What's New

capturing the blues and browns - the hurdles of painting after a break

Winter Colors - digital painting / art prints - Dan Beck 2006

This is my first painting in quite some time - a few weeks anyway. It is fascinating how the urge to create works.

On the one hand, one feels a kind of craving than is difficult to describe - but then for lack of practice - it feels enormous just to get started.

Deciding what to paint or what size - all these things seem big. Being creative like most things is about striking a balance - being relaxed enough to not care about mistakes - but still be able to create with the importance a piece deserves.

To create this digital painting, I drew from things I have been seeing over the last few weeks.  Today, it is not the piece I thought it was yesterday - but it has captured the blues and browns of winter in the Salinas Valley.

See Also

• Mistakes Art Quotations - The Painter’s Keys Resource of Art Quotations
  Many quotes about mistakes - but much agreement
• Winter Colors
  Art print options for above digital painting

negative space, balance, and madras color

My Series 4 - digital painting / art prints - Dan Beck 2005

This isn’t one of my favorites in this series - but more because it is a little obvious for me. The series is about the line between representation and abstraction - but this piece is clearly mountainous and therefore wasn’t quite as successful.

On the other hand, it is pleasing to look at and reads well. The negative space is particularly strong and despite the strong mountain image - it is light - built almost like a sculpture whose base seems too light for the weight of the piece.

What are holding these mountains up? And why are they wearing a madras shirt?

See Also

• d’gallery
  when searching for sculptures and balance - this artist - Michelle Farrell - came up - three nice pieces - good space- good form - worth checking out
• SpaceMain
  simple discussion of space, negative space and form - sometimes simple says more
• My Series 4
  view art print options for the above piece

uniqueness and acceptance

Four digital paintings for art prints - Dan Beck 1999 - 2005

Since I can, I thought I would write about a subject which has been on my mind. It has to do with following one’s creative path and the balance with being received.

When is unique too unique? Is there such a thing?

The truth is most people like what they are familiar with - people seek out bands which play all songs they know.

Art in a geographic area typically looks a lot like other art in the area - is it because that is what sells? Or is it communal influence. And after all, we expect beach paintings at the beach…

None of us lives in a vacuum - creativity is always influenced - but sometimes I wonder whether we have evolved enough to not starve Van Gogh.

See Also

• National Gallery of Art - Van Gogh’s Van Goghs: Exhibition Brochure
  Sounds definative - not the starving artist - so much for that example
• Van Gogh Art Prints
  another source saying the same - not accepted widely but not starving
• Salinas Valley 1
  gallery page of second piece above - click to enlarge - art print availability top right “buy” logo

fun, play, balance, texture, overlap, sculptural digital painting and art prints

Nework 2 - digital painting / art prints - Dan Beck 2003

This was the second piece I created after acquiring a new computer and painting program with texture capability. I am pretty sure I have written about this piece from a creative standpoint - because I had no expectations while doing it - just play.

So what comes through is fun, overlapping, rather 3-dimensional, and balanced with different texture. There are no unique textures here - just stock program options - but a very nice balance between areas which have and areas which don’t.

There is no way to share an art print without your viewing and or purchasing it - but be sure, texture and color are both more intense upon printing.  And even though this was new a few years ago, looking at it today, I still find this digital painting fresh.

See Also

• Nework 2
  Options for Art Prints and printing availability for Nework 2
• My Zen Life » Blog Archive » no expectations
  what I find pertinent is that he is right - if there are no expectations at all - why do it - I think it is more what kind of expectations

carving out time, taking on challenges, and balancing with known success

Sunset Seen - digital painting /art prints - Dan Beck 2005

I was thinking about one of the aspects of being creative which doesn’t get talked about much - discipline. I have talked about needing structure to be free in - but discipline is something different. Many even feel that discipline and being creative are rather opposite.

As for me, I think that one needs to be disciplined first off in just doing one’s art. I am not the first to say that if you want to write - you need to sit down and write. Writing music, creating art, etc. are the same way. One just can’t be creative unless one blocks off the time to do so.

Perhaps this is a bit obvious, but discipline can be found in other ways too - because every creative experience can take the easy way or one which is challenging with potential pitfalls and unknown solutions.

Part of being disciplined is taking enough challenges to keep the skills and work growing but knowing how to balance that with known paths of success.

See Also

• Sunset Seen
  Availability of Art Prints for Sunset Seen
• Balancing creativity discipline in life
  Interesting article about balance and Chinese and American cultures
• Creativity, Discipline or Willingness - by Barbara Bowen
  I think this is an article for creative people who hate the term discipline

Transparency, Animation, Fun, Overdoing It

                      See                               Animated                 Examples

The final thing about the logo development process and how it relates to the creative process is about using tools. 

The fact is - learning how to do something - particularly when one gets to the point of feeling some success - is a great deal of fun. That stage of developing a technique or way of doing something which works is incredible.

There is a balance always in creating between doing what is fun and doing what is best for the piece.

The animation I created on the original logo came out exactly as I conceived … but it didn’t add a thing to my site - I put it on the above linking page - just because it is a record - like the thrown out Free download logo which also resides on that page. 

I am not a graphic arts expert. Creating images without any background (transparencies) was incredibly cool to me - so much that I was overdoing it - which is the same for animation - which I have done a whopping four times.

It is a lot of fun to create these things - irresistible even. This is what one should have while doing art work - creating music - approaching any sort of job one loves.  But one still needs to temper that fun with taste and perhaps discretion.  

On the other hand, even if you don’t resist the fun of a new technique or process; eventually one recognizes its overuse anyway.

See Also

• Overdoing It - by Anton Chekhov
  A very short story - and wonderful take on going too far
• Web Design Tips - Overdoing It
  Can’t vouch for site - but good example of what I mean in a similar form

Technique, Composition, Form, & Feeling

Boat-on-an-Ocean - 2000

SeaFogged - 2005

There are lots of ways one can develop as an artist. One of the most obvious is technique. It is incredibly apparent in the two pieces above that the technique in the second piece is much more developed. If you look at the enlarged versions(click title links above), it is even more obvious.

The first piece, though quite dynamic is not particularly subtle. The lines are big as well as the bold overlapping colors. I still think it is a wonderful piece in the way it makes you feel like the ocean is rocking, but there is no attempt at any sort of illusion to reality, nor did I understand the medium well enough at the time to be able to produce something like the second piece.

Now the second piece, Seafogged, is not as interesting a composition or as vivid, though it is much more sophisticated in its technique. I chose this as a comparison piece because it is also a painting of the sea and the difference is so startling.

This piece does capture the feeling of the ocean on that day and that sunset time. I was really happy with it on completion because I did exactly what I set out to do. I painted what I had seen at a particular time for a small amount of time - held it in my mind and rendered the feeling I had into the piece.  It doesn’t always work like that.

So besides technique, I have touched on composition and color in my own artistic critique.  There is also balance, the way one’s eye moves through a piece, how much of the piece one is captivated by, and of course the subjective most important aspect of artistic development, how the newer work makes you feel.

See Also

• Winslow Homer in the National Gallery of Art
  Images from one of the best painters of the sea
• Art Critiquing Process
  Detailed information on traditional art critiquing
• Art Critique Gallery and Forums
  Place to have work discussed and critiqued - though actual critiques are far and few between
• Eye-Opener Memo: Art Critique
  A good quote about how people find it difficult to really critique
• Winslow Homer in the National Gallery of Art
  Current Exhibit & examples of one of the best painters of the sea