Fertile Idea

Are all ideas fertile? I guess this one was. The character in the middle is spewing fire from his forehead into the sky... otherwise the sky is raining fire down onto his poor head, either way it sounds hot. Anyways, the doodles I used to make this painting came mostly from a conference that I attended down in Texas. Conferences make the best opportunities for doodles...long lectures, relative anonymity in the crowd, a pen and paper handy...

I've probably covered this in a past blog, but it is worth reviewing, that is, using white, or 'blank paper'. This term is kind of illogical, because if a paper is blank, then how can you use it... if you put paint on it then it's not blank anymore. While you are thinking about that, I'll reiterate that I do not use white paint for my watercolours... white paint does exist but it is more like a heavy acrylic or guache, and most watercolour painters (including myself) consider this to be not really watercolour. A similar case can be made for black paint, it is too heavy and dark and does not belong in watercolour. Of course rules are made to be broken, see 'Birdman' where I use chinese black ink... however it must be called mixed-media as opposed to watercolour. Anyways, there are several areas that are just the blank paper in this painting... mostly along the diagonal axis of the composition. I made the blank sections seem connected, so it looks like a sort of river of white going across the page, that helps the viewers eye move across the page. I also like how the white background makes the doodles stand out. The first Doodleism painting I did that featured a lot of blank paper showing was "The 2010 Solution."

22x30" cold press, 2012