Shanley

Ok..this is what I came up with for the challenge....was supposed to be a tough drawing...because the tear should've had an unnatural direction (obviously didn't manage to switch planes as I wanted...so it looks sort of natural now :-< ). The drawing went totally out of control and strted exploring space by its own...don't know how well it fits your challenge...just played with space, thoughts, temperature, concrete and abstract.
http://www.thinkdraw.com/picture.php?pictureId=103782

danila

http://www.thinkdraw.com/picture.php?pictureId=103778Come and visit with me..

danila

http://www.thinkdraw.com/picture.php?pictureId=103778

danila

http://www.thinkdraw.com/picture.php?pictureId=103795
KROMATIKO

chelydra

Welcome Shanley! "The drawing ... started exploring space on its own" just might be the essence of Mild Cubism! Got any more up your sleeve?

Thanks, Qsliv! (Worried now about my table manners as well as my editorial judgement.) I knew you'd have a brilliant, catchy title idea. "Art Theory Discussions" makes me want to run for the nearest exit but "Erudite Fossils Lecturing" is a bull's-eye. Almost, anyway. I don't think of you or five as fossils (although Chelydra Serpentina Serpentina is a living fossil). And while "erudite lectures" might describe five's offerings, I'm more comfortable with crackpot (eclectic, didactic) musings (ramblings) for my own. But this is definitely on the right track!

chelydra

Hi again, Q — I came back when I started worrying about internet manners as well as table manners, fearing my reaction to "Art Theory Discussions" came off as glib and rude, which I suppose it was. Hmmm. Why that reaction? I guess it's because there's a thin line between discussing ideas about what we're actually doing (whether that that 'doing' is drawing, merely seeing, or community organizing, or installing electrical systems) and theorizing for the sake of theorizing. There is an almost sensuous pleasure to had in theorizing, and the longer and deeper the better, but the instant ideas loses touch with action, they turn to ashes and dust. Whenever there's the faintest whiff of academia in the air, that's the scent of death, for me anyway. It's one thing to masquerade as a professor (I do it all the time) but to really believe it in that role and all it stands for — taking oneself seriously as a purveyor of Big Ideas — is something else. (I do that too, all the time, but hate it when I catch myself at it, or worse get called on it by others.)

chelydra

(Lots of typing mistakes as usual, sorry, but I guess you can still tell what I mean.)

chelydra

Danila, thanks. Love all your recent stuff. Just keep in mind that thing Shanley said: "The drawing got out of control and started exploring space on its own."

clorophilla

I could say the same for my last pictures... I'm just experimenting instinctively, having abandoned the crazy idea of understanding...

what do you think about this?
http://www.thinkdraw.com/picture.php?pictureId=103808

Qsilv

Isn't it fun when the drawing (or writing... or music...) seems to come from itself?? Happens to me more often than not. And it's easy to see how much more boringly static the ones are that I've slaved to keep "under control". ;>

chelydra, thanks for the careful and kind extra comments.

I'll be back in a few minutes with a few of my own.

chelydra

Clorophriend, I do like your egg, but same suggestion as to Danila, let the drawing get "out of control" and "start exploring space on its own". You were clearly in control of this space. Mild Cubism is the artistic equivalent of letting the dogs off their leashes in the woods! They'll discover more than you can ever show them. A lot of what they bring back to you you won't want — they love rolling in bear poop, etc. — but sometimes they'll present you will a lovely fat quivering raccoon, hedgehog, or perhaps even a deer. (Of course in the hands of a master like Villon, the free-running "dogs" are totally under their master's control every moment, but they're enjoying themselves even more because their master is so tuned into their moods.)

chelydra

Qsliv, yes indeed! I often remind my writing students how much smarter their pens are than their heads. They get the best results when they just relax, daydream, and watch their pens write whatever they please. (Perhaps if I had any qualifications for teaching writing, I might offer other advice.)

chelydra

Probably anyone who paints in oils has had the experience of struggling with a masterpiece, and then suddenly noticing how much more beautiful the palette is than the canvas. The same hand composed the painting on the palette, but with less interference from brain-static.

danila

Qsilv, I'm not so sure of what you mean about "let the drawing out of control" as to me every drawing just go by itself, even I'm watching tv, while I'm doing it, may be a part of my mind take control? But I'm never fixing any thing in my mind or know exactly what I'm doing till I decide: that's it, it's finished. May be is my attitude of keeping every thing under control.. could this one be more Mild Cubism?
http://www.thinkdraw.com/picture.php?pictureId=103812 MICRO

Qsilv

In watercolors that's called appreciating the "accidentals". Very liberating.

And yes, the palette is rarely just a muddy mess, usually an intriguing composition of its own.

This has a lot to do with beauty being in the eye of the beholder, of course.
A control-freak has a hard time with that (and yes, it takes one to know one.... smiling here)

I'm pretty widely experienced, so I find it easy enough to recognize and just gently nudge along a dynamic balancing act between inner urges and more conscious judgments.

There's a strong body of scientific evidence to support the idea of it not merely being conscious/subconscious, but left vs right brain issues. When I was little, I decided I had two brains... one in my head and one in my hand. Well, I knew better, but it helped me to think of it that way. Whenever I could let my hand-brain run free and keep my head-brain occupied with other stuff (Strauss waltzes worked particularly well), I could draw soooooo much better!

Qsilv

About the "Art Theory Discussions", Chelydra --

...over the past year and a half+ of TD's existence there have been repeated requests both in the forum and in picture commentaries (especially there pre-forum-days) for lessons, explanations, more fundamental stuff... some just hoped for basic "tips" but some yearned for a deeper understanding, packaged in a palatable way.

Matthew built the first tutorial, and eventually started a thread to answer questions and offer tips.

TD elevated his tutorial to a special page of its own and many, many of us found it pivotal in gaining a basic understanding of how to work in this odd medium.

His thread has, as of this moment, gotten buried a good many pages back. One single posting would bump it up to the top again of course, but it's not searchable... and there's the inherent weakness in this particular forum software. I don't think Rachel et al knew what they wrought when they set this up, so it, like our best drawings, is sort of growing itself!

chelydra

Thanks... I'll go see if I can dig up that thread.

ferretkiss

... uh... just stumbled in here.... looking around.... :~O..... don't mind me....

chelydra

How can we not? Hiya!

five

Still Life
http://www.thinkdraw.com/picture.php?pictureId=103841