Sculptor J. Payne Lara of Navasota, nationally recognized for his talent in sculpting bronzes; small bronzes, large bronzes, and MONUMENTAL bronzes, has added a couple more hats to his hat rack. Alongside his cowboy and artist hats, he now adds those of inventor and manufacturer. Payne has created a new line of products that I believe, someday, will become the standard in sculpture supplies, and this will happen in the near future.

This is not his first invention, but it is the first one to go into mass-production. Payne has improved, and made affordable, the sculpture armature for the human figure… and is working on one for horses as well. Now a sculptor can buy sturdy, flexible skeletons that give them the basic form for several different sizes of human figures, attached to a strong, adjustable steel post that holds the sculpture in a variety of positions. Each skeleton has been slightly reduced to anticipate the addition of clay that will become the muscle and skin and thus the final surface, making each sculpture as accurate as possible.

Long acknowledged as the premier bronze sculptor in the Houston area, Payne has always made accurate anatomy an essential element of his work. As he perfected his own requirements for a decent armature, he invented something other artists need as well.

Payne is understandably cautious about revealing the process he has invented which allows relatively swift molding of fairly fussy materials. The final result was the product of months of experimentation, and not a few beers, as he smilingly explains. He has now manufactured and shipped out scores of the new product, to artists and art supply distributors around the country. He presently employs two crafts persons who help in the molding and assembly.

As a sculptor myself, I cannot wait to try this new product. In fact I will try to keep you posted as I use it in the near future!

So, an exciting product has hit the market that will revolutionize the sculpture process. Congratulations to Payne for years of diligence and successful product development, and for sharing his improvements with the art world!

Artisans craft lifelike foam skeleton parts, stored here until final assembly.

Underneath every figure he sculpts, Payne begins with the armatures like the ones he now manufactures.

You can learn more and contact Payne about these products on facebook. Just go to facebook and search for TruForm Armatures.

Designing or creating the composition of your art work is very important in order to end up with a pleasing result. I have been painting for many years, and I find myself doing much of the composing as I take photographs of the subject matter I want to paint. Sometimes I do not consciously think about it. Other times I find myself deliberately taking photos from many different angles hoping that a good composition will result.

The term “composition” is defined by Dictionary.com in the area of fine art as the organization or grouping of the different parts of a work of art so as to achieve a unified whole. The art text book  ART TALK by Rosalind Ragans defines composition as the way the principles of design are used to organize the elements of art.

This article could get really complicated. So much to discuss. But, that is not my goal. So, what do I want to accomplish? First, I want to give you some examples of photographs. Then, I want to give you some ideas that might be used in changing the arrangement of the subject matter in the picture to create a more pleasing composition.

Here goes:

Photograph One: You can change the design of your work just by getting a little closer to the subject. In this photograph of fall leaves I give you two examples. One is further away with a lot of empty space at the bottom of the picture. You can crop the empty space to create a different look. Using photo editing software can make creating your composition much easier.

Fall Leaves from a Distance

Fall Leaves a Little Closer

Photograph Two: In the following photographs you can a beautiful Oregon stream I photographed in the fall. When you compose your art work think about why you want to paint the scene. Ask yourself what drew you to the subject. For me, I was drawn to the fall colors and the movement of the stream. The first photo captures everything. It is a nice shot but the area in the left foreground is not of interest to me at all. I want to eliminate that area and also play up the curve in the stream. I don’t like the way the water ends almost at the left corner of the picture.

Oregon Stream

So, I cropped the photo a little.  I like this better, but I still want to play up the fall color a little more.

A Little Closer

I cropped some more. I placed the colorful trees in one of the golden areas. Don’t know what a golden area is? Click here. This time the fall color really comes into play. I have completely lost my sky in this photo. So, if you wanted sky you would need to do something else. As I cropped this photo I realized there is a trash can lid or something in the water. So, that would be left out. Something else I might do is play up the boulders in the foreground of the stream. I think when I draw this on my watercolor paper I will draw the ones from the picture above.

Even Closer

Photograph Three: In this photograph the composition is confused by all the extras. We don’t need to have so much of the tractor in the scene. The subject or focus is my grandson, Isaac. Isaac is dead center too. I want to move him over a little one way or the other. Remember, golden areas. I also want to leave enough of the tractor to let the viewer know what he is doing or where he is. There is a metal bar behind Isaac’s head. I would eliminate that in the painting. I probably would eliminate the trees and fence line behind him also. Could make the background out of focus.

Isaac on a Tractor

Better Composition

Well, I hope this article helps. There are so many factors involved in creating a pleasing composition. I will continue to write articles about composition on this blog. I would appreciate it if you would leave me a comment. Have a great week!

Creativity prompts get your imagination and creative juices going. Creativity prompts combine elements that you may have never thought about putting together before. Creativity prompts inspire you to create. There are many websites and blogs on the internet that give creativity prompts for writers, but I did not find much for artists.

What is a creativity prompt? Pretty much anything, a thought, a picture, a word, a color, a combination of….,etc.

Today I thought I would give you some ideas for making some creativity prompts of your own. The concept is pretty simple.

First Step: (Subject) Make a list of subjects you like to draw or paint. Example: horses, roses, orchids, women, boats, water, river, flowers, old missions, children, shells, landscapes, sunset, etc. Cut out each subject individually and place in a ziploc bag labeled “subject”. Make sure that you have photographs or magazine cut outs of the subjects you list as reference material for later.

Second Step: (Elements of Art) Make a list of the elements of art with a special prompt idea. Cut each element out separate and place in ziploc bag labeled elements of art. Here is my list:

Color – Red
Color – Orange
Color – Yellow
Color – Green
Color – Blue
Color – Purple
Color – Monochromatic
Color – Analogous
Color – Primary Triad
Texture – Rough
Texture – Smooth
Texture – Soft
Texture – Shiny
Value – Light
Value – Dark
Value – Mid-value
Value – Large dark value as the background
Value – Create the subject as the darkest value in the composition
Space – Large background
Space – Small pieces of space between subject
Space – Subject has no depth, appears 2 dimensional
Form – Overlapping of objects
Form – 1 large and 2 small forms
Line – Objects will be drawn with a dark outline
Line – Use combination of curving and diagonal lines to create subject
Line – Subject is drawn with thick and thin lines
Shape – Focus on the silhouette of the subject
Shape – Repeatedly draw the shape of the subject within the composition overlapping as you go.

Third Step: (Emotions or Just Random Words) Make a list of emotions, ideas, or random words that you could use in your artwork. Cut these out and put in a separate ziploc bag labeled emotions.

happiness
numbers
anger
sadness
joy
depression
hopeful
fear
nothingness
boldness
pride
glory
wonder
blinding
formal
crazy
four
childlike

Step Four: (Principles of Design): Make a list of the principles of design. Cut out and place in a separate ziploc bag labeled principles of design.

Rhythm
Balance
Unity
Movement
Proportion
Variety
Emphasis

Step Five: (Get ready to create.) Clear your art space. Get your supplies ready. Set aside a block of time to work on your artwork.

Step Six: (Drawing) Draw a piece of paper from each of the four ziploc bags. You may want to draw two slips of paper from the elements of art bag to give you more variety. Take the items drawn from the bags as your creativity prompt. Create a work of art by running with the ideas.

Example: You may have picked these slips of paper:

orchid

color – purple

texture – rough

emotion – childlike

principle of design – movement

This is your creativity prompt. You will now see what you can come up with to create a work of art with all these factors.  You will have to use your imagination. You might close your eyes and see what you visualize in your minds eye. You might try to act as a child moving about as you draw brushing your pencil or paintbrush across the surface with rough strokes. I could give this prompt to 100 people and would get something totally different with each one.

So, now you have some ideas for making your own creativity prompts. If you use a different way to prompt your creativity I would love to hear your ideas. If you create artwork using my ideas, I would love to see the work and the prompt.

A collection of pages from a magazine.

Do you subscribe to a lot of magazines?  I subscribe to an art magazine and have been given subscriptions to a couple of other travel and home magazines. I enjoy reading them when I have a moment of free time.  

Did you know that you can use magazines to help you with your creativity?  

The concept is pretty simple. You use magazines to help in designing compositions that are unique. 

How?

Here are two ways to use magazines creatively:

1. Make a collage.

• Cut out photographs, colored ads, text,  anything in the magazine that interests you. 
• Combine items from several magazines if you would like.
• Arrange the items in a pleasing composition using texture, color, value, line, shape, space and form.
• Then glue the items that you have collected on a large piece of paper or cardboard.
• Use the collage as your composition to be painted or sketched.
• Draw the design on drawing paper, watercolor paper or canvas. You can enlarge parts of the collage or exaggerate.
• Choose the elements of art you want the work to focus on.
• Play with the design. Have fun!

You may end up with some really strange subject matter in your composition which may be a real creative stretch for you.  Doing something unusual is the purpose of the activity.

2. Use the magazine to suggest the subject matter for your work. This one is a little harder to explain.

• Randomly make a list of four numbers. Let’s say 43, 77, 89 and 100.
• Find those pages in your magazine. Tear them out or mark with a bookmark. 
• On the last page, pick a word to use in the composition. You can say, “I will use the fourth word on page 100.” Or you can be more flexible and pick a word you happen to like that is on page 100.
• Use the items on the four pages as a guide in creating a composition for your artwork.
• Paint, draw, sculpt, weave, etc. using the composition you came up with.

In the photograph above you can see the four magazine pages I cut out. Page 43 had photographs of paint in various values of hyacinth purple. Apparently that color is very trendy right now. There was a picture of a hyacinth on the page also. Page 77 was an ad for edible flower arrangements with a chocolate bunny. Page 89 was an ad for air freshener. The page had a picture of the ocean in all blues.  Page 100 was 1/2 text. Below the text there was a picture of children jumping up and down on a sofa. The children were wearing homemade capes.

My favorite word on page 100 was “living”. I decided to pick a favorite word instead of using  the fourth word on the page. The fourth word was “furnace”. That did not excite me. If you don’t want to pick a word, you could pick a letter to use.  This exercise can be changed according to your creative needs. Do not feel that you have to do this the way I am suggesting. I am just throwing out ideas to get you inspired to try something new.

So, now I have the basis for making a composition. What will I come up with? At the moment I have no idea. I’ll keep you posted.

Anyone else use magazines creatively? I would love to hear your ideas.