Transcripts
1. Introduction: [MUSIC] I'm feeling
minimalist today. That is going to be the theme of today's intuitive painting. I'm Denise love and I'm an
artist and photographer. Today, I've picked out two supplies and some
paper and I've said, "What can we create?'' We're going to be creating some type of minimalist abstract with one liquid material,
like a watercolor. I'm using a liquid
charcoal, super cool. I like using things that you might not normally think
come in a liquid form. Like who knew charcoal
came as liquid charcoal? It's basically
charcoal watercolor. [LAUGHTER] Thought
that was super cool. Then I like picking a
mark-making something. I've picked out just a
regular dip pen to use with my India ink as my minimalist
mark-making element. Then I've said, "Let's just
see what we can create." I want to create
things that are a little less busy and hectic, which tends to be some of
the abstracts that I create, I just try to pack
it all in there, and I tend to work small. On these intuitive paintings, I'm going a little
bigger, to begin with, I'm starting off with half sheets that we have
taped together to make a great big painting
and then peeling those apart to reveal the
smaller paintings. Man, let me tell
you that's almost as fun as cutting everything up. [LAUGHTER] We can cut a piece up if we don't love
how it turned out because, on these intuitive things, I always love one or two, like, wow, these are amazing. Then there's always one
or two that I'm like, can we make it better
and we cut it up? This is how I like to create. It's where I find the
most joy coming to my art table and
trying to figure out what do these supplies do. What color palettes
can I play in? What can I create if I
did this or I did that? And these are how
we get down and drill down to the things
that we really love. It's how we develop
into our style. Your style is just a
series of decisions that you've made through your art
career of things you like, things you don't
like, continuing with the things you did like, and stopping doing the
things you didn't like. Eventually, you get to the
point where you're like, this is all the stuff I love, here is amazing
art I'm creating. Have fun with me today. Come to your art table with the mindset of play and
experiment and saying, what can I create if
I use this and this? Set yourself some parameters, give yourself some limitations. I feel like you're so
much more creative if you say I can only work with these two supplies,
what can I make? Rather than if you're like, I have 15,000 supplies, now I feel stuck. I want you to get into the habit of pulling out
a few things and saying, here's what we're
creating with and see how much more creative and productive you end up being with the parameters
that you've put on yourself. I hope you have fun
in class today. I'm so glad you're
here and I can't wait to see what
you're creating. Come back and share
your projects with me. I'll see you in class. [MUSIC]
2. Class Project: [MUSIC] Your class
project is to come back and share some of the yummy intuitive abstracts you were creating
in class today. I was playing in liquid
charcoal and India ink, and I was creating some beautiful
minimalist abstracts in the supplies that I
used and the amount of mark-making and color
that I applied to the paper. I think it's really
fun to try out different styles and
different techniques and use different painting supplies like different brushes
or mark-making tools, or maybe a supply that
you don't normally paint with and to sit and
explore and figure out, what can these do and
how can I push them? Today, I chose those two painting
materials to paint with. You're welcome to choose any
watercolor or acrylic ink or any type of painting
supplies that you feel inspired by today and just
see what you can create. The goal is minimalist. Pick a color, pick a
mark-making something, and show me what you can create
with just the two items. I can't wait to
see your projects, come back and share
those with me. Let's get started. [MUSIC]
3. Supplies: [MUSIC] Let's take a look at the supplies that I'm using in today's intuitive
painting session. I'm just using my Canson
XL watercolor paper, which is 140 pound
cold press paper. This is about a nine
by 12 inch pad, and I'm taking these
sheets and I'm just cutting them in
half so that I get four-halves sheets
to play on and taping those down to my board
with some painters tape. I like the painter's
tape because it tends to release
pretty easily from this paper without tearing the paper
off. I love that. Then, I want to work in a
very minimalist style today. I want to create pieces that are dynamic and have
a lot of movement, but don't necessarily have any color or extra distractions. I'm working with just a
charcoal and an India ink. This is a Schmincke
liquid charcoal in a cherry pit black, and I absolutely love it. It's been such a great color. It's not like a pure black, it's a really pretty
charcoal with a tiny tinge of
reddish, like cherish. It's not really prevalent, but it's just leaning in that direction and I
absolutely love it. This one's super fun,
and then I'm just using Black Magic India
ink as my ink today. You can certainly substitute
any watercolor and maybe an acrylic ink or a
different ink for your play, doesn't matter, you
don't have to use those. I'm just loving
pulling out a supply, limiting my options
and then saying, let's create something fun, because it really
gets you thinking out of the box and more
creatively when you're like, here's what I'm working with, rather than what should
I work with today, I got too many options. [LAUGHTER] This limiting down our options really makes
me way more creative, and I get up here and I
start painting and I'm like, what if we do this or
what if we do that or what it was a
little bit of water do or what would this do? Then I just start discovering
and playing and having fun and I end up with
pieces that I love. Look at that. I love those. [LAUGHTER] I'm also just
using a cheap dip pen. I like this because I want
an ultra fine line on the pieces I'm creating today for my marks and
some movement, and so, I like the really sharp tip of these cheap nibs and then just a brush or
two for some water, so I can move these
things around. That is basically it. I've also discovered a
new love of my fan brush. So playing with your
different brushes and how you drag things through, because look at this
fun texture shape in line that the
fan brush creates. I don't know that
I've ever really played with the fan brush, but while doing these
intuitive painting sessions, it's a new discovery that
I'm like, favorite new tool. [LAUGHTER] I like it to be
this little stiffy one one got the bristles that
are a little stiffer. I've got ones that are much softer for some watercolor work, but I like this
stiffer one better. Just something to look
for when you're out there looking for fun
tools to work with. That's all I'm working
with in class. I'm trying to keep
these very minimal. I don't want a lot of color. I want some fine lines. I want some good light,
dark marks, movement. I want some fun things going on, but I want to do it with
just a couple of supplies. Pull your stuff
together and let's see what we can
create today. [MUSIC]
4. Painting Big: [MUSIC] In this
project, let's create our minimalist piece with some liquid charcoal and
some black magic India ink. I just want to keep
this very minimalist, so I'm just going to put some of my charcoal on my palette, like it's watercolor, because
it basically is watercolor. I'll set that to the side. This is the schinky
cherry pit, black. I've just got black India
ink and I'm going to be putting on with my dip pen. We're just going to see, what can we create as
a minimalist piece. Again, I'm treating this entire large piece as one big canvas and then we'll untape and reveal what we got. I love creating in this way
because it's just about painting what feels good and experimenting with
your supplies, and I love doing this little intuitive
series just to play. So I thought maybe
I could start off just maybe running
some water along our pieces and seeing
what can we get this charcoal to do
in this wet area. We'll just take my number zero, Raphael Soft Aqua, and I'm just going to activate this charcoal and
then just start. Probably should've had that
ready sooner. That's okay. Look at that, and I'm just going to start
running this on here and just seeing what are we going to get? Just add some more water here. I'm going to go ahead
and just start playing with it on here
and then I can put some more water and test it. So I was wanting to be able to dip the charcoal in there, but it looks like I
got to work a little faster with [LAUGHTER] my brush. It works different here on these wet areas than it does
in the spots where it's dry. I find that fascinating. See, here's dry on
dry and it creates some areas where the paint
skips the paper almost, which is a really
cool contrast to the areas where it really
soaked into the paper good, where I had the water
just taking it in, experimenting, seeing
what we can get here. I'm still treating this
like it's one big canvas, so don't be afraid to just tape, go right over that tape part and pretend like it's still
part of the same painting. I like the light areas and the dark areas that
feels really good. Then I don't know
if I'm done yet, but let's go ahead and take our black ink and just start doing some marks, some drawings. What I really like about this, doing this black ink
with the dip pen, it's got a very sharp point, so it's a very fine line, which is what I
was feeling today. So let's just see what
might that do for us. Another thing that
we can do as we're doing these with
the fine marks and lines and dots and dashes or whatever it is
that you particularly love, we could always do
writing if you've got some really interesting writing or just even some
scribble writing, we could come across here, like watch this, oh,
this feels good. Just pretend maybe this is a poem or maybe we're actually
writing something here, but it's not meant to
really be legible, or maybe you're writing something that is
meant to be legible. Or you just decide what feels good to you
as you're creating. [NOISE] Whoo, say I
really love that. That changed that
piece up a little bit. I can come back in
here with fine lines, this feels so good today. I love that. Let's see
what else we got here. What else do we have in
this? Let's just keep going. [NOISE] That was in there. It's just interesting to see, in the moment going
with the flow, what are you going
to draw and create? What's going to just make
that moment for you. You might be thinking
you're a nut, whatever. But I am feeling it. The more of these I do, the better I feel about it. Then I just start thinking, this is working really good. Let's keep on with this
technique for a while. Playing with our supplies, picking something
different each time, just exploring and
coming and saying, what am I going to create today? Then sitting at your
table and just having a good time creating
without expectation. This is definitely
helping me narrow down, how to use supplies
and what they do when I add water or
don't add water, what it is, whatever it is
that I'm experimenting with, I get a good feel
because you're playing, you're sitting and you're
playing and you're discovering and
you're like, whoo, I love this or no, I don't love that because I wish
I hadn't done that. [LAUGHTER] Well, now we know. So just go through. I'm working minimally here, I'm feeling in my mind I
really did minimal well here. I love the writing on this one. I love the circles on that one, but in the end, did I do enough? Did I do too much? Do I
need to rethink what I did? This one's got water
still on it so I can make that ink moron and
moe and smear. What's neat about India
ink is while it's wet, you can keep on, you can smear it around and
stuff, but once it's dry, it doesn't reactivate
with water, so I find that very interesting. This one's pretty cool. Do we want to add
anything else to it? Do I want to put any more
charcoal out? Let's see. Let's just put some
more charcoal out and maybe we can come in with
something different. I'm really obsessed
lately with my fan brush. I should have done something
with the fan brush. Let's get the fan
brush. Let's just see. Look at that. Now we've
got some extra mark. I might have wished
I didn't do that on this one, but that's okay. Look at that real
light, interesting. Definitely get
yourself a fan brush. These are fun. Please add another layer
of interest just in the mark making,
and we can make it. For instance, real
light here and just, just be fun with it. See, love those. Super fun. Let's get the
charcoal off the fan brush. Let's think about
this. Do we love them? Do we hate them? Don't forget everything that you create, you can cut up when we're done. I'm feeling like I need
to look at these untaped because I'm at a stopping
point. I could come back. Well, before I do that, I could come back
and practice and play with a dark
mark make somewhere. I could come back with something like that,
that's pretty fun. Look at that, now I
got to let that dry. [LAUGHTER] I'll see, I'm filling the dots. I like the dots, I like
a dark dot at the end. I like dots, give me that girl. [LAUGHTER] That one's fine. Let's do some dots here on
this last piece somewhere. Oh yeah, I'm feeling
those, I like the dots. Now we're going to let that dry. So we're going to let that dry, and then we'll peel the tapes. So I'll be right back. [MUSIC]
5. Revealing & Cutting: [MUSIC] These pieces have dried, so let's peel the tape and
look at it because you get to a point where you're thinking doesn't need anything else, but maybe we need
to look at it from a different perspective and I feel like that's what I need. I'm going to peel the tape an angle with a
steady pressure and I find that this
is the best way to pull that tape without
it tearing my paper. If you have trouble with the
tape, tearing your paper, take your heat gun and just heat that type
up a little bit and then usually that tape will release from your paper
when you do that. But I usually have
really good luck with this painter's tape peeling it without ripping up my
paper as long as I'm pulling it pretty
steadily at an angle, not too fast and then
let's pull this guy here. Pretty excited to
see what these look like untapped where
I can actually look at them in the other
direction because I feel the other
direction let's see. My favorite part, look at
that [NOISE] see which way. Now, it's pretty cool, so
let's take a look at that. When I'm looking
for compositions that I like or don't like, I'm looking for movement, looking for light and dark, looking for where
things are happening on the page let's see. I painted it that way and see now this might be a collection that I'm going to
cut some pieces out of or maybe I
love it like it is. Who knows? I'm feeling like this one wants
to live this way, I was almost thinking in my mind that this would be the way this
goes because I'm reading the writing this way. But I don't know
what do you think? Do we like it better that way? Because I'm feeling it that way a little bit almost backwards
and then these two, I don't know that I
love the composition. Let me just grab
one of my pieces of mat board and see, if we cut some of this out, could we get a better
composition than we have? Because I'm feeling this right here is pretty cool and I like
the way it moves through. Or I could just cut off
one of these pieces maybe or I can make it tall and skinny look at that one now I'm
feeling that one. You might be thinking, no, it's like you're screaming, look at that one though, feel too skinny pieces
coming out of here now. You might be screaming at
the person that's going into the abandoned house and
you know the person's in there ready to get
them and you're going no. Do you feel like
that when you're looking at somebody's
piece of art and you're seeing what they're deciding to cut up and
you're thinking no, not that one [LAUGHTER]. Let's just look at this really
feeling that right there, tighter crop and then I was really feeling that one right there with
the tighter crop. What do we think of those
two as some tall, skinny, yumminess and then that could just be a piece
of collage paper. [LAUGHTER] I think what
I'm going to do is trim these edges off so that this one does not
have the white edge around. I'm just going to get it
tighter in where that paint goes to the edge and maybe even goes off the edge slightly. I like things that
keep going it in your mind's eye you think, there's more to this picture
than just what I can see. Then let's see where did we like that the best I'm feeling it. [NOISE] Actually
even just tighter in as far as this even looked good. But I'm really feeling
that part right there. Let's trim it right there. Hang on let me move
this over here. We can always cut more off, but look at, see now like a little
bit coming in, there's more stuff here it
looks like it keeps going, that one's a good
one [LAUGHTER]. See you can always salvage
things by cutting the art into something that
you like a lot better and which cutting arts, one of my favorite things, and I want to make sure
these are the same size because I love them enough
to want to frame them, for instance I want them to be the same size for the most part, so I'll put that one there. See, I like how all these just
slightly go off the edge. Let's see, was it this,
yes, see right there. Let's make it the same size as this one and then we'll
just get what we get, see serendipity
happening right here. [LAUGHTER] Let's do this. Look at that or two tall pieces that are super cool
now I love that. Definitely and I can
cut these other ones into tall pieces too as
longer I look at these, the more excited I get
about the movement and the light and the dark and
just what we have going on. I might look at these
and think, yeah, these would be prettier,
tall and skinny too, but I like them as
a big piece better. Villain to yummy abstracts
right there and then the tall, skinny ones, maybe even more of a favorite,
so super cool. Hope you enjoy experimenting
with a charcoal or with India ink or you
could do this with some type of black ink like
acrylic ink and watercolor, very easily just pick your
favorite color of watercolor. The thing I like about the
charcoal is you're getting a really chalky texture
to this watercolor that you're not really feeling with a regular watercolors
I can tell that that's a really gritty charcoal in there and I think that's pretty cool and I
like the color. I like that very
minimalist gray and white that we have
going on, I love that. I hope you have fun
testing this out, any ink pick a cheap
little dip pen with a very sharp edge, which I've managed
to hide from myself. Here we go just a
very sharp edge, so you get a really fine
line and then decide, do you want to run
that ink through wet or do you want
it all to be on dry? If you run it through
anything that's wet, it smears and spreads out
and anything that's dry, you get a really tight lines. Just keep some of these
things in mind and experiment I like the sharp tip on the cheap little nib here. It gives me a super
fun, fine line. I want you play with
that any ink like India ink, acrylic ink, any of those would be
fine and some type of charcoal would be fun or watercolor and that
would be great. I can't wait to see
what minimalist pieces you create because these are super cool [LAUGHTER] I'll see
you back in class. [MUSIC]
6. Final Thoughts: [MUSIC] How much
fun was it limiting yourself to just one color, one mark making something and some paper and saying,
what can I get? How can I push these
in new directions? Let's experiment with
how this item works. I chose to work with liquid charcoal and India
ink today because I'm like, these are things that
I don't actually pull out very often to use. The charcoal is new to me, so I'm like let's figure
out what it does. The India ink is something
that lives in my drawer and I'm usually pulling
out acrylic inks to use. I liked pulling out something different and I loved using
it with a regular pen with a sharp nib
because then I got really fine lines and some
interest in that mark-making. I had a lot of fun giving myself some parameters and
saying, what can I make? Starting the painting
session out, not with the expectation of
here's what I have to create. It's more like let
me experiment with my tools and just see
what can these do. Then you end up at the
end of it thinking, this is a super
cool, I love this. I don't like that. Now
I know and look at these cool abstracts I have at the end because I
can guarantee you, even if you don't like the actual painted piece
that you pull out, you can always cut it up into
something that's amazing. I have all things that I
use the cut-up art for. Sometimes I make junk
art collages with them. Sometimes I just like
the cut-up piece better and now it's finished
with a better composition. With my composition, I'm looking for some good movement
through the piece. I'm looking for the light
and the dark contrast. I'm looking for
elements that move me around the piece
in a way that I like. If you're not familiar with
the elements of composition, you might start looking those up and seeing, what is movement? What is rule of thirds? What is interest
in my composition? Maybe a little bit of a
scattered pattern here, maybe a little bit of
some movement there, maybe a line that
draws me through. Maybe things are not set in the center and they're
set to the side. All these things add some
more interesting looks. Sometimes it's just intuitive. Let me just take
a piece of paper and block off part
of this and say, this does look better
just because I've now separated it from the
part that might have been detracting to me in my eye. I hope you have fun
today in class. Don't be afraid to cut pieces
up to get something better. I can't wait to see
what you create, come back and share
your projects with me. My goal today was
minimalist, pick a color, pick a mark-making something and just see what can I make. I can't wait to
see your projects, so come back and share those. I'll see you next time.
DENISE LOVE, Artist & Creative Educator
