#artistic Archives - Page 2 of 2

Is Our Art Production Autobiographical?

You’re welcome to another Art Blog. My name is Veronica Huacuja, a plastic artist and an online art teacher for groups and individuals. I have some good tips for your art process. Hope you find them helpful.

LET’S TALK ABOUT… Our art interests and understanding that almost everything we create has to do with our own life, our environment.

A PREVIOUS COMMENT. One of my passions, besides producing art, is reading literature (novel, poetry, essays, etc.). I do this activity because it provides me with new experiences, ideas and topics to produce my artwork, besides enriching my life.

So, whenever we choose an art topic to develop, we must agree that almost everything we create has to do with our biography. That is, the choices we make to produce any artwork is determined by our life history (beliefs, experiences, memories, education, culture, etc.).

To exemplify the above, I add the following work. This is its data sheet:

Title: Study of a Portrait 28
Artist: Veronica Huacuja
Medium: Ink on paper
Size: 32 x 24 x 0.1 cm
Year: 2005
Collection: Portraits

MY EXPERIENCE MAKING UP THIS ARTWORK. Taking the previous reflection into consideration, I made research on the photographer, Edward Weston (1886-1958, U.S.), and I found one of his beautiful artworks which displays a woman reciting a poem. The name of the woman is Tina Modotti (1896-1942, Italy)–a photographer, too–, who was photographed by Weston, her lover at the time. The title’s photograph is “Tina Reciting”.

Weston took this photo in Mexico in the 1920s, which is a period of great artistic creativity that is known as the Mexican Renaissance.

LET’S DEDUCE A SIGNIFICANT MEANING FROM THE ABOVE. Maybe that’s the mysterious way our brain works when we decide to paint whatever topic we’re interested in. So, the answer to the above question in the title is affirmative: Yes, we produce art that is part of our lives. Do you agree?

Visit any time:

My ART SHOP: https://veronica-huacuja.pixels.com

My BODY OF ART: https://veronica.mx

I offer an ONLINE PAINTING PROGRAM in traditional or digital techniques: https://veronica.mx/online_painting_course

Other POSTS AND VIDEOS: https://patreon.com/veronicahuacuja

Thank you for reading. Hope you enjoyed the work.

Never Erase “Mistakes” In Your Work. Trust In Serendipity

Welcome to another Art Post. My name is Veronica Huacuja. I’m a plastic artist and an online art teacher. I have some good tips for your painting process. Hope you find them useful.

To approach the title of this post, I'm adding the following artwork and the description of the backstages of its creative production.

The data sheet of the artwork is:

Title: Woman’s Body 25
Artist: Veronica Huacuja
Medium: Digital Art
Size: 5,251 x 7,000 px, 300 dpi
Year: 2018
Collection: Human Body

LET’S TALK ABOUT... An excellent technique: never erase the “mistakes” we make in the process of an artwork, because they might add interesting elements to it. As we may know, this fortunate happening is called “serendipity”, good luck or a fortunate accident. (1)

MATERIAL.
· Digital tablet. I use and recommend one with a hand pressure sensitivity stylus.
· Photoshop (almost any late version of this software).

PREVIOUS THOUGHTS. One thing that we have to keep in mind every time we use the digital medium in our work is that we can do similar procedures in traditional techniques (oil and/or acrylic, etc.).

ART PROCEDURES. I chose a mid-tone (2) for the background, a greenish one (not bright, not dark). This decision helped me to build up the work, because the background color, as we may know, has an important role in the final art solution. This is a technique I use and recommend using: set your background color first. It works just fine!

Sketching with freedom allows us to find interesting solutions. This includes the “mistakes” we do in the way.

With a certain concept of a nude female’s body, I began sketching using the black color and its mid-tones. At first, I didn’t know what the results might be. Little by little, after making various “mistakes”, the body took shape. I uploaded some photos of the creative process that you can find at https://www.patreon.com/posts/never-erase-in-29637463

Then, I added a new color: orange. One way to guarantee that I was using the correct color was to pat it on the surface and see how it matched. After being convinced of the right use of this third color, I applied it to strategic regions, letting the greenish background color still be part of the solution (see the belly, shoulders, legs).

Last, I applied the source of light (that reflects on the figure), and for this purpose I used the white color, which I employed in two ways:

-Lightly on the body just to create the volume.

-Heavily on the background to stand out the body from it, and to create a dramatic contrast with the usage of the black color.

MAKING A MEANINGFUL REFLECTION FROM THE ABOVE: Let’s trust in serendipity while making up our work, and let’s keep our eraser in a closed drawer.

Visit any time:

My ART SHOP: https://veronica-huacuja.pixels.com

My BODY OF ART: https://veronica.mx

I offer an ONLINE PAINTING PROGRAM in traditional or digital techniques: https://veronica.mx/online_painting_course

Thank you for reading. Hope you enjoyed the post.

1 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serendipity

2 https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2009/sep/20/guide-to-painting-mid-tones#:~:text=Mid%2Dtoned%20colours%20are%20in,it%20on%20to%20the%20canvas.

How To Improve Your Portrait Painting

Welcome to this Art Post. My name is Veronica Huacuja. I’m a plastic artist and an online art teacher. I've some good tips for you, as a painter. Hope you find them helpful.

LET'S LEARN... How to improve our portrait process and make a powerful character using a masterpiece of the Spanish painter, Diego Velázquez (1599-1660), “Pope Innocent X” (1650). We'll do this exercise with freedom, not trying to copy the work itself (which, BTW, it’d be a great training exercise), but to base our work on it.

SOME PREVIOUS THOUGHTS. Velázquez is one of the great masters of portraiture of all times. What called my attention in this piece, among other important topics, is the amazing reflection of the powerful personality of the historical character (with its keen eyes) that the painter must have captured. As we know, Pope Innocent X is famous for his harsh hand using his political power. Whenever is the case, it’s important to get acquainted with the person’s biography when we make its portrait.

To exemplify this, I add the following work:

Title: Cortical Blindness
Artist: Veronica Huacuja 
Media: Digital Art
Size: 10,630 x 8,269 px, 300 dpi
Year: 2020
Collection: Portraits

MY EXPERIENCE WHILE MAKING THIS ARTWORK. I made a close-up of Velazquez’s portrait and increased to red the color values. As you can see, I chose a dark brown color for the background to work on it. When I say work on it, I mean that the background color has to be an active part of the work, not to paint it all the way through, but to use it in strategic areas. Here, in the shadows.

So, if the character's eyes were the thing that most affected me in this masterpiece, why don't make this character a blind one? And so I did.

One more thing, “Cortical Blindness” won a “Special Recognition” at the 10th Anniversary Art Exhibition 2020 made by Light Space & Time Online Art Gallery (www.lightspacetime.art)!

LET'S MAKE A MEANINGFUL REFLECTION FROM THE ABOVE. Something we can do throughout our artistic life is to study and practice our skills using the body of art of prominent artists of all times.

Visit any time:

My ART SHOP: https://veronica-huacuja.pixels.com

My BODY OF ART: https://veronica.mx

I offer an ONLINE PAINTING PROGRAM in traditional or digital techniques: https://veronica.mx/online_painting_course

Thank you for reading.

Let’s Make Up a Portrait from a Video Still

Welcome to another Art Post. My name is Veronica Huacuja. I’m a plastic artist and an online art teacher. I have some good tips for your painting process. Hope you find them useful.

THIS IS A VERY TRUE PRINCIPLE. As artists, we must use all the resources we have at hand to produce our work. This is one of these cases where we can make a portrait out of video stills (snapshots) captured from an online true documentary. Have you ever made up a portrait of a video still? I had and want to share this art experience.

To exemplify this, I add the following work:

Title: The Interview 5 
Artist: Veronica Huacuja 
Media: Acrylic on paper 
Size: 95 x 68 x 0.1 cm
Year: 2019
Collection: Human Body

PREVIOUS THOUGHTS. Some of my art interests are scenes related to people being interviewed. So, should we take video stills from a true documentary instead of a fictional film to work with? As a creator, I’m interested in portraying the realistic conditions of a human phenomenon or circumstance.

I find the realism of true documentaries astonishing versus a fiction recreation from another creator (filmmaker, etc.). In this way, we artists decipher and transpose a human phenomenon to the field of art. It’s searching, understanding, and recreating or reinterpreting reality. Here, the fearsome illness known as schizophrenia. (1) I made up an 8 min video regarding the process of this artwork. You'll find it at https://www.patreon.com/posts/42155099

LET'S MAKE A MEANINGFUL REFLECTION FROM THE ABOVE. Research pays off when you find a source, such as the cited video. These criteria are from a creator’s point of view, and I add, a profound respect for the persons implicated in the referred situation.

Visit any time:

My ART SHOP: https://veronica-huacuja.pixels.com

My BODY OF ART: https://veronica.mx

I offer an ONLINE PAINTING PROGRAM in traditional or digital techniques: https://veronica.mx/online_painting_course

Other POSTS AND VIDEOS: https://patreon.com/veronicahuacuja

Thank you for reading. Hope you enjoyed the post.

1 National Film Board of Canada for the Department of National Health and Welfare (no date). “Catatonic Schizophrenia”. Retrieved on May 10, 2020 from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gYwGmWWxY48&lc=Ugz_PFGNm9kyLfvK8Gl4AaABAg