Be YourSelf and Grow Podcast episode 11. I’m your host Ken Law. I’m an artist who discovered some truths about myself, my art and the world around me. It’s all about learning how to be yourself and learning to grow. I’m sharing my experiences with you once a week on this podcast; so, please tune in. You never know what you may discover that will bring value to your life.
For the next couple of months, YOU are going to interview me. I have collected, over the years, questions asked to other artists and questions asked of me. Now, I will answer a single question each week from that list of questions. Remember, you can still ask a question at anytime by leaving a comment below.
So, lets’ get started! (intro …clapping)
Can you walk us through your process? Do you begin with a sketch, or do you just jump in? How long do you spend on one work? How do you know when it is finished?
I don’t start with a sketch or any idea for that matter. I think it gets in the way of my creativity. So, I start with color. My palette consists of my favorite colors like blues, greens, yellows, reds, oranges, black and white. I seldom use burnt umber or sienna. That might change in the future.
I don’t organize my colors either, but I do like to have white in the middle of everything.
I don’t complicate my approach to the canvas with though processes like, “what am I going to paint today?”. Instead, I like to keep it simple. When I start, I have only one purpose and that is to put paint on the canvas. It’s a brainless act of covering the canvas with color, and that becomes my underpainting.
If I am not stimulated by the underpainting, I continue to add color to it. I paint what I see in the underpainting. Sorta like seeing images in the clouds. I let my mind do the work. There can be several layers of paint built up before I find a direction to go.
Sometimes, I will scrape and sand the underpainting to bring colors underneath back to the surface. When I do that, I am trying to get my imagination to kick in, but it doesn’t always work. If nothing happens within an hour or two, I will lay it aside and start a new one.
The underpainting is very important. This is where I discover my paintings, or what I’m going to paint next. Because I was a professional portrait photographer, I usually see faces in the color. Sometimes I see fish and birds, too. Both of these symbols come from my childhood of going fishing and remembering bird singing for afternoon naps.
Of course, I paint in other symbols like circles, triangles and sometimes numbers. Recently, I’ve been integrating “mark making” into my paintings, too. Mark making has been a secret of mine for awhile. You’ll see that I use it often when I am painting ACEOs. I call it doodling and thought it was amateurish, but when I discovered other artists doing it too, I started doing it on my larger pieces of work.
How long does it take me to do a painting? There’s really not a good answer for that question. I’ve had large paintings finished within 6 hours or less, and had miniature paintings take forever. For that reason, I sell my paintings based on style and linear inch.
And how do I know when it is finished? I know a piece is finished when I start making minuscule adjustments to a painting. That’s my cue to sign it and start a new one.
Next time, I’ll draw another question from the hat about my art.
I’m Ken Law Artist and remember, be yourself and grow. Don’t forget to leave your comments and thoughts below. Make it a great day because it is your choice! Adios Amigos!
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