Every journey begins with a step...and continues with countless more. There is no end to the creative path. Only progress. To get better you have to do. Your skills, your mind, your art will not get better unless you try. And trying means you will fail a lot. But, if you keep at it, eventually you will triumph, break through, and be where you want to be. Here is another step on my journey.
Ok, I think I might take a break after last night...maybe, lol. Things got really, really intense. Might be because I began a new endeavor, painting. That thread of interest had been dangling in front of me for the last couple weeks now. Even as I filled up notebooks with ink my mind was already envisioning something further along the lines. As I was getting through the last pages of the most recent book...it was a bit of a struggle, even if the work was pretty dope. I wanted to try something new. It's good to master skills...but I guess for me trying to master one skill before going to the next isn't my style...jump, jump, jump, eventually everything will get covered. If I get bored...well, boredom is death for me.
Not exactly the most illustrious of starts, lol. But I'm so over caring about if it's good versus what I'm trying to get to. Though, I often wonder if I really know where that is. Do I even have a destination? Well, who cares. Just gonna do this until I figure that out. I based this one partially off of a self portrait shot I took off of myself...which quickly morphed into something different as I realized that's not where the energy of the brush was taking me. It's weird to say something like that, but it really does feel true. I mean, I can try and force it to do exactly what I want, but then the energy of the lines disappears and it goes 'blah.'
Here I decided to trust the lines and go with my instinct. Yeah, it's basic, rudimentary, doesn't make much sense. But that's what it's called a framework :) Start from where you feel comfortable, your strong place, and build everything on that. If you don't start from a place where you feel strong, weakness will win out... it's not like my pretty Geisha, but that's ok. Because those will come later, after I'm comfortable with these brushes and how to translate thoughts into painting. If that's where the brush leads me, lol. Art is weird...
Not gonna go into detail with this one...definitely elements that I tried to force, and you can tell I stopped trusting myself. Like, it's almost something, but, there are some lines that just make the entire thing melt in my eyes. Oh well...happens :)
Ok, I think this is when some of the magic began to happen. The blurring of lines between thinking and doing. Just going with the flow and letting the paint go on to the paper. I spent less time worry about what was what, and just had some fun. You can see a similarity between my recent ink drawings and these paintings. Once again, no idea why these want to get out of my head, but they do, so I'm letting them. A couple paintings on, I'll continue this thought :)
This is about the point where I was just relaxing into things. I think I had put on some headphones and was just listening to tunes blaring while the TV showed me...dang, I can't even remember. Some classic 80's B movie with crappy special affects.
Sorry this shot is out of focus. Maybe it didn't want to be seen clearly. This is where I had something click over in my head. A very special something. I was like, 'what would I want to see on my wall?' It's a pretty monumental thought, coupled with the drive to actually make it happen. Everything is building on everything. From the shitty graphite drawings I scribbled out in January to the lovely Geisha and samurai in pen, to now painting. It's been a wild trip so far and I know things are moving faster and faster...or at least I hope so. I really do fear the plateaus that might be coming :\ Maybe when they come, that's when I switch mediums, to keep building the skills, but in a novel way. Might have to go back to that giant graphite stick and see if that's true...if the urge strikes.
And this is where I decided to end the evening. I could have painted more and more and more...but, you gotta know when to take a break. There comes a point where you know the next one might really be bad, even though you want it to be good, so you set down the brush...but, next time I might paint through it because that might be the point where something really cool comes out...art is an experiment in both craft and self. :)
Hope you enjoyed my little artistic journey from last night. It was crazy cool for me. My mind is now thinking...what do I want to paint for my walls? How weird is that? And, please try not to giggle to much at the post-it notes on my walls that appear in the pictures. I need as many reminders as I can that what I want to do is possible, and that my dream can be a reality :)
Thanks for looking and reading!
Wessel
PS. Keep forgetting to say thank you to @curie and their trail for stopping by a couple posts ago to help promote my journey. Big love to y'all for seeing quality in what I do :) You've made a huge difference in my life and how I do what I do here in Steemit. Keep up the awesome work in building this into a community people love to be a part of!
Previous posts:
My creative journey 6
My creative journey 5
My creative journey 4
My creative journey 3
My creative journey 2
My creative journey 1
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