L'Etoile De La Matin

    Like all of us, I have layers. What is at first seen is me, and what is seen after time and upclose is me too. Glances at people reveal instant impressions, yet when savored.....looked at through eyes who have experienced the person, what is revealed can often be the beauty of time. Scars, wrinkles, marks of life show life lived, sometimes hard and sometimes peacefully.
   I hope today I can see beyond first impressions, beyond the stories of life's lines, through the glisten of an eye and into the universe of the soul. Therein, lives beauty all else merely tries to reflect.
   For today, I wish you a timeless moment, where you may catch your glance or get caught in the eternity of another's being, and see the most beautiful of things. You.

"L'Etoile De La Matin"

(Morning Star)

Self Portait

18x24

Acrylic on canvas

For a step by step photo montage of this painting, please visit my youtube channel.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QFIlA1vrq0k

tina jones

p.s. Title given by an anonymous soul who has loved me beyond comprehension.

   

Perspective of Emotion: Seeing

If you want to know who I am, listen carefully to what I say about others. There will always be a bit of truth about me in what I say or think about you or others. Everything I perceive is seen through my own eyes and experiences. My beliefs about the world and myself are one and the same.
  No person who speaks of others is a mystery. I see what I am.
  Guard your thoughts and words. Be especially careful of any negative words. Instead of "stupid" or "idiot" try "struggling" or " still learning." In either case, you'll be announcing to the world who you are, not the other person. Seek to see beauty and find things to be grateful for. Talk about these things and often! You are becoming them. When invited to complain or gossip, give of love instead. See the beauty in those who might hide behind talk of others. They speak of their own fears. Love them away, and never condemn. To do so is to condemn yourself. To love them, to lift them, is to rise with them in dignity.
    You cannot improve yourself without improving the world. We are one. When you see fault in another apply love to correct it in yourself. Again, we see what we are. I am part of you, and you are part of me. To take care of me, to heal me,  love yourself. Likewise, when you see beauty in the world, guess who you're seeing? smiles. You.
   Bring smiles where you can, point out the perfection of dandelions, the dance of life, and see that all is well, and all answers are known. If I see anger, it is with my own angry eyes. If I see incompetence, it is with my own insecurity. Therefore, see the abundance of forgiveness and the wisdom of the simple. This is not to claim the nonexistence of pain, but to claim your place in Love.  The problem with what I see is never what I see, but a problem with my own eyes. I have to shift my focus and look in the direction of Love. Then I find the beauty I see reflected in me.
  It is in you too. I see it all of the time. smiles.
tina jones


"Patience"
(Self Portrait)
36x48"
Acrylic on Canvas



"Headless Burros" How to Use Reference Photos

Photo by Tina Jones "Headless Burrow"

Using photos as a reference. If it's not believable in the photo, it won't be believable in paint. This particular photo is an extreme situation to show how "off" something can look. The rear burro turned his head to nibble/scratch at his far side just as I snapped the photo, and now appears headless. If I wanted to shock scare people, I'd paint it as is. If not, I'd use another photo.

   I take ten to twenty reference photos for each subject, because people and animals move, light changes and what looks normal at a glance may not upon later inspection.

•    The photo is where I choose composition. Usually, I get something workable in the initial shot, but often I crop the photo. In this case, I'd rather the burrows be toward the left side, so I'd crop an inch or two off of the left side of the photo. This is my planning stage.
• Do I want the burro/burros center top to bottom?
• Do I want to omit the far burrow or use another reference photo for that one? 
• Should I move the bottom of the fence? It creates a dead-center line in this compostion. Center is often dull to the eye. Placement of that line at 1/3 from the bottom or top makes for more interest in composition.
• Do I want the ground shadows as is? I look at shadows on the ground/surface as part of the composition. Do I want them as is, or would omitting some make for a more cohesive piece?
• Much of the shadow here is cast from a nearby tree. Will it be believable as is, or might I put only shadows under the burrows for better composition?
• What about the lone vertical steak on the fence? Is it adding anything to my idea of painting the burrows? Might it be ommitted? Might this work without the fence altogether?
• Do I want to paint the grass, or might this burrow look ok in a desert, among rocks or sipping water?

   These are some questions I encourage you to ask yourself about your reference photos. Be critical of them. I use reference photos as a sort of shopping list of what I'd like in my painting, taking what I like and leaving the rest. Following is a quick, loose sketch to show how I chose to place the burro on my canvas.





 Burro Composition Sketch in Acrylic



Happy Painting!

tina jones

Painting and Drawing: Seeing For Fun.

Drawing is a fairly simple act of holding an instrument that makes a mark like a pencil an applying that mark to a surface like paper. Showing people how to see is the most important aspect I think. Once a person can see, recreating the marks becomes a straightforward process.
   Our minds have set ides about what different objects like "car," "dog," "cat," bowl" or "Person" looks like. We will impose these ideas onto what we see, then images become distorted, often until what is right in front of us no longer looks like what it is, but more like our ideas. In the following image, I've hopefully removed any concrete idea of what the object is. I've taken one of my works in progress and cropped, rearranged and pasted it digitally in order to present only small jumbled parts.
   The object of this is not to figure out what the painting was, rather to look at the random shapes and see what images you can find. After the first image, I'll post a list of five images to get you started. Seeing them isolated will help you find them in the larger picture. There are many other possible images here. See how many you can find. There are no limits and no correct, or wrong answers. The exercise is to help develope seeing as an important tool in drawing. Have fun!

                      Door Handle  

                       Marilyn Monroe

Man with Mustache and Sail Boat

      Man with Glasses and Scarf

                                   Sad Eye

                          

In a few days, I'll post another exercise containing the original painting without rearranging.

tina jones.