All art copyright (c) Mike Kloepfer
"The level of achievement that we have at anything is a reflection of how well we were able to focus on it."
-Steve Vai

Saturday, March 7, 2015

Virtual Plein Air with DIS Plein Air Club

I have had so much fun the past two weekends with the In - Studio 'Virtual Plein Air' outings.
First, the idea of plein air painting,  while simultaneously wearing slippers and sipping coffee, just thrills me.
Mororboat importantly,  I am able to paint from the comfort of my studio, while simultaneously sharing the conversation, feedback, and camaraderie with my fellow artists.
I find we talk more 'while painting - in the virtual outings. I'm sure it's because when we are out in the field, we are usually close enough to shout, but not to hold an extended conversation.
I have been working traditionally,  while some of the participants are working digitally.
Here are some samples from the first two outings.

Thursday, March 5, 2015

Wisdom and advice from Moebius

Wow.  I love this quote from Moebius:
"The compositions in our stories should be studied because a page or a painting or a panel is a face that looks at the reader and speaks to him."

Here is the full artcle:
http://www.openculture.com/2015/03/moebius-gives-18-wisdom-filled-tips-to-aspiring-artists-1996.html

Sunday, March 1, 2015

Generating new ideas

I watched a great video by Scott Robertson - for the second time.

Here
In this video, he discusses the differences between sketching and illustrating. The main difference is that in illustration, you are focused on creating a nice looking piece; whereas when sketching, you're looking to get the idea down.  You may flesh it out a bit - and you always want to do the beat drawing possible, but if you're too focused on creating a pretty drawing, the idea tends to suffer. The two thought processes are completely different.

I realized that in order to do the final work that I desire, I need to generate better ideas. To stay focused in the idea thinking mode, I need to use the, appropriate tools- ones that allow me to work quickly, get the idea down. Tools that allow for delicate rendering tend to sidetrack the sketch.

So I picked up the pen again, and got to work.  And I kept working until the page was full. And when that was full, I went to a new page.