Moving Past Creative Blocks In Your Art

Breaking Through Creative Blocks
As Artists, we tend to be hyper-critical of ourselves and our work. Sadly, I often see how this stunts the growth of many wanna-be artists. One of my greatest joys in life is nurturing my students to overcome this creative block.

Throughout my many years of teaching, I've watched as student after student blossoms into the delight of allowing their creativity to expand.

And last night I experienced the EUPHORIA that art instructors thrive upon. We were in the final evening of a course and all my students had improved powerfully over the past several weeks. It felt good to be watching them discover their own talents. Each and every one of them had grown so much!

Getting Out of Your Head and Into Your Heart 
One student stood out... Her first drawing of the evening was awkward, stiff and unsure. I sat with her and gently offered her the idea of relaxing with the process, loosening her 'grip' on "how it should look" and walked her through the simple steps I'd been introducing to her throughout the course.

The next time I passed her I got chill bumps! Her work had moved from inhibited to masterful!

She'd quantum leaped - and not just once, but time after time she repeated creating the beauty she was allowing. She'd not only opened her eyes, she'd open her heart.

Sweet!

Art Info: Light Influences Color

Local Color Changes with the Light

The main light source is a major influence on the local color of your subject. Is the sun the main light source? What time of day is it? What's the weather like?

Is the main light source a lamp? What kind of lighting does it provide? Cool, warm or natural?

An easy observation is the 'color' of a body of water on a sunny day verses on a cloudy day. What differences do you see?

The key to really knowing how different lighting affects color is through constant observation.

Think about this:
The sky is Blue... the trees are Green... the sun is Yellow. What color is water in a glass? Yeah? Then why is the ocean blue? ...or is it?

Can You Improve Your Art By Squinting?

Squint to Simplify

Squinting allows you to view your subject with less detail thus increases your sensitivity to value changes and color variations. It simplifies shapes, values and color by reducing distraction details.

By including a few squints, you can concentrate on large, basic, overall shapes. Squinting reduces colors to values and simplifies them into highlights and shadow masses because it eliminates much of the middle values.

This simplification of your shapes and values will help to unify your art and will compel you to focus on your composition rather than on the details.

TIP:   If you wear glasses, take them off to blur your focus.

Improve Your Art By Avoiding Screaming Colors

"When Everyone is Shouting, No ONE is Heard"

I learned this from one of my college art instructors and I pass it forward to all of my students. Truer words were never spoken!

If all of your colors are intense and bright (screaming), then no one AREA stands out. You have no focal point and your viewer doesn't know where to look. If all you have is chaos, your viewers eye will run away screaming.

Offer Resting Areas
Kind of like a roller coaster, if you don't have some slower, resting areas, there is no thrill for the BEST part. Bright color stands out best against grayed colors. Grayed colors are your resting areas.

So save the intensity for your focal point.

'Nuff said.