the figure in the “next moments” when she turns out, the rotation of her body would revolve around that point of compression which is also, I believe, the center of gravity for a person holding this pose (this is why she holds her left arm outwards – to balance the weight).

All in all the lines serve to emphasize the concept of the piece which is “Dare to Dream” – a turning point from that which exists and hold little interest to that which is new and exciting.

OK, I think I’ll save the rest of my thoughts for next week, this analysis was quite draining. In fact, I don’t think I dare to display my own work in this same post after analyzing this sculpture. Don’t get me wrong, I value my paintings a lot, but sharing them here and now would hardly be a good way to celebrate the effort I put into them because I believe they would appear boring compared to the above (heck, they bore ME compared to the above and I’m the one who made them).
Instead they should be judged in their proper context which is my education. They are exercises more than they are my art (although they have some of that, too).

Have a good week!

-Ifat

(Click to Enlarge)

This is a painting based on a 4 week pose I did at my school, Georgetown Atelier.

In an Atelier type of education, the student first masters drawing (starting with master copies – copying works of a master artist), then moves on to monochromatic value paintings and then color.

This painting is part of the monochromatic phase of my training.

I name this painting ‘Journey’.

I thought of the idea for the background after the pose was set, so in effect I only chose the angle from which to look at the model and the background, but I did not build this painting from the ground up (from the concept to the pose), rather from the pose to the concept.

To me the atmosphere and meaning of the painting is a mix of tranquility and solitude alongside adversity.

What I had in mind was a man, traveling alone, away from home, facing a crucial decision in his life. He is not afraid of the dark or the journey, but he has to make a very hard, serious decision. He is safe where he is and tranquil, although the quietness of the environment is a contrast to the turmoil in his mind.

Moonlight has a certain meaning and atmosphere to me which is hard to explain. It symbolizes solitude most of all.

I sometimes wonder why sunset and sunrise seem to symbolize eternity, why they have the power to immortalize things in art.

I think the reason is that it is a symbol of the world’s never ending cycle. It’s a relatively brief transition between night and day and precisely because it is a transition it symbolizes eternity – it symbolizes something about the nature of the world – that it is a cycle and that the cycle always repeats.

Cheers,

Ifat

These are 10-20 minute drawings blocking in the major shapes of the figure. Enjoy!

My name is Ifat Glassman, I am a second year art student at Georgetown Atelier in Seattle.

In this blog I will be displaying my student work as well as my own independent art work, my thoughts about the philosophy and psychology behind art (what art IS, what motivates me to create art or what motivates people to seek art).

I’ll share my thoughts on technique, subject, future or current projects, inspiration and thoughts about my own art.

My first year at the Atelier has been nothing but drawing. Stick around as color gradually starts appearing in my work as I go through my second year of training.

Ifat