Idle Minutes

I have written it on the blackboard one hundred times:
I will loosen up my paintings and sketches.
I will loosen up my paintings and sketches.
I will loosen up my paintings and sketches.

…actually, I haven’t really written it on the blackboard. But after just typing it three times, I’ve come to the vivid awareness of why teachers make kids write things one hundred times. It makes you remember!

Hah! who’d a thunk it.

Perhaps that is the reason I’m a bit of a mental dolt. I never had a teacher tell me to “Write blah, blah, BLAH, blah, blah, one hundred times after school today Mr. West.”

I can think of three things right off the bat I wish one of my teachers would have made me write one hundred times on the blackboard. Dang! Now I see how it could have changed my life!

I will not be a slave to credit cards.
I will not be a slave to credit cards.
I will not be a slave to credit cards…

I will save enough money to retire by the age of thirty.
I will save enough money to retire by the age of thirty.
I will save enough money to retire by the age of thirty…

I will always wear clothing under my trench coat.
I will always wear clothing under my trench coat.
I will always wear clothing under my trench coat…(Just kidding. I don’t even wear a trench coat.)

But I digress.

I must, I simply must loosen up with my sketching and painting. I’ve been doing a lot of studying of other artists, professional artists, contemporary and historical, and the really good ones are masters of “looseness”.

Impressionism if you will. To leave an impression with an image is to communicate by hinting at reality. It forces the viewer to fill in the blanks and make the scene their own. Thus, it is intimate. It involves the viewer without their knowing it. Sort of like when you meet someone you really like right off the bat. They left an impression on you. Little hints of who they are. You don’t know why, but you filled in the blanks and decided you like them.

Looseness in drawing, sketching and painting is the same way.

Too loose though, and you LOSE touch with the viewer. Sort of like when you meet that person in the above paragraph but they are totally stoned. They make no sense about anything and leave nothing but confusing impressions. You can’t fill in the blanks in a way that is pleasing. So you’re totally turned off and decide you don’t like them. They’re too out of control.

And thus, I seek to become just loose enough. That’s what I’m going to be concentrating upon. Developing a pen and ink looseness that is pleasing to the eye and interesting to the mind.

The above sketch is an attempt. It drives home to me that it isn’t an easy thing to accomplish with pen and watercolor wash. It takes practice. It requires letting go. I haven’t had enough practice yet. Shall we say, “Loosening up is hard to do.” ?

Bear with me.