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Do You Love Mystery?

I am a painter of mystery.

I think many artists struggle with a mystery phase of creating sometimes called a “Artist Block” trying to decide what to create next. I seldom plan or know ahead of time what I am going to paint. I just start. I seldom know where I am going. The final painting will usually be as much of a surprise to me as to you.

From looking at my published painting you can see that I have good results and not so good results. But I love the mystery of being lost in the painting process with no clear direction. I am just enjoying the process. And unlike being lost in the woods, I can easily choose a stopping point and come back to the less creative tasks of the day and start fresh tomorrow.

If you have never tried digital or abstract painting let me help you grasp what it is like. Remember those days in school when you had essay questions or multiple choice questions? I liked the multiple choice type best. My way of painting is mostly multiple choice, but at every juncture, the choices available are huge.

The main choice I must make to begin with is which application to begin a project with. The final outcome is somewhat guided by that choice. Some applications are very simple but very speedy to deal with. Others have more capabilities in one direction or another. For example Affinity Designer is my favorite for blending different layers because it can instantly show what each blending mode will look like. All of the other layer handling apps that I have make you click and wait a second to see the blend choice result. Sketchbook Pro is great for the wide selection of brushes in the paid version. But when I want to spread digital paint around the screen with a pallet knife, ArtRage is my favorite for it’s wide selection of pallet knife effects.

Some of the other multiple choices I make at each step of the process involve:What size canvas do I choose?Which layer do I work on next?Which color do I use?Which brush do I use?Which filter do I employ?Do I want to distort a layer? Which distortion technique do I choose?

This method of painting would work poorly for someone who:Has a hard time making a decisionNeeds to gather all kinds of information to make a decisionIs afraid of making the wrong decision

The wonderful thing about digital painting is the capability to undo what you have just done. So I don’t worry much about making a mistake. If I don’t like what the last decision produced I can easily undo and try another route.

Does that help you understand my type of painting?

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Written by Joel_Bowers

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