Panda 1 - Part 3 - Making Panda 1

Welcome back!

So far we have learned the style of Franz Marc, and done some practicing, now it's time to put my money where my mouth is, or however that saying goes.

First thing's first: I have been pondering the title and I have decided to take the inspiration all the way -- naming my artwork as the artist I am inspired by may have named it. Franz Marc likes simple and descriptive titles. Since this piece is most reminiscent of Two Cats. Blue and Yellow I have decided to aptly title this painting: Two Pandas. Blue and Yellow.

One other quick order of business before I scurry off and share my process. The first weekend of March I decided to play with some Alcohol inks (I will find a way to talk about this process more somewhere in here) and I created this super cool panda image that was in a dream I had. So now Manda's Pandas has an official image. I want to do a larger scale alcohol ink experiment and make a really cool panda painting with it, I will add it to the list.

Back to our regularly scheduled program. Two Pandas. Blue and Yellow.

I had a preliminary sketch from before I really understood Marc and his techniques and inspiration which basically went out the window. I still wanted the same pandas, in a playful style, and I wanted bamboo as a prominent background feature, but I also envisioned a meaningful and colorful background with a lot of variation and shapes.

Preliminary Sketch: Two Pandas B&Y

Features of Two Pandas: 

1. Two playful pandas in the foreground. One blue, larger one more dominant, and the yellow being more playful-emulating the concept of Marc's Color theory 
2. Prominent bamboo featured. I find bamboo to be one of the most beautiful plants. It is unique in how it grows, and it feeds pandas so pretty important stuff to include. 
3. The ball on the left. This is a nod to the ball in Two Cats. It is one of my favorite features, but I didn't want to make it the same colors, so went with my favorite of his color transitions the orange/red/yellow with insane blue and black shadows. 
4. The sky! I wanted to emulate the sky in  Big Blue Horses so I gave myself plenty of sky to play with and planned a gradient of sunset sky. 
5. I wanted hills, because hills and mountains are in many of his works and they're realistic to where a panda would be from, so there's that. 
6. There are some purple stones toward the bottom right, hidden among them is an orange panda head because often times Marc hid shapes of the animals he is painting within the background. 
7. There is a river flowing through the middle to add some softness to the landscape.
8. Lastly the Ancient Chinese Building. Architecture makes its appearance in many of Marc's works and I had a big space I wasn't sure what to do with. Ben suggested adding some kind of architecture since that was on my list of favorite features in Marc's art, and so was born this image (art is a community effort.) 

Thumbnails, sketches, painted sketches, final--that's the order of operations apparently, so the next step was a painted sketch.

I followed the same steps I did with Cats: light sketch, base layer of colors, then continue developing each shape until it resembled what I had in mind.

Painted Sketch: 

First I transferred my sketch to the canvas board (by sight... using a blue pencil) 

This is an artsy fartsy pic of my palate! HAHA and my colors, and my paintbrushes ... READY TO GO!

This is partway through. This is just my base layer. This gives you an idea of where I go with the process. first getting the ground colors in and then I go back in and work each area bringing it to it's full potential. 

Two Pandas. Blue and Yellow - Painted sketch. 

Here she is! <3 <3 <3 

Final thoughts: 

1. I can't wait to get this on a canvas. I really love the image and enjoyed painting it... I am sad to know I am going to only paint this one more time before moving on to my next style, but I am really proud of how it turned out and am excited to share it with people on a larger scale.
2. This was intimidating. Not going to lie. I psyched myself out several times in the middle of it and I am still struggling to believe that I really got it to look the way it was in my head. 
3. I am still deciding if there are more tweaks to make... I think this is going to be it though... we'll see! HAHA

So, Stay tuned. 

My plans for the final piece and final blog post on it involves a speed painting video explaining my process and showing every step as I go, as well as my regular pictures and update. 

Thank you, again, for all of your love and support. 

I am filled with so much gratitude for you and love for this project. 

Go out and try something new! 

<3

'Manda

Panda 1- Part 2- Painting like Franz Marc

Welcome back!

Thank you again for your support thus far, I can't truly say how much it means to me.

Back to Marc!

The first step was research the artist and style. *CHECK*

On to step two. To really get into the mind of an artist it is common to do what are called "Master Studies." Before this, I had heard the words but never knew the meaning. So when my husband, Ben, said to me "You should start with a master  study. Maybe a small section one at first, then a full scale." I about fell out of my chair.

Let's boil this down:

Master study: (there's no direct definition so this is what I have from what I researched) To study the work of an artist by mimicking and duplicating their piece. More than copying, this is to learn their strokes, color theories, stylization, and composition. 

Small section: (maybe you're smarter than me and picked this bit up BUT... here we go another "definition") To do a master study of only a segment of a piece rather than biting off more than you can chew--How do we eat an elephant? one bite at a time. 

Full scale: (this is a good one I kinda got already... let's do this, one more definition) To do a master study of an ENTIRE piece of art using the same materials, if at all possible. 

Now that we have that out of the way... Let's talk art!

1. Small Section Master Study: Tiger (1912)

The first thing I did was took a small section of Tiger  and used multi media paper and acrylic paint to replicate it. This didn't take me long and I didn't do a preliminary sketch, I was just so enthusiastic I jumped right into it! Which, *ahem* is one way of doing it.

My takeaways: 

• Patience is key. It is important to do an outline of what you want to accomplish before diving in, and then allow the colors to build and blossom on their own without force. 
• With Marc's style I should apply a base layer of bright colors first, get a pattern down, understand the shapes, then go back and really work them into the beauties they can become. 
• I do not like painting on Multi Media Paper. 
• Marc definitely mixed purple using red and blue (I assumed but I wasn't certain) ... This may seem silly, if you know anything about art. For me, though, it was quite the discovery because I have every color of the rainbow at my disposal (and then some) I don't need to *mix* anything, I have purple right next to my blue! BUT to really replicate the value of the purple Marc uses, it MUST be red-blue mix.
• I CAN DO THIS. -- maybe the best take away of this first little test was that I CAN not only replicate different styles, but I can do a great job of it. In this moment I have the pride of a baby taking their first step! 

2. Practice with Pandas

As you know this is a learning process. I am picking up my project as I go along. I think the day I did Tiger I was so excited I just wanted to do more so I did my first application of Marc's style to pandas. This isn't a mistake, because it was a lesson, but I suspect that my future Master Studies and Panda Application will be executed with more planning. So the minute I got done with Tiger  I whipped out  my sketch pad and drafted the first concept art, followed immediately by my first painted sketch on multi media paper.

My idea for the concept was to find some reference photos of pandas playing. In Marc's work animals are behaving in their natural way, and one of the most lovable things about pandas is their playfulness. I sketched out a rough concept of two pandas playing, then used bamboo to break up the background which I would later apply colors and shadow to to mimic that of  Tiger.  In the painting I wanted a purple panda, so I filled in the background with the primary colors and made purple the focus of this work.

My Takeaways: 

• I love the idea of bamboo as a part of the art, but I am not sure I want it to be the ONLY distinguishable background feature. 
• Maybe purple ISN'T the color I want the panda to be... keeping an open mind. 
• In my painting the shapes aren't shapes... they're arbitrary blocks of color with odd shadowing... This is not the work of Marc. While it does have similarities, it definitely doesn't embrace his style. 
• Man this is fun, I can't wait to do more ... I should plan my next master study. 

And so I did... 

3. Full Master Study: Two Cats-Blue and Yellow (1912)  

I chose to do my full master study on Two Cats for a few reasons. First, I have cats and like cats, so  it would fit nicely in my home. Second, I love the swirls and really wanted to find a way to mimic them in Panda 1. Third, I love his use of color and blending, shadowing, and shading.  I especially love that the background has more to it than just shapes, the shapes have meaning, at least to me. 

I dove right in by sketching the outline of this painting on a piece of 11x14 canvas board. *note I am certain Franz Marc did not do this painting on canvas board with acrylic paint, but that is how I am choosing to replicate it since there are several other oil artists on my list and I want variety!* Once I had the outline sketched I decided the best approach, having learned from my previous two paintings, would be to fill it in with a base level of color. Basic non-blended color filled the entire space. I spent several days focusing on the varying shapes of Two Cats and tried to be patient with my shading and details. Finally I did touch ups and had a finished product, of which I am quite proud. 

 Two Cats, Blue and yellow-Franz Marc 1912 

Two Cats, Blue and Yellow-AW 2017

My takeaways: 

• Sometimes being patient can be fun, the results are better when you take your time to develop the colors. 
• Blue and yellow are significant to Marc, so they are significant to me. My pandas should be blue and yellow. 
• Marc uses structures in several of his paintings, I should consider that. 
• Not only is mixing purple the best approach, but (because I was lazy and didn't want to pour new paint) mixing green and orange created the vibrancy and gradient I wanted much more elegantly than when I was using them directly from the tube. 
• All shapes matter. Shapes have meaning, This is not just random. The ball is a toy. There's a third cat hiding under a deck of some kind (even though it is called two cats, silly Franz.) The yellow cat is obviously drinking water from a stream. The round shapes at the bottom may be rocks of some sort. There are shells and leaves, and the beautiful green shape at the top (maybe my favorite element of the piece) is the sun peeking from behind a forest--because of the shadowing I imagine it is the light source. The forest and mountains are also present. The building... Well I am not sure what the building is, it could be any number of buildings, but I think it represents that the cats are domesticated to some degree, they're not wild like some of the paintings without buildings might suggest. 
• A master study, especially my first, will never be as good as the original and that is okay. It is about the process and lessons not about perfection. Also, as my good pal Teddy Roosevelt said "Comparison is the thief of joy" 
• This project brings me so much joy and fulfillment. I am forever grateful for it. 
• Overthinking is a thing, the less I do it, the happier I am. 

If you have made it this far, thank you again. I hope you garnered something from my experience. If you are interested in trying a master study of your own you definitely should! I plan to do this with every style I approach. If you want even more photos and updates as I am completing this process, please feel free to visit my page on facebook and my instagram. I am only posting blogs weekly, but I have been posting my progress as I go on my social media.

Thank you for your support and encouragement.

Go out and try something new!

xoxo,
Manda

Panda 1 - Part 1 - Inspired by Franz Marc

In the intro to this project I mentioned my inspirations come from a suggestion from a friend. Franz Marc was suggested by my friend and fellow artist Mackenzie. Before this I had never seen any of his works or heard his name, but as I learned more about him I became more enthusiastic about his style.

In this process I start by learning as much as I could about the artist, then practice their style using Master Studies which is just the fancy word for copying, finally I plan to apply the style and theories to my own work with the subject of... PANDAS!!!!

There are three significant components to Franz Marc's work, his color theory, his philosophy and love for animals, and his admiration of van Gogh, and similar artists. Marc is widely renowned for his theory of colors and how they represent emotion and attitude: yellow being joy and femininity, blue as strength and masculinity, and red being matter, mankind, anger and destruction.  For me, life is color. I associate colors with almost everyone I know and every event I experience. This connection drew me in to Marc immediately and ignited my hunger for this project.

Marc felt a deep connection to animals, believing they contain a spirituality which humanity has lost. He almost exclusively painted animals, studying their movements, energy, and shapes to create the masterpieces shown below. Horses were, understandably, his favorite-their might and majestic nature is enthralling. When I first saw pandas, which is a moment that changed my life forever, I sat and watched them sleep for over an hour. I just sat on the concrete and watched the round of their back and sides heave with their breath. I could have stayed longer, if I wasn't pressed for time. I plan to explore my true love for the creature later in this series, but for now I will say, like Marc, I see their souls and admire their brilliance and playfulness. Sometimes it is easier to spend time with animals, because they don't question existence, they contain the luster he argues humans have lost.

Finally, when Franz Marc discovered van Gogh, he was instantly enamored by the authenticity of his work. The simple nature and vibrant colors Marc saw influenced a major turning point in his career. He mimicked the heavy use of black, the  use of color, the flow and patterns of land masses and animals van Gogh is known for. In my work, studying Marc, I have become more comfortable with this approach. As an inherent realistic artist, seeing things from the leans of someone so confident in impressionism presented a challenge, but I admire and revere the style and am enthusiastic about how it will shape this project.

Thank you for taking your time to join me in this little lesson. I am so excited to share with you my Master studies and final work on the very first Manda's Panda!

Go out and try something new.

xoxo
Manda

Works by Franz Marc: 

 Tiger

 Two cats, Blue and Yellow

 Yellow cow

Roter Stier

For a full biography on Franz Marc CLICK HERE. 

An Introduction

Let's start at the very beginning, I've been told it's a very good place to start.

I love art, but I am not an artist. 

I come from a family of artists, my dad and both of my brothers have enviable talent. I adore my brothers and talk often about how talented they are not because I need to brag but because I am so proud of their work. I also have a few cousins who colored masterpieces on every page of a coloring book, I was the one scribbling outside of the lines and putting colors where they "don't belong." I have a way of going against the grain.

I can recall the moment I learned the color wheel, also color mixing and blending, I remember being taught how everything in the world is a shape, you just have to mimic those shapes in your work to be an artist. I admired my friends who did art, because I wasn't an artist.

Our Elementary school art teacher petitioned for an animation machine and got it. Looking back I chuckle because we have computers now that do the work of that machine in a fraction of the time taking up a tenth or less of the space, but it was really a big day for our art program. He started an animation club that met in the mornings. It alternated with our morning choir and our morning sports programs.  We came up with the idea of a reverse zoo. The people were the spectacle, the animals the patrons. I distinctly remember having pride in some of the work I did for our final animation. I loved animation club, but I wasn't an artist.

Later in life I began to really focus on music and theater, I was happy to embrace my artistry through those methods and let the big boys (literally) play with the pencils and paints. I sometimes dabbled in doodles but I never took myself too seriously. I knew that it wasn't my place... as I wasn't an artist.

Years later, jumping way ahead to 2010. I was 23, recently divorced, freshly graduated as an interpreter, saw the world as my oyster. I met my now husband, Ben, an artist (obviously) and he said something that absolutely changed my life forever:

Anyone with a tool is an artist. They just have to believe it. 

I couldn't believe it. I knew I could be anything I wanted, except an artist, and here I was with some guy telling me that all along I was wrong...

I would love to tell you that was the moment I picked up a pencil and started practicing art. It wasn't. It takes a really long time to reprogram scripts, and "I am not an artist" was a very well written one in my mind and heart. I definitely putzed around a lot more confidently, though, but I still, in my heart, felt the old story.

It wasn't until my first trip to Wine and Canvas in 2014 that I really saw what I could do. I understand to any serious artist who may be reading this, and even a layman, that learning I could art at a paint and sip may sound hilarious. It kind of is. I think it took me taking the seriousness out of it, and replacing it with fun, for me to really take myself seriously. I accredit some of that to my friend Mary Lee who is an excellent artist and a very patient teacher, who happened to be the first WnC artist I learned from. My mom and I had a blast and within the next 48 hours I had used some of the tricks Mary taught us to create Four more paintings at home. Those paintings are still on our walls.

Over time I went on more paint and sip type adventures and trusted myself more with a paintbrush, and by August 2015 I got the courage to apply to one. I began my work as an artist/assistant at a local paint and sip and saw that whether or not I was a *good* artist, I definitely was an artist. I could copy like the best of them, as was the job at that location, and I was great at giving my patrons the confidence that they could do it too. Who better than me? I had no experience either!

Last year I transitioned to working at the Wine and Canvas that started it all. I am surrounded by brilliant women who have insane skill and I am grateful everyday for the tips and tricks I pick up from them.  In March 2016 I got the urge to try drawing and realized I actually can make a picture with a pencil that looks like a real picture. It was one of the most inspiring moments, but they keep happening, and I keep getting more excited with each one.

Manda's Pandas

One day, not that long ago, I was having a chat about how much I love art with a good friend of mine (another artist, of course--I draw them to me like moths to a flame!) I had started a daily art project and he asked me why I don't do more original work, like I had for my bestie Lisa's Birthday in November. I told him that when I do art for other people inspiration strikes me so easily, but when I try to do art on my own, just out of nothing, inspiration is no where to be found, not to mention lack of motivation.

He said (I am paraphrasing) "It is a wonder to me how you have not done a series called 'Manda's Pandas' you love pandas. The VIDEO of you seeing one for the first time is definitely one of the best things I have ever seen."

*insert sigh and eyeroll here*

I said "Haha yeah, I should." But I didn't take him seriously, because I still, even as a person making money AS AN ARTIST didn't believe I had the right to call myself an artist, let alone have some kind of installment/series. There was nothing there and I figured it would fizzle.

NO less than 48 hrs later I was working at WnC and realized that I don't know much about the variety of styles and movements of art. I have an interest in working in different mediums but have no idea where to even start. Thus the birth of Manda's Pandas.

I returned to tell the friend my idea and his first response was looking forward to my Surrealism and Cubism Pandas. He had given me the next piece of the puzzle, How would I know what styles and mediums to try? Ask my loved ones, obviously. I care about what people think, not because I will shape my thoughts and beliefs of myself from them, but because I believe in collectivism. I feel strongly that together we are stronger than we are apart. So I asked my loved ones what styles they wanted to see, what masters they wanted me to emulate.

Hence the Manda's Pandas Project List (in no particular order):

• Franz Marc 
• Arles Period Van Gogh 
• M.C. Escher 
• Monet
• Kandinsky's Early Work 
• Pointillism
• Expressionism 
• Pop art 
• New age Tattoo style 
• Surrealism 
• Cubism 
• Impressionism  

I am sure I will add more as I go.

So here we are. Together. This is Manda's Pandas: The Creative Journey of an Amateur Artist. I am an artist, I am learning, and I welcome you to learn along with me. I now believe that anyone can be an artist and I want to explore that further, see where it takes me, maybe in the end I will find a style I love and want to continue working in. Thank you so much for joining me in this journey. I can not do it alone.

<3 Welcome