september feedback

i spent most of the week trying to buy a new car. i hate the hassle of trying to set up a time to view, getting your heart set on it (although you try not to) and then getting a text 2 hours before you need to leave to see it saying "just sold for $x,xxx". it really does stress me out. who knows what im going to be like when it comes to buying a house one day. anyway, this took up so much time last week i didn't get any work done so i decided to take the week off in advance and just spend one week during the holidays working. i did however get a car. a small silver hatchback toyota corolla 98. its such a cute wee car, and pretty much runs off air which means my car and my bank account might get along ok! my nana and great aunty are up from dunedin at the moment too so got to spend a bit of time with them on the weekend which was really nice. but back into it this week.

i got feedback from my tutor at tlc yesterday and she has sent some awesome reference material and suggestions so i spent most of tonight going through these and seeing how i can use it to help me in the coming arty weeks.

i really need to work quite hard when it comes to colour theory. i have been told that i have a natural eye for colour when i am being expressive. but my concern is that when it comes to something more planned i'm not sure how colours work, how they mix or how they can be manipulated. this is where the study comes in. my tutor has sent me a lot of useful reference material to use. in particular there is a book i need to try and find in the library which is called "the pastel book" by bill creevy.

i analyse everything, that's just who i am. so i spent a bit of time trying to work out why i kept putting off learning colour theory or doing more life drawing. and in the end it comes back down to being scared. scared it wont be good enough, scared that i will get it wrong, scared i will 'fail' at it. i think most (if not all) artist go through the self doubt spiral. i keep reminding myself that the whole reason to do it in the first place is to get better at it. my other thought then became, how do i measure if i am getting better? i couldn't think of an answer for that. i guess you just have to trust in yourself that practice means you will continue to improve.
i read a blog post earlier this month that went into something similar. its about how looking for inspiration can lead to you asking yourself why your not as good as someone else. have a read here.

an artist that my tutor put me onto is erin mcintosh. she is a much more abstract artist, sticking with very similar geometric shapes throughout her art works. i personally prefer her earlier at work (2005-2007) but i do also like how particular and meticulous her more recent work is. focusing much more on the simple shapes, negative space and the muddy, almost earthy feel to the colours. check out her website for examples of her work.

i always love seeing artist/crafters studio space, whether it is an actual studio space or just the kitchen table. seeing where someone works gives you an idea of how they work (messy/tidy, are there stacks of books, brushes, pens etc) and it is almost indulging into their process for creating are. i would love to have a space that is filled with natural light one day.

i'm going to spend the rest of the night looking back through all the written comments, suggestions from my tutor and seeing how i can utilise them in further work from here. but bottom line is i need to pick up a pencil and start drawing; stop procrastinating!

Rhiannon xxx

p.s. once i get photoshop back on my pc i will be updating my banner. the fact that its not as wide as my page is irritating the hell out of me!