Throughout the year I find myself flipping back through my sketchbooks as I reflect on where my work has been, where it is now, and what direction I want it to go in.
To help me pinpoint shifts in my work, I’ll compare my past and current artwork side by side, putting what I see into words as I make straight forward observations. To help illustrate this, I thought I would show you some of the changes I’ve noticed in my own work by comparing one of my acrylic sketchbook paintings from last year to one I completed recently. Here are just a few questions I think about to help me find clarity and direction.
REFLECTING BACK
Questions I ask myself include:
How are they alike? In both sketchbook pages, the subject matter is the same along with my preference for cropping in close. I also still prefer to paint with flat blocks of color.
how are they different? I no longer leave a border around my work and my marks have become more loose and confident. I now use varying levels of opacity in my paint which allows the brush strokes to be more noticeable.
What changes have I made in my process and why? In the past year I have paired my pallet down a bit. I feel like doing so has made it easer for me to create more harmonious color relationships (I wrote a post about my palette and have included a link at the end of this article in case you are interested.) I also experimented with different brushes and started adding acrylic medium to my paint to give me more flexibility with opacity.
MOVING FORWARD
Questions I ask myself include:
What do I find inspiring at the moment? I’ll often bookmark images that resonate with me on instagram or save them to a Pinterest board. If I’m unsure of what exactly draws me to those images, I look at them in a group to find similarities or dominant characteristics I’m drawn to. It cold be a color, a type of mark, etc. If I am finding inspiration from the work of other artists, I makes sure to look at a variety and never zero in on just one artist’s work.
What do I want to explore and incorporate into my work. It could be a new technique, medium, subject matter. This can often be influenced by what is inspiring me at the time.
I hope you find some these questions helpful. If you are interested in learning more about how my work has shifted this past year, I get more into the specifics in my two new books that I will be releasing November 15th.
I really enjoyed reading this Michelle. I think stepping back and verbalizing it really helps to understand our own works.