How I Get My Ideas
Welcome back to another BobBlast!
My ideas for painting come from a colorful childhood of make-believe backyard circus solo shows (I performed every act…) and soon after, full-on magic shows performed in local theaters and wherever I could!
A little background - I was a kid, overcoming shyness through mimicking clowns, magicians, ventriloquists, circus performers, and at 24 years old - I earned a Live Steam Train Engineer’s license!
These experiences are jumbled up in my memory and I gladly continue stirring these memories until they become a theme I want to paint as a series. I paint what’s closest to my heart.
First, to develop these memories into a series, I think and write about a concept. Getting every thought on the subject on paper in my sketchbook using stream-of-consciousness-creative-writing. After I’m clear why I want to paint this image, I name the entire series and various titles to match the series. That’s my focus. The titles of the individual pieces in the series keep me on track.
Now, it’s practice painting time! My creative warm-ups! My warm-up paintings are small studies - stretching exercises that get me ready for larger-format pieces. In the demo - I show you that I am able to get eight warm-up sized paintings from one full sheet of watercolor paper - which is 22x30 inches. The finished size of the warm-up is 7.5x11 inches.
On my painting table - I line up my warm-ups, taping them down on the table, along with my Goof-Proof Color Wheel, chosen color combination plus white and black acrylic paint - all squeezed out and ready to go!
So, in assembly line fashion, I paint across all the warm-ups at the same time, and continue the painting flow with each color. My tools are large brushes, gobs of paint and gallon sized water buckets. No need to wait around for inspiration - just start with a clear and determined focus!
Decide what you want… then make it happen!