MOSTLY MONOCHROME, Day 1

New lesson in my online 100 Drawings workshop—make pieces that are Mostly Monochrome, with only 10-20% of Something Else.

I revisited the overall workshop description and reconnected with its sometimes-forgotten-by-me invitation to focus on particular elements and create quantity without regard for whether or not the pieces are good or even finished. Just as I was shifting to the new lesson my art friend Simone also serendipitously put words to the workshop philosophy on her personal blog: not going for masterpieces but going for quantity, creating flow and ease.

I (re)set my intentions accordingly as I headed into Lesson 9 with a spirit of investigation—a spirit that was much more present and immediate than was the case with Lesson 8 where I both struggled to figure out exactly what the assignment was and got lost in trying to get it "right."

While my investigation in this lesson also involved "trying," it was of a different sort. I tried one thing, I tried another. I looked at what emerged, made observations, said, Oh, look at that, made changes in response or moved on to the next piece.

I also set an intention with this lesson to work quickly and intuitively. My goal was to post by the end of day five, completing as many paintings as that turned out to be. Midafternoon on day five I said to myself, You're stopping now. Clean up your studio. Photograph these paintings, write your post, and submit. 

In many cases, to my delight, the combination of the lesson limits for the Something Else and the time limits I imposed on myself pushed me to be bolder and less fussy than might otherwise have been the case. Woo hoo!

Mostly Monochrome, start #1

Mostly Monochrome #1
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In this piece I see:
a busy bright red/orange area suspended from the top edge;
a monochromatic green field surrounding the focal area;
crisp edges in the red, soft edges and subtle shifts in value and hue in the green;
atmospheric quality and depth coming from layered greens and tone-on-tone marks;
green bits in the red area and red bits in the green area, connecting busy and quiet.