Digging into the Past

Since joining the challenge group (DSFDF) I have been forced to rediscover, quite willingly skills I had let fall by the wayside. I was never fond of doing landscapes, not because as others might say, it was out of my comfort level. But because I have honestly , always found them boring.

I tend to draw in a very illustrative style because I like telling stories of capturing little moments with my art. I also just enjoy presenting static images in interesting ways, either through aesthetic design, use of color or extreme lighting, or simply because of it's content alone.

The style I use relies heavily on tight delineated lines and shading, or modeling. Heavy light accents mixed with heavy contrasting shadows. Which is why I love illustration, you can take the rules of nature and chuck them right out the window. Also explains why I love doing digital work now in Photoshop and Illustrator. Explorations of the imagination.

And regrettably, I have lost the other side of art which is the personal expression and interpretation of the soul through art. Abstract art is probably the best vehicle for this exploration into the nuts and bolts of feelings. Shapes, colors, and shadows, randomly joined to invoke an emotional response.

This picture "Faded Fields" is a drawing I did some twenty years ago, because I loved the photo, I based it from. It was an early morning shot of a field. The lighting and the color is what attracted me to this image, of what is ordinarily in my mind a boring landscape. But there is a abstract beauty to what I call the perfect moment. Where you can't describe why something is beautiful, it just is.

I haven't done many landscapes, this is probably a one of a kind I just happen to find buried in an old portfolio. And I still like the image even today, and I am starting to feel a yearning again to rediscover the feelings behind the art.