This was a weekend of quiet, undirected composition experimenting – in the simple camaraderie of fellow artmakers. (aka art buddies.)

I am still in the beginning stage of thinking through some new elements and a slightly new course for work in 2023. This weekend I assembled some physical objects I could move around a page as a way to stir up ideas and see what might show promise.

(My workspace on Saturday was the monthly meeting of my local artmaking group, ArtsEtc, a group of diverse artists who have met together pretty regularly for over twenty years. I have been part of the group for about half that time.)

I assembled my supplies:

A large sketchpad of low-quality newsprint. No guilt if I ruin some pages.
Oil pastels for quick sketching.
My trusted right-angle rule for drawing borders and straight lines.

“Stuff” to move around – cardstock stencils I have returned to many times over the years. Images of bottles. Jars. Trees.

Also in my backpack I brought invisible “stuff”:  My internal vision of photos I know I would like to use: windows. Water reflections. Tree branches against a sky. I did not have the actual photo transfers done to bring with me. So, when I designated an area where they would go, I drew the equivalent of a shorthand notation that might not mean anything to anyone but me. A few squiggly blue lines mean the photo of water.

So, from the beginning, this process will involve both what I can physically see and rearrange and what I imagine.

For the first sketch I began by placing some elements and moving them around.

Once I have the elements on the page, I trace around them with the oil pastels just to get the shapes. Then I remove the objects I was tracing. I take a look and ask questions:

Does this positioning of things seem interesting? Where will it be light and where will it be dark? Where will I want solids, where will I want patterns? How will things overlap? When they overlap, will the top layer block out part of what’s behind or will it be transparent?

So, one of the sketches developed like this.

Over the course of several hours of working at my table, with occasional breaks for chatting and looking at other artist’s projects, I did six of these little sketches.

Over the next few days I’ll see if anything suggested something I actually want to develop or if I discard these and try something new. (If so, even the ones I discard will have had purpose. Sometimes an unsuccessful beginning points the way to what needed to change.)

As you can see from pictures of the sketches, these are just beginnings. (I am not concerned yet with actual colors. I’m just going for contrast.) But they help me get to the next steps.

Lessons for artmakers: I like developing compositions by moving around actual things. It’s hands-on and involves you in the work. I have also done this kind of experimenting in PhotoShop, but it does not feel the same.

Your objects may not be cut-out shapes of card stock. You may be interested in leaves. Or actual 3-d things that you trace to get forms. All Ok.   And there is nothing magic about oil pastels. I use them because it’s what I have and I like the feel of them. Colored pencils or markers or even paint would work too.

Lessons for art-lovers who do not create your own work: When you see a finished piece that really speaks to you, it can be interesting to look into it like a historian. How did the artist get to the finished product? What preliminary steps were involved? Looking into art this way can prove meaningful.

For all the artmakers: Happy creating
For all the art lovers: Happy appreciating 

Thank you for reading.
I always enjoy questions and comments.
--Bobbi
bobbi@bobbibaughstudio.com

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