I find art to be a great metaphor for many things in life. Sometimes we sketch when we don't know what we're doing quite yet. Our touch is light, because we haven't yet applied a confidence to it. We're still feeling it out. I was watching a comedy thing on Letterman the other night with Tamara and there was this homely Jewish comedian guy who was hanging out with Playboy bunnies. He asked one of them what she found attractive in a man (asking in effect, "Could you find a guy like me sexy?") and she said that she found confidence attractive. Take a look at this picture below: This isn't my work; I found it here at WetCanvas, a painters site. That's good work. I like the highlights, especially on the face. Nice illumination, nice coloring. The face is well-shaped and realistic. It makes me want to mess around with colored pencils. Now look at it with a twist of "bold" thrown in... Same artwork, but I've strengthened the colors via my computer. Like it better? I do. The colors are stronger and more pronounced. Less timid. More, well... confident. Wouldn't you say? Confidence is sexy and attractive. It's not half-assed. That first sketch is good, but half-meek. The second sketch is daring. Where the initial sketch was cool the first time, compared to the second sketch it now looks washed out. Think about your life and your approach to it. Are you the first sketch or the second sketch? And what if you lived as though you were the second sketch? ETC: I need to clear up something based on a couple of emails... in no way am I critiquing this good art. As you read above, I compliment it - it's well done. If the artist wanted to go with the light approach and achieved the desired result, then it shouldn't be any different than it is. I am using this work to make a point, and therefore I'm remixing it, if you will, to achieve a message. That's all. But it does bring up something... the question of medium. Would colored pencils allow the boldness of color I created with the computerized tweaking that I did? To achieve the result that you want in your daring splashes of color and boldness in your own life, do you have the right medium? Sometimes our efforts are inhibited by our choice of materials... |