Day 6. Teeny Tiny Masterpieces!
Matisse-inspired tiny shape-based compositions that pack a punch
Hello, my creative crew!
It’s day 6.
I applaud your curiosity, your daring, your effort, and - nearly a week in - your commitment. Drawing for just ten minute a day seems like a creative sneeze from the outside. But those of us who actually do it know it’s nothing short of life-changing. The way this kind of drawing rewires our brain away from anxious perfectionism and towards trust and unfolding… and when we do it together, the effect is ten times as strong (and even more fun.) Judging by what I’m hearing in the GUT community chat, many of you are already experiencing this. Pay attention to what changes for you. Write it down next to your drawings. And keep going. It keeps getting better.
BEFORE WE START TODAY, AN ART SUPPLY HEADS UP: You may want a couple extra supplies for today’s lessons. If you don’t have them, no biggie. There’s always a Plan B. But if you do have these extra art supplies on hand, go grab ‘em:
Masking tape or artists tape (meaning tape that doesn’t stick to the paper too much. Something you can remove.)
COLORS - paints like watercolors if you have them. If not, then markers or colored pencils are great, too! And if you don’t have any of that, a pencil will do the trick. Or a pen. Whatever, we will always find something fun to do with almost nothing.
PLAN B: in place of tape, either tiny post it notes and a pencil OR a ruler and pencil.
PLAN C: Scissors and glue. Totally not necessary, but you’ll see why soon.
AND! New GUT ten minute drawing play list alert! This one comes to us courtesy of awesome GUT member
who created it to inspire a joyful creative mood while we draw, and keep us to ten minutes. Thank you Kirsten! Note: Spotify automatically moves on to a new track after the playlist is over, so be sure to stop drawing after the third song - or you could end up drawing foreverrrrrrr.Okay, let’s jump in. With joy!
Shapes
The world is filled with shapes. Honestly, look around. What isn’t a shape? If it’s not a line you’re looking at - or just plain light and space - chances are it’s a shape. Given the visual variety of the world, you’d think that there would be a bazillion shapes, right? Wrong. There are just a few.
Basic Shapes
Circle, triangle, square, ellipse or oval. And what I like to call “the blob.” Those are all the shapes on Earth. Think about it. Even the classic rectangle is a combo of squares. A star is al triangles. A heart is two ovals and a square. Really, the whole complex world is a combination of several simple shapes. As artists this is helpful. When we look at the world and think about how to represent it - either realistically or abstractly - we can simplify anything down to a few simple shapes.
If you are feeling young at hear and want to watch a silly demonstration of shape-finding in the world, may I offer the video above: a special DrawTogether for kids episode all about SHAPES. Click on the video above and watch up until the 2:15 mark for a giggle.
Geometric vs Biomorphic Shapes
Another shape-categorization useful for us artists: shapes can be either “Geometric” or “Biomorphic.” Geometric shapes have mostly sharp angles, and biomorphic are mostly curves (remember: no straight lines in nature!) That’s good to keep in mind when we are playing with shape because they provoke very different feelings when we create them, and when we look at them. You get to choose what feelings you’d like to support, and where you put your attention.
Today we are going to put some more of our attention on the shapes we made in our automatic drawing from yesterday. But first let’s get some abstract shape-creating inspiration from one of my favorite shape-creators, Matisse, who approached the world with fresh eyes, and simplified it to an essence.
“I don't paint things. I only paint the difference between things” - Henri Matisse
Inspiration: Matisse & Shape & Space
I took these photos at an exhibition of his Cut Outs at the Museum of Modern Art in NY in November of last year.
Matisse used scissors like a pen, and cut shapes out of paper. First he painted the paper with a color he liked. Then he cut shapes, and affixed them to other painted papers, creating compositions. Sometimes these compositions would end up growing to take up entire walls, and even became the sketch for stained glass, as in the image above.
Some questions to ponder: Do you consider Matisse’s shapes realistic or abstract? Geometric or biomorphic? Besides shape, where else is Matisse putting his attention?
In addition to shape and color, Matisse is playing with COMPOSITION. Composition is the way in which shapes interact with one another within a frame. Composition is easy to understand when we look at a simple straightforward drawing - or, in Matisse’s case, a cut out. Take this detail below. Let’s pretend this cut out is a drawing:
Where is the shape? The green abstract plant-ish blob, of course. The edge of the frame contain the blob. But…. where else are there edges? Around the yellow background. That makes the yellow space between the background edges and the plant edges also a shape. That yellow shape is just as important to the composition as the green blob. (That yellow space is called Negative Space.) The way the two spaces are arranged and interact is called The Composition.
Inspiration: Richter and Thumbnails
Below are some fun examples of compositions using simple shapes on backgrounds/negative space created as thumbnail sketches by the amazing painter Gerhard Richter. (Some artists create thumbnail sketches to work out their composition in advance before diving in to a big project.) Check out the ones on the left: So simple and powerful!Just two colors and they pack a punch.
Okay, today we are going to take inspiration from Matisse and Richter. We are going to focus our attention on the shapes we made in our Miro inspired drawing and make some all new TINY thumbnail drawings. Go grab your supplies. This one is super fun, relaxing, teaches us some cool art tricks, and you end up with a very impressive sketchbook spread. (Also, draw googley eyes on them and kids will LOVE.)
