Should you work in series?
Should you work in series?
Tesia Blackburn “Ananda 4” from the Nucifera Series. 22” x 30” Acrylic on Paper, 2017.
I’m a big proponent of working in series and here’s why:
I’m lazy.
I’m cheap.
I’m in it for instant gratification.
Okay those things are true but they have good reasons behind them. You’ll see what I mean.
I’m lazy. In other words, I want to reuse something that I know is working. I mean why reinvent the wheel when you have a perfectly good idea right in front of you? If the first daffodil you drew looks great, why not do another from a different angle? Or another of my favorite shortcuts - crop it into a different image entirely. Take a look at this excerpt from my new book “The Maker’s Book.”
One of my old landscapes from the 1990s. “Angel Peak” Acrylic and pastel on museum board. 30” x 30”
Make a viewfinder and crop out a portion.
The resulting “new” image.
I’m cheap. If you work in series, using the same size canvas or paper over and over again, you can buy in bulk. It’s a lot cheaper to buy canvas in bulk. And, the cool thing about using the same size canvas is that the composition is easier to deal with. If you work in a square format over and over again, you are going to get really good at composing in that format.
I’m in it for the instant gratification. I want to get a “win” right off the bat. The idea of struggling for an idea or pulling my hair out over what to paint just isn’t my thing. So if I have ten paintings of lotus flowers that work, chances are I’m going to go into the studio and try my hand at another lotus flower. I am not going to suddenly take up painting dogs or hedgehogs. I’m going to stick to what I know is working.
When the time comes for me to shift into a new series or a new image, it will happen naturally. At least that’s been my experience over these last three decades or so.
And by the way, a series is not three of something. I don’t care what anyone says. Three does not make a series! You need to really dig in and get the meat out of the idea. Give me twenty of something. It worked for Richard Diebenkorn and the Ocean Park Series; Picasso and his linocuts; Agnes Martin and her sublime works on canvas.
So the next time you are working on something, think about how you can create a series around it. Is it a recurring color, shape or line quality? What did Richard Diebenkorn do that worked so well? Why do Agnes Martin's paintings have such a strong sense of continuity from one to the next? What element of design runs throughout Picasso's linocuts?
These artists knew that deep investigation of a theme or topic will result in art that has depth and breadth and harmony.
Try it for yourself. Find a theme or design element that speaks to you and build and entire series around it.