Sunday, June 8, 2008

Gesture Paintings


Some of the most fun that can be had either drawing or painting is doing gestures. Like scales played by a pianist or any other musician, gestures are an integral part of any artist’s regimen, providing a “warm-up” for the main event. Usually gestures are done within a limited time period, never longer than 5 minutes, like the one above, down to 10 seconds, like the ones to the right. The point is to get the artist out of their analytical brain (the part that says, “this is an arm”) into the part of their brain that recognizes space and makes judgments based on what is seen, not what is known about what is seen. It is the part that says, “this is a shape that is next to this shape which connects to this shape” and so on.

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