Loosey Goosey Patina Perfect

September 5, 2016
   Worked all weekend on a variety of boards and ideas:

Daily Whip Out: "Beating Cheeks"

Pushing wet into wet for the sky effects. Also gravitating towards nocturnes.

Daily Whip Out: "We Rode All Night"

Loosey Goosey Patina Perfect

   The other thing I am aiming for is something I call Loosey Goosey Patina Perfect. This is when I push a ground (the underpainting) around, seeking authentic patterns (i.e. not contrived or executed with the left side of the brain). I often do a dozen at a time, in an effort to get loosey goosey enough to capture something honest. The goal is to trick your left brain into letting go. That's why drawing upside down, or with the opposite hand works so well with beginners (see the book Drawing On The Right Side of The Brain). It works because it thwarts your logical, linear thinking. Your left brain is very strong and keeps you in the game, but it also stymies creative work. You need to force it to give up. Confuse it, get it to shut off, or at least lay back. This is a problem because if you want to succeed at art, then your left side of your brain is really, really engaged. So, it's a conundrum: you can't be a good artist unless you get serious and line out the work and attack it methodically, but you can't achieve anything good until you can get past your flippin' anal Left Brain. Here are some examples of me trying to do just that:

Daily Whip Outs: "Mucho Loosey Goosey Grounds"

   As you can clearly see, as hard as I'm trying, a few of these are hopelessly infected with left-brain ambition. (Exhibit A: lower left fire) It's a balancing act. You don't want to completely turn off the left brain because that doesn't work either. For example, I once did an experiment to see if being drunk would work and I am happy to report, it did not, even though my left-brain function seemed to be smashed, literally. The result was very crappy—very muddy—and unsuccessful. So, you need the right brain to dominate, but not entirely. it's all very tricky and for all I know, completely bogus.

"Where those who are not artists are trying to close the book, he opens it, shows there are still pages to be written."

—Robert Henri