Digital Drawing Day - Abstraction

(noun) - Abstraction usually refers to Abstract Art, artworks that do not represent a being, place or thing. Abstraction can also refer to depicting a being, place or thing in a simplifed, generalized manner, such as using a circle to represent the sun.

That second part of the definition is the kind of abstraction that most interests me—that simplifying, distilling and dealing with objects as shapes and forms— color and composition. It seemed to me that this drawing app might be an interesting way to work at using a photo of something as a starting point for something quite abstract. Here is the photo I started with. 

In the app I could put each of the shapes on its own layer and then fiddle with color and composition by trying different things on individual layers without affecting the other layers. I changed the color a lot before settling on what you see. I could see that the two egg-shaped objects in front of the candle were too similar in size, so I made changes to the one on the right in both size and shape to keep it interesting. It was an opportunity to introduce another diagonal to the composition, then i echoed it in the shadow. The little brownish blob on the left hand edge was a mistake, when I accidentally put my thumb on the screen. Then I saw that it actually improved the overall balance so I incorporated it. 

This may not look like much to you, but it was a pretty revealing and challenging exercise. I could have kept going with endless variations, but, as Ray always says, it's important to know when to quit. To which my friend June would add a <snort>!

iPad, Sketch Club app, New Trent Arcadia stylus. 

Next challenge: yellow

Does it seem silly that I am making up my own challenges? It was how we started and I find a challenge motivating and I promise I haven't already decided what to do and then call it the challenge. Also, I am still hoping to coax June and/or some of you to accept the occasional challenge and join me!