Journal to a Muse

Illustration Friday - Influence, a photo by Sultry on Flickr.
Rather than illustrate what it might look if someone were under the influence, or someone were influencing something or someone, I got the idea to "do a sheep" and then analysze what the influences had been on me.

• My love of knitting and most things "fiber" urges me to choose sheep whenever possible! Fat sheep, skinny sheep, white sheep, black sheep, horned sheep, polled sheep, old sheep, young sheep, male sheep and female sheep. If they're wooly, they're eligible models.
• A while back, I decided that Illustration Friday would be a weekly challenge for me to learn more about Photoshop and digital image making. I haven't had any classes, and haven't read any manual all the way through. I ask people random questions and use the "help pages," sometimes. Mostly I just click and experiment. The day I discovered how "layers" worked was a giant step for this artist!
• I like my art to have a sense of fun. Either for me while I'm doing it, or for the viewer when they are viewing it. Sometimes both, but not necessarily.
• Color is what I love most. Often bright, sometimes more subtle, but always color.
• Once I get thinking about shape, composition, rhythm and all the other things artists are told to think about, I have an inner argument with my dead mother. She was a trained artist. And a critical mother. I try to take what I like and leave the rest... but you probably know how BIG a mother's influence can be.
• If it's a good day (and more and more are!), I think about my painting mentor B.L. She always finds something to like. She usually asks what was I trying to say (and often I didn't know I HAD anything to say)!
• And then I see hints of painters whose work I've admired through the years. Thiebaud for his outlines and unexpected colors. Bonnard, Vuillard - ditto. Matisse for his patterning and seemingly casual approach to draftsmanship. Steiglitz, Steig, Feiffer, Renoir and even Lucas van Cranach for "attitude." Durer and Wyeth for observing carefully.
• And then there are the admirers, friends, family and critics. They have an influence, too.