July Challenge- The REVEAL: Limited Palette, Limited Content #3

Challenge Drawing Game - The REVEAL

Red-Orange, Purple, Pale Blue: Script

Digital drawing, 10240px x 768px

This month, I have joined several internet friends in a challenge - create three pieces with a mandatory limited palette of only three colors: red-orange, purple and pale blue, and three words: "energy", "life", and "passion." All these elements were independently selected by the players.

I am a painter, of landscapes mostly, so I am used to working with images. Even when I am doing things like web design or posters where words are part of the content, overall I am concerned the look of the text in the design, and not so much with the meaning of the words.

At first, in this challenge, I found the required words to be just-plain excess baggage. Somehow, I had to incorporate them into the design. So they became another item to be balanced, repeated, proportioned, or scaled appropriately.

Gradually I became aware of using the meaning of the word in the piece, and I experimented with how the visual design supported or enhanced or detracted from that meaning in the drawing.

Then I found myself at a crossroads. What is my intent in doing the design? Am I trying to communicate the literal meaning of the word or words? Am I making a statement or exhortation with or about these words? Or am I making a visual design that speaks to the viewer at a subconscious as well as a conscious level? What do I want these words to do? What do I want my design to do?

So, that is where I will continue this line of inquiry. This challenge has been a good couple of weeks of daily practice, I have learned a lot about the software package I wanted to try out, and I have learned a surprising amount about my own approach to my work.

This is the last REVEAL - the third of three pieces for this challenge - let me know what you think!

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July Challenge- The REVEAL: Limited Palette, Limited Content #2

Challenge Drawing Game - The REVEAL

Red-Orange, Purple, Pale Blue: Flower with Words

Digital drawing, 10240px x 768px

This month, I have joined several internet friends in a challenge - create three pieces with a mandatory limited palette of only three colors: red-orange, purple and pale blue, and three words: "energy", "life", and "passion." All these elements were independently selected by the players.

Over the years, I have developed a routine of writing daily journal entries - nothing grand, it's mostly a morning mind-dump and sometimes a planning-session. Over the years, I have also learned that when I keep my sketchbook active every day, my drawing warms up with the practice. I know that what I am putting onto paper like this is not "great art" and it doesn't have to be, it's a routine, like brushing my teeth or doing the dishes. And it's necessary to me in the same way. So I welcomed this challenge as something that I could include in my daily routine.

What have I gotten out of it? Well, the elements of the challenge were different enough from what I am used to, that I had find new ways, every day, of making my drawings. And because I set my own challenge of using different tools as well, I have had to find different problem-solving strategies to come up with appropriate solutions to the challenge. In other words - I had to stretch myself to play this game, to meet this challenge.

And that's the fun of it - being playful, being creative, and refreshing myself.

So, this is the REVEAL - the second of three pieces - let me know what you think!

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July Challenge- The REVEAL: Limited Palette, Limited Content #1

Challenge Drawing Game - The REVEAL

Red-Orange, Purple, Pale Blue: Stripes with Words

Digital drawing, 10240px x 768px

Playfulness is the foundation for creativity. One of the foundations of playfulness is "rules" - what you allow to happen, and also what you eliminate from consideration - the rules of the game.

This month, I have joined several internet friends in a challenge - playing with a mandatory limited palette of only three colors: red-orange, purple and pale blue (each color independently selected by a player) and three words: "energy", "life", and "passion" (also independently selected.) Making these arbitrary limitations work together is the creative challenge. How I do it is my own solution, how I play the game.

I have added my own personal challenge to this game - I am trying out a drawing package for the iPad - and this game has been a perfect test for the past couple of weeks to put the new software through its paces, one digital drawing at a time, one daily session at a time.

This has been a "secret challenge" in that none of us participants knows, until now, what the others are drawing, how they are playing the game.

So, this is the REVEAL - let me know what you think!

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