Minimalism

04-26-2026 at 10:18 pm

While making My Pretty, I’m trying to leave a lot of negative space and that requires restraint with the leaves. And I’m struggling. Restraint isn’t part of my art process apparently and I will often do too much and overwork art. Even my doodle confetti feels like maximalism.

I don’t necessarily think I need to restrain my art, but some pieces feel like they need it. And even if I allow myself to go wild, I need to learn how to just stop before I ruin it. These trees demonstrate what I”m talking about…I tried really hard to restrain myself with the leaves and I think I did a pretty good job overall, but it looks like a thick carpet. I didn’t mean for it to be a thick carpet, I wanted it to be more sparse and include different textured greenery. But I went hard with these leaves and now it blankets the trees.

ref. Hot and Cold Trees, p. 58

I know it’s a learning process, but my instincts are always to do more. I try to embrace it but need to figure out how to worth with negative space better.