Necessary Things + 25% off Site Wide
You know how you reading a book and there’s this one line that pops out at you just can’t stop thinking about it? I have been doing a ton of reading lately by some very smart people so I actually have quite a few of these lines bopping around in my brain but there was one in particular that hit me a few days ago because I think it can apply to art as well.
Diana Athill, a renown British editor and writer said, “Only by having no inessential words can every essential word be made to count.”
Replace “words” with “visual elements” and I think you have a splendid way to look at and analyze your own work.
There is a common phrase that people use when looking at artwork they don’t care for, especially when the artist is present, that may end up misleading us. They say, “It feels like it’s missing something.” This can generally be translated into, “It doesn’t feel quite right but I’m not sure what’s wrong with it.”
But is it always the case that something is actually missing? I wonder if that phrase causes us to look for things to add to a piece rather than looking to see if there’s anything that it would be better without.
Simply put, more is not always better. So, I’m wondering, if we look at our pieces and ask ourselves, “What is essential?” as well as “Is anything missing?” then perhaps it will be much easier to find those changes we need to make the work what we envisioned.
In fact, maybe it should be asking three questions:
- What is essential?
- Is anything missing?
- Does anything need to be changed?
Essential Changes
To demonstrate this idea, I pulled out one of my favorite pieces that, nonetheless, I’ve always felt could have been better. That’s what you see opening this post. With the magic of Photoshop, I made some possible changes.
Photomanipulation is a quick way of testing out design ideas. If you’re not that well versed with the Photoshop tools or don’t have this kind of software, you can do similar things by printing out images of your work and then going at it with pens and colored pencils. Although, just remaking the piece is an excellent option as well.
When I ask myself what is essential and does anything need to be changed, I find myself looking at the denser layers of textured clay. The piece absolutely needs those layers – they are what makes the piece – but maybe I didn’t need so much.
One of my tests to see if a piece works is to see how my eye flows through the work. For me, the diagonal line of gems takes the eyes down to the left and drops you off into the bottom of the piece. In the original, the eye lands on the big chunk of textured clay on the left but there’s nothing much to direct me from there. Maybe I do make my way down to the bottom points but then there isn’t a whole lot to bring the eye back up either.
So, I need to look for opportunities to draw the eye further around the piece. I played around with a few ideas and found that removing sections from the textured clay created what I needed.
I took a chunk out of the interior side of the layer that took up the lower left section to make a smooth slope so that it was more like a wave or the way water might flow into such a space. I also opened up space at the top and to the right of the gems to break up that upper layer of texture.
So now I think the eye will go down the gems and those wavy lines into the lower left texture which, with a new angle, slides the eye down to smoothly follow to the endpoint and backup the right side.
I think that will create enough momentum to take the eye back up where, after pushing the gems closer to the middle to make room on the right-hand side, the eye can go investigate the missing sections on the outside right edge and towards the top.
I then shaped the top space to spill them out to the left with that little bit of texture pointing inward which should bring the eye back to the gems.
So, with those changes, the eye moves around the whole piece, I think, much more smoothly and successfully. And not because I added anything, but because I took things out. There was just too much of a good thing in the denseness of that yummy texture.
Practicing Essentials
Now, it’s your turn. I bet we could all use a little practice asking ourselves what is essential. Just look at one of your pieces and go through every little bit on it, asking, “What part does this element play? Does it fulfill a design need as well as feeding my theme/intention?”
If something is questionable, either take it out or imagine taking it out and see if the piece still works or if its absence makes space for new and stronger ideas. More space is often a very good thing!
Sending some LOVE this Valentine’s!
25% off Site wide!
I’ve a little Valentine’s sale going on this week. I don’t want you all to think that being engrossed in my own projects doesn’t means I don’t think about and miss doing more for you! I appreciate you all soooo much!
So, here’s 25% all non-sale items in your cart for this week. Print, digital, or design supplies … as long as it’s not already on sale, you’ll get 25% off whatever is in your cart.
Use code: SAGELUV
This discount can’t be used with other coupons and won’t discount shipping but it is good through February 21st, 2021.
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