Movement

Hello, it’s that time again when I talk about what’s been happening in the Big Painting Challenge and expand a little on the ideas. This week’s theme is movement and the challenge is VERY difficult. None of the artists are allowed photographs and so they have to really think about how to capture what is going on. I know that photography can be a help when you are drawing or painting but more times than often, working from photographs will just make your looking, lazy and will act like a crutch and you wont get better. The reason is because you end up just copying an already flattened image, and your brain processes what you are seeing differently. Anyhow…on to movement…dynamic, exciting, fast…..difficult. Here, the trick is not as much to simplify but to figure out a way of working that suits your processing skills (not everyone has photographic memory). Take a deep breath and think how you can show movement, the subject moving and the background still, the background moving and the subject still, a timelapse, blur, sequences and multiple images are all options open to you. Here is one way which I love doing with students as it describes space, volume as well as a sense of movement. It’s suprisingly easy as long as you don’t start complicating things for yourself (you know who you are!). Give it a go!