I haven’t had much time to paint anything this week but found moments in the car.
Being back in a city is overwhelming in terms of the cacophony of lines
and layers, rhythms and patterns. (Yes I spelled that wrong — I always
forget that extra “h.”)
It really annoys me when I find myself avoiding scenes, and the areas
near Swan Island
(an industrial area whose name should be changed as
there are NO longer swans)
are so rich with activity and also so layered and busy. Busy is hard to convey,
especially without the structure of a language of lines, example shown below,
an architectural rendering of Arco Towers Long Beach. I could do these in my sleep.
Moving from highly structured to free-wheeling is difficult!It is especially difficult when my brain is translating the scene as a thing that should be drawn structured!
Annoyed, I finally decided to try layering
the cacophony all at once without thought to shapes to see how that
would work, and gave myself 15 minutes. No what’s in front and what’s
in back; no set-up and figuring. Just draw a giant gesture of the crazy
jumble of lines. I started with the gentle arch of the bridge and then
the tall arches, then moved to anchor each side of the page. It
totally worked to loosen me up and relax me. Getting even one of these complicated scenes down was a coup.
I think I am on to something. Got me over the hump, anyhow.
