Out of my comfort zone

The last three painting classes were spent doing the exercise I love best: composition of two (sometimes three) quick poses. As I said, I really enjoy it but I was finding that my work was looking all a bit too similar. Then, the question arose in my mind: is this what one may call "personal style" or am I not venturing out of my comfort zone?

So last week I was determined to do this exercise in a different way. Let me explain: I always do the line and do not worry too much about decomposing shapes and volumes into geometric forms. I just lay out the line and then correct it with overlaying lines, if needed. Line, or better still, the contour is the structure I work on, then - and only then - adding filling to this contour, adding volume and matter.

That´s why last week I decided to make an effort to work from the matter out, from the volume out, and if a line was to be needed, then I would add it in the end.

I think this week I was more sucessful than last week, specially on the smaller figure - I really like his arm, actually.



The same happened for the second exercise. This time the model was moving, repeating certain movements but never actually keeping still. The aim of the exercise was to represent movement, however we wanted. Once again, I tried to start from the volume outwards, not from the line inwards.



It´s funny how laws of composition or perception work, because at a certain point I felt the urgent need for lines, for the contour of the moving body.

All in all, these are the exercises that most quickly bring out certain unconscious features of one´s work - that´s why I love them so much. Next monday, though, we´ll start our four week still pose. Which brings me several new challenges.