Creativity is about taking chances - sharing an unfinished work

Beginning stage - Grandeur 1 - hopefully new digital painting - Dan Beck

Creativity is about taking chances. It is about being willing to try things new ways and sometimes fail… but also sometimes succeed.

Above is the start of a piece I haven’t finished. Truth is I would rather be working on it right now than blogging - but if that were completely true I suppose I would be.

Actually, I thought I should write about the start of the piece without having completed the digital painting. This is not a step by step painting but rather a glimpse of how I work.

I used the line tool and curve tool of the computer to create the lines of the land - fields and grape rows.

I do a great deal freehand - but my control is not that sure - and the tools of the computer are perhaps akin to a straightedge.

My focus in this piece is about the looming nature of the mountains and the distance which is much further than it seems.

We will both have to see how it unfolds.

See Also

• Stages of Painting Series
  Last 4 articles in November
• California Landscapes; article by Sue Ann Robinson
  1 Image definately from Arroyo Secco - inspiration for above piece
• Arroyo Seco Vineyard is located in Santa Cruz Mountains provides wine grapes for Salamandre Wine Cellars
  Don’t know their wines, but there are photos and info about area which is inspiration for piece