25 Strokes and Artist's Statement



            My goal in the piece was to not exceed twenty-five strokes to depict a thing, in this case, it was a candlestick. I did several sketches in which I marked each color as a shape; I did easily this with previous learning from “Don’t Touch the Edges”. My painting does not portray any shadows (besides those on the candlestick) as I had run out of strokes before getting a chance of painting something apart from the candlestick itself. In fact, I had even thought of not painting the background because of being scared of running out of strokes; but I managed. One thing that my painting does have is really thick brush marks because I loaded my brush with paint to use a minimum number of strokes; it can be noted especially on the background when I believed I had two strokes left, only leaving place to improvisation.

Not exceeding 25 strokes was the biggest challenge I had to face. It is really hard to make something come alive just using 25 strokes. Even more difficult than that was keeping track of my strokes. I totally forgot about that! I probably did not meet the challenge, as I forgot to mark my strokes.

My painting worked toward the end when I had done my candlestick and was sure I didn’t have many strokes left. The background itself took me two strokes only. I loaded it up with red and yellow and preyed to God it worked. Next time, I should definitely look at others’ works or ask the teacher if I have any questions relating to the painting instead of going all in without knowing what to do. Before painting, I learned I should make a sketch in an attempt to figure out the number of strokes needed. I also learned—after painting my twenty-five strokes—that I should mark the number of strokes.

If I had a do-over, I would really mark my strokes. Write down numbers from 1 through 25 and after using a stroke, marking next to the number with the paint brush (to keep track of the strokes).  What I feel the best about is the background. It was simple, I finished it with two strokes, leaving place for more strokes on the candlestick. But, I still messed up on the background because I certainly didn’t have enough strokes to paint a shadow—thing I believe was a big mistake from my part.

Comments

  1. m.gaudreauFebruary 28, 2019 at 10:11 AM

    one of the reasons artists pre color their canvasses is that the color peeks through the little pinholes where white shows through now. keepeng your brushstrokes down forces you to think about every brushstroke and making them count.

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