Self Critiquing

Robert Genn has a terrific suggestion about self critiquing our own artwork on his twice weekly newsletter.

You can get a copy by contacting him here.

"Robert Genn Twice-Weekly Letter"

Genn suggests that we should develop our own list of questions to ask about our art, and then he gives some of the questions he asks. The questions vary from concept questions to technique questions to show the range.

I particularly liked the question about interesting subject matter. I realized that my own questions are very rudimentary and lack artistic depth. They are mainly about perspective, center of interest, repetition, rhythm. Developing a good list of questions is a growth area for me.

Do you ask questions of your art to help in self critiquing? If so, would you share them with my readers? If you blog about it, would you share your link to your blog?

Thanks.

Nancy

Inspiration Sketches

My work is done directly from live specimens, augmented by photography and sketches. Since the timing for live seeds and berries may not be the same as when I want to create a piece, I like to document specimens throughout the year with sketches and photos. Here are a couple of cuties that I really like.

The little red berries are sketches of Partridge Berries. This is a very diminutive ground cover found in the Piedmont area of the Carolinas. What I find fascinating about this little plant is that the little white flowers are always twin flowers coming out of the same spot on the stem. And the berry that results from the 2 flowers is one berry with two "belly buttons". Anyone know of any other flower that does this?


The three cones are actually clusters of seeds that are tightly bound together looking like a weirdly marked berry until it begins ripening and splits begin around the individual seeds. Initially they look a bit like little pine cones, but pine cones have seeds inside the petals of the cones. Here the "petals' are actually the seeds. These seed clusters can occur in a string of these strange little balls that shatter. They are from the Bald Cyrus trees that are planted around Charlotte and turning brown at this time. This is a deciduous tree that looks evergreen in the summer, but browns and drops its needles in the fall.

Are you sketching? Please share a link to what you are doing.

Nancy

Fall in Charlotte

The fall colors have never seemed brighter than this year. DH and I spent sunny hours driving around and taking photos to remember through the winter months. I will share some here and some on my Facebook page.

Please let me know if I should share more.

Nancy