It's ~abstract~

[quayle]

Strangely, I've been thinking about painting a lot lately; more specifically, toying with the idea of taking a painting from life class at the Prince's Drawing School.  It would depend on a lot of things, but I think it would be a really amazing help.  I am totally weak for traditional type art technique instruction and I hardly get any!  
Here's something from last summer, basically the first and only time I have worked in abstract (the original is about A1 size).  It was actually a whole lot more challenging and interesting than I imagined it would be because it shifts the focus completely to stuff like composition, color, mark making, etc.  I had another one that I'm not too crazy about, but I think this one is kind of interesting.  It reminds me somewhat of a burning building. 

 

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

Oooh, love the colors! I can totally see the burning building thing, too

[quayle]

Thank you ever so much! I had fun making it XD

[darkemeralds]

This piece speaks to me wonderfully. I love abstract art, in general, because it seems to allow me to enter into it without constraints. I'm very drawn to the near-complementary colors, the batik-like lines amid the nebulous areas, and the upward movement from dark to light. There are lots of lovely, tension-inducing, dynamic oppositions.

I find it extremely pleasing.

[quayle]

Thank you! That's really fantastic to hear. Abstract art is really contrary to my nature generally speaking; I tend to over-think things quite a bit in terms of content (being in illustration kind of exacerbates this). At any rate, it was really useful to get away from that kind of way of thinking for a while be able to just concentrate on the visuals!
One more thing, I have to tell you that I finished "Restraint" a few weeks ago and it has very much stayed on my mind all this time. It's one of the best, most engaging things I've read in a while ;D

[darkemeralds]

I'm not a visual artist at all, but I would imagine that for an illustrator, working in the abstract would stretch the color-and-pattern muscles a bit.

I'm so glad you enjoyed Restraint. I've just found the opening sentence of my next story, so I hope to be having at least something to say about writing again pretty soon.

And finally, your icon! There's a connection here. My mother is an illustrator, too, and when my two sisters and I were little (long ago), she made a watercolor painting from Disney's Sleeping Beauty, showing Flora, Fauna and Merryweather, the three good fairies, walking in a line something like this.

In their tall, medium, and little configuration we saw a resemblance to ourselves, so of course my older sister was Flora, and I was Fauna. But we called our younger sister "Backer" because she was in the back.

To this day (and we are all quite up in years), we call each other Flora, Fauna, and Backer whenever the occasion arises, to our endless amusement.

Thanks for the smile.

[quayle]

Very much looking forward to whatever you have in store for us next ;D
D'awwww! Disney princess movies aren't really things you can ever grow out of in my opinion.