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Series 24: MANAGING EDGES

Merging Edges – S24L1

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This lesson is S24L1, Merging Edges of the MANAGING EDGES series. Using as her study a bunch of apples hanging from a branch, Dianne methodically demonstrates how paying attention to brushstrokes can enable forming edges that are soft, lost, jazzed or broken, depending upon the kind of expression we want the image to have.

Edges are boundaries that create shapes. How we manage them determines the expression we give of our shapes. That happens when we consciously make choices about how distinct or indistinct we render these shape boundaries. Shapes can appear separate from their surrounding shapes or merged with them. This series of lessons explores ways master artists typically manage edges by allowing them to be sharp, soft, ragged, broken or lost.

 Lessons 1 & 3 are studies, each showing how to use a principle to resolve an issue.  Lessons 2 & 4 each take the previous study to a conclusion, showing how to use those same principles to bring convert the study into a painting.

With every brushstroke we make, we are composing.  Just as with any creation, we begin with a structure, then as the art work begins we place shapes and colors according the concept with which we are working.  But the time comes when we move to a different level of thinking and decision-making–that moment when our intention becomes to bring clarity and resolution to the work.

Among Dianne’s passions about painting and teaching painting is how composing principles can expand creative freedom if the artist transcends the “rule” idea and instead, transforms the principle into a tool that opens creative doors.

Read Dianne’s Compose blog posts HERE.  Visit Dianne’s website and example her work HERE.  And visit her YouTube Channel with dozens of Quick Tips HERE.