Fun with a 30 Min Painting Challenge
There is something fun with taking on a challenge being it either with photography or painting. I find these challenges a great method to stimulate my own creativity.
I guess it has to do, at least for me, with there being no expectations of achieving anything useful with the finished art work. Not that I don’t want it to turn out well, and not that I don’t try, its just with time-limited challenges I’m never quite sure of the outcome. With my other paintings I tend to agonize about the composition, colours and almost very other aspect of it being ‘right’ . Whatever that really means.
I have a artist friend in Ottawa and we like to give each other a painting challenges once a month. The best part is we each know each others current work and therefore we strive to find short challenges that will take you out of your comfort zone. Hopefully not too far.
Painting Challenge from B&W Image
Oil painting on 6”x12” gesso primed board.
The challenge:
Produce a painting from the B&W image in 30 minutes.
I don’t use acrylics, at least not yet, so oil is the medium of choice.
While at times I do strive for a 1 or 2 hour session from start to finish with my other work I at least do have the option of stopping and waiting for the paint to dry and continue later if its becoming a bit too wet to make useful changes.
Not with these challenges. It therefore becomes a bit tricky to get the paint laid down correctly in thickness otherwise I can’t add new paint as I only end up pushing the previous layers around.
I was allowed to plan the approach which is a good thing because 30 minutes sure goes by very quickly and I needed every second.
I knew I would be using the palette knife to scrap away the paint to create the lighter grasses. I just wish I could have toned the board with a light ochre to make these grasses a little more natural in colour (tan) as opposed to stark whiteness of the board. Oh well it’s not about creating a perfect painting but about having fun.
I learned I needed a better assortment of tools (widths) to scrap away paint. The palette knife was too fine and even the end of the paint handle was not thick enough as I had to go over it several times to make the line thicker. I also wish I had not made the grasses so horizontal across the top, but still for the most part the painting seemed to work.
On My Camera World Blog of often discuss photographic challenges that readers can try themselves.
Niels Henriksen