Cindy Wider   Comment Posted Feb.4th, 2010, viewed 9 times

Hi Barb, I feel a need to comment generally before I analyse your image. It is important to understand the creative process - it is a process of discovery and problem solving. We do not 'know' the answers straight away. We discover and solve problems, we investigate, query and make decisions continually for the one piece of work. No matter how long we have been doing this for, we still have to go through all the decision making processes and that is the exciting challenge in creating the artwork.

There is a lot to consider but the key is to take it one step at a time. seperate the major problems into categories. for example, we can deal with design first of all (outline drawing and basic positioning of elements, the line and direction etc.) then we can deal with tone next, then finally colour...or tone and colour together.

All of this experimenting can happen on the final image (for many artists) or it can happen in as many small test thumbnails as you like. Even when you settle on what you think looks good in a testing thumbnail, the chances are you will want to make changes when you work on the final piece. For the hard edge style where we aim for no brush strokes for example it is important you do a little test thumbnail in this case. However in the realism type style that is mentioned in your notes for 6/7 there was no need to do a thumbnail colour plan as it was simple and also I could easily paint over the colours without affecting the texture of the paint too much - because of the more textural style.

So the process is a journey in itself, believe me it gets easier though, with practice it does become more intuitive however the whole excitement and challenge with creating and artwork is the desision making process. I am sure that you are understanding now on a far deeper level the value of someone's work. It is so easy to copy something after we have seen it but to come up with the idea in the first place - the original creation takes enormous skill and study.

I read in the book titled 'the talent code' by Daniel Coyle that it takes about 10,000 hours to become excellent at most creative pursuits or palying sports, musical instruments etc. This means ten years for some people - depending on how many hours you work at it and the level of instruction you are receiving. I have been working at my art for 20 years for many many hours a week.

So I guess it would be alot of you to expect to be able to make quick easy decisions like I am able to - based on the fact that this is just your first original attempt:)

We are all in awe of the incredible array of knowledge that is needed to be as good as the great masters of art. I myself continue to strive (as a lifelong pursuit) to be as good as the great masters and have enormous admiration for their skills. I continue to improve my skills and never see myself as having arrived, and the great masters were the same too -always striving to be better. So it is all a part of the journey - to make decisions, to trust our instincts and to go with it when it feels right.

The theory you are learning is a foundation and if you work through it logically as you are it will then become subconsious and once subconscious it will form the foundation of your intuition.

The answers to all three of your questions is yes. As for adding colours extra to the colour scheme, it will change the colour scheme at the best but at its worst it just wont look right and you will know. I can say this though...if it works you go with it and just change the colour scheme.

The important thing with colour schemes is to ask yourself; does this work? If not, go back to the rules and find out why. You are doing great, I will comment on this image shortly. Cheers!