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.

With a certain concept of a female’s body I began sketching. Little by little, the body began to take shape, offering itself. The results, as most of my work, is dramatic.

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.

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:

I based this work on various video stills from a true documentary. Some of my art interests are scenes related to people being interviewed.

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 

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