Ciò che Dio vuole, Io voglio (If God Wills, I Will)

The progress so far of  Ciò che Dio vuole, Io voglio (If God Wills, I Will).

Day 1 - Post Underpainting

 Day 2 - Post Underpainting

Day 3 - Post Underpainting

Current Painting: "Ciò che Dio vuole, Io voglio" (If God Wills, I Will)

I finished the under-painting of my current piece: Ciò che Dio vuole, Io voglio, which is Italian for "If God Wills, I will". I believe in God, however, in this case, I am referring to my muse rather than God. I think Italian is a beautiful language, and I've been wanting to try naming a piece in a foreign language, so I think this name is beautiful for sure. 

Hopefully, this piece will be as beautiful as the name.

Painting..

In Painting class, we've started our first "official" assignment of the semester, a still life painting.

Many artists I know, or aspiring artists I should say, absolutely despise still life pieces because they believe that it's difficult to capture something and create it once more but in realism, as if realism is required. As for me, having to pay attention to the tiny details makes the ultimate piece better than if I had been painting based on my study of a photograph.

Oh, how I do love painting. 

(Sorry that this post was short and boring!)

                                                                                                        -Vandal

Sketchbooks don't have to be precious..

Sketchbooks can be incredibly difficult for me to own. As much as I love the idea, and the pretty hard-back, leather covers and blank pages (which are begging to be dabbed with charcoal or pastels or paint), they're too beautiful for me to "ruin" them. They're so precious and perfect, that half the time when I want to just doodle, I can't bring myself to in my expensive, hard back sketchbook that I bought FOR THE PURPOSE of drafting ideas. 

Sketchbooks can be the biggest artistic block, at least for me. But on the other hand, they can be so helpful in that they document our creations ever so delicately.

In Sculpture, we bound and created and customized our own sketchbooks. Rather than buying a sketchbook and ripping the pages out like most of the other students, I bought a giant pad of drawing paper and cut it to size, and used mat board to make front and back covers, and bound it all together with yarn. I made the sketchbook mine. All mine. I completely eliminated the "precious" factor because not only are the pieces within the sketchbook things I created, but the sketchbook itself is also a piece of work. I've been able to draw and paint, freely and without restriction by my inability to mentally bring myself to "ruin" a sketchbook.

I plan to make every sketchbook I need from now on. I want to tap into the unused potential of my muse, but to do that, I need to destroy my blockettes, especially this one.

Now to develop the self-discipline to draw everyday! Oh, joy!

                                                                                                                  -Vandal