Karin Taylor Interview–Day 3

You Are My Rock

The third reason I liked Isabella and Tiny is the colours and the quality of light. (If you are just catching up on my interview with Karin Taylor You can catch up now on Day One and Day Two). With a bit more rummaging about through your work I discovered this is present in much of your work and I couldn't help wondering where that came from and I was going to ask. However I realised the answer was the first line of your profile "I’m Karin Taylor, my home is Australia, my muse is the ocean" So I had a look through your photography section and there was the evidence - for example "You are my Rock" is a photo and if I was to emulate your pallete I'd run that image through a system and I'd pretty much have a good starter right there.

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So this takes me to my next question.
Do you use any clever techniques to refine your digital pallete when you are doing digital colouring or are you so infused with the ocean and beach that these colours simply beg to be used?
I think what you say is true, I am only at peace truly, when I live by the ocean and can feel the sea air, the breezes, the gales, the beauty of the water, the wonder of the whales and dolphins and all the life that is beside the sea, the eagles, the tiny blue wrens that frequent the shoals, etc.    Therefore, since the ocean has such a deep bearing on my soul, I imagine it's important for me to portray that light.  I discovered that I loved to use pastels (chalk pastels) early on and people would remark that it was strange how they didn't look like pastels, because of the way I used them, they found it hard to figure out what medium I had used.  Although I loved using pastels, I couldn't quite get the translucent effects I was after, so I explored other things, I am still exploring, and would love to use oil paints for translucent effect, however at this time, I am using digital paint and the method I use to get lots of light, is really to build the work up in layers of semi-transparency, and I think this allows the light in and gives them that feeling of being bathed in light.  Because I get a sense of wellbeing, when I am bathed in light, sitting outside in the sunshine for instance, I think that I try to depict that in the work.  I really try hard to communicate through the eyes, but I do struggle with facial expression....so that is sometimes hard, because I will be working on the eyes and perhaps the facial expression doesn't always translate what I'm wishing to say, so more work needs to be done in that area.  Mainly I study faces and expressions and am an avid people watcher, so I can learn how best to portray people, in my own way, to get across to them what I'm trying to communicate.   I want the work to be as pretty and as sweet as possible, to draw the viewer in, and then for them to see more....hopefully to find a message, that goes deeper than the sweetness.  Something to encourage them.

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It's funny how you talk about that attempt to capture light with pigmented materials, it's something, as we mentioned before on Monet and his persistence in repainting the same subject. That required ambience and specific quality of light has taunted and challenged many famous artists. I wish you well in your search and experiments with a pigmented physical media that can do what you require of it. In the meantime I like your use of the digital paint and the layering. Your explanation also explains to me why you choose to digitally paint over sketches when you are clearly very adept with other media. It's good to know that as an artistic media the digital paint has true qualities of it's own beyond not having to wash brushes afterwards.
If you wish your pictures to draw people in and for them to find something, something to encourage them then you can certainly count me as one that it has worked on, so thank you for that Karin.
I do have more questions for you Karin and I'll return to the next one in my next post.

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In the meantime for those of you who don't know Karin's work I'd encourage you set aside a little enjoyment time to check out her artwork. If you find a favourite feel free to leave a comment here or if you are flying by and you are one of the people that Karin has encouraged and helped on the way to developing your own work through her great attitude or through her book or creative exercises then do give us a wave! I know I have some good questions for Karin in my next few posts and it would be great if you got involved and shared that journey with us.
If you already checked out Karin's artwork as a result of yesterday's post then have you took a look at her book?- it's full of yummy creative goodness!