Sunday Summary: Digital Art and Weariness

This week’s Sunday Summary looks at my first attempts to experiment with creating digital art, and why the week has ended feeling a little weary.

Reflections & Digital Art

Salutation Readers,

I trust that your week has gone well and that you have had a pleasant and relaxing weekend.

Talking to my friends, it feels as though many of us have had lots of curved balls from life this week. Some of you will take these in your stride but others, will undoubtedly, have to manage changing of plans or feeling frustrated. I think it is important to be able to acknowledge these moments and accept how they make you feel. All to often, we try to go straight into solution mode, but some very recent and much needed advice was that not every problem needs me to immediately fix, and that it is okay to live in the moment before deciding what to do next.

From a creative aspect, or even just as a point of self development, I often feel that sometimes our best and most brightest achievements come from a moment of adversity or change. To exist, to live an authentic life, I think, is to experience the plethora of colours that life throws our way; it is how we embrace this and then use these colours to grow that matters. In the case of creativity, expressing our emotions and experience ourselves is what makes us human.

I had intended to have the week off work this week, but ended up working Monday and Tuesday afternoon really, and family matters have also taken up much of the latter part of the week. My artistic plans have had to take a back step. A lot of my art projects are in progress and it’s important to have the right headspace otherwise you risk ruining what has been achieved so far. Although this means nothing has been finished, I have flirted with a new medium this week; Digital Art.

One of the benefits of starting this blog is that my friends have spoken to me about their own creative endeavours. One friend in particular introduced me to some tech that allows you to draw which then some software interprets into a digital image. I must say that despite my weariness, it has offered me an easy and mess free way to still have some creative outlets. Are they the most accomplished pieces, no! But it has been fun and excited enough to see how much I could push this as a medium.

Digital drawing experiment using Tayasui software.

So far I have experimented with two drawings. The first, above, was just attempting to draw some flowers. I was using the paint brush and drawing tools on the app and was quite intrigued with how accurate and expressive the marks are with the drawing tool. Keen to test this out further, I started to draw a coke can from life. While it took a little longer using digital art than I would had I used pencil or crayons, I was pleased with the outcome. You can tell it is a can of coke right? Well, I am sure there will be more attempts. I am keen to see how I get on with a landscape. Maybe even something plein air?

Drawing of a can of coke using Tayasui software

Music Choice of the Week

This week, I have been listening to a lot of classical music. For those of you that aren’t fans, please bear with me on this one for a moment.

Earlier I mentioned the need to embrace the emotions of a moment, and for me, one way that I can express myself, particularly when I am experiencing an artistic slump, is through music.

We are all familiar of a lot of pop music, which often or not talks about love and romantic emotions. However, love is just one emotion we feel; there is anger, sadness, happiness, grief, joy, even indifference.

When there are lots of emotions wrapped up into a single moment, it’s not easy to just identify one in particular. For me, that is where I need something more deep to resonate than what I can get from regular popular music; I need something classical. String music in particular I think, can articulate these moments well. A lot can be said, or felt, when played with a high pitch, the tempo or even whether the musician is using long bow techniques.

The piece I have picked this week comes from a relative late comer in classical terms. It was written in 1976, by a relatively unknown Polish composer called Henryk Górecki. The third symphony from Górecki is slightly unusual in that it only has three movements compared to the more traditional four. Its unofficial title is the ‘symphony of sorrowful songs’, and each movement explores a slightly different view point, but with the theme across each movement focusing on motherhood, loss and suffering.

While I would recommend that you listen to the whole symphony, it is the second movement I have chosen for my song of the week. It is a piece full of light and dark, pain and hope. The lyrics are taken from the words scratched into the cell wall by Helena Blażusiakówna, a member of the Góral Community which were persecuted by the Nazis. Helena was held by the Guestapo before being transported by train, but was rescued on the way.

I know it might sound heavy but give it a listen, close your eyes and see if it makes you resonate or connect to something you feel at the moment. Maybe the drone like melody means something to you, perhaps even the high pitch strings making you think of the light from outside coming into the cell.

Roundup

Well I think that’s it for the week. Definitely had a different vibe this week, but then, I can’t write an authentic blog and have the same tone each week. What do you recon, do you mind the contrasting vibe?

I hope you all enjoy the rest of your Sunday evenings and whatever you have planned for the week ahead, I hope it is a good one.

Good health to you all

David x