How Does Someone Connect With What I Say? Or Write? Or Paint?
I’m learning how to use less detail in areas of my portraits outside a small focal area.
I’m learning to look at things straight-on and, while not moving my eyes, think about how I see the periphery. Certainly it’s not detailed. Important to the overall picture, but not focal. 
In this painting-from-a-photo of Skip*, I’m focused on the eyes. His ear and mouth become less detailed, their shadows and lines generally in place, as they would appear in my peripheral view. A bit obscure. Supportive, but not focal.
I want people to see Skip’s eyes. They convey kindness and a slight sense of humor. A degree of intelligence.
The viewer looks and wonders what his story is — imagines his/her own story from the bits of information I’ve given them with the paints.
If I paint in too much information, there is nothing left to wonder about. I will have shut the door on their imaginings…
How About Written Words? How Much Detail is Needed to Start the Story?
Each blog post I write paints a piece of something. Whatever the topic is. Not much detail… but enough to let you imagine and finish the story as it relates to your own life. Your own dreams. You are free to take it wherever you will.
And you have, my friends! Your comments during the life of the Over Coffee blog have enriched it many times over. You’ve given me new directions to think about and grow. New ideas to apply to my own life. You’ve started new stories for me to imagine.
To the point that, now when I leave comments elsewhere, I ask myself these questions before submitting:
- Do my comments add to the story begun by the blog writer?
- Do they make or suggest a point other readers can relate to?
- Is my comment to the point? Have I detailed just enough?
- Is it something I can bring back to my own blog and share with Over Coffee readers?
- If a question has been asked, have I addressed it?
- What is the take-away value for whoever reads my comment?
I care about the readers. You give me a reason to speak. And write. And paint. 
Thank you!
Valerie brought us a bag of magic fortune cookies to have with our coffee… I’ve only eaten a few. So help yourselves.
Do people connect with what you’re trying to say?
*Photo courtesy of Skip Allen, from the Painter Talk online art community.
{ 9 comments… read them below or add one }
Good theme, and your portrait illustrates it nicely. I do the same thing with my dog portraits. A good story always leaves the audience wishing there was more! The trick is to know when you’ve said/written/painted enough, and when you’ve overdone it, especially when you can’t see if your audience is yawning! Karol
Haha! We can only hope they’re not yawning!
One way I determine if I’ve overdone it is to do it and leave it. Come back later — the paintings I set up so I can walk in cold. Whatever is wrong announces itself.
And my writing either flows or stops me and I go Huh? Then I know I’ve not tied things together, or have taken a different path from what I intended. Or just said more than is necessary to the point. (A lot like painting.) Thanks for coming by — hope you got some of Valerie’s cookies.
Karol really points out an important concept. When we blog, we are really letting loose our thoughts and words and have little control over where they land. We can’t pick up on all those handy little visual clues when not only can we not see our audience we don’t even know who they are.
A blogger has to trust their instincts about when their post is “done”. It is a balance to know when a concept needs a specific analysis and when it needs to just be simply planted.
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Great post Barb. I hadn’t thought about using less detail purposely. Which is why I’m no master artist
I love this portrait and as for the comments you leave, for me at least, they are always uplifting.
Anita
p.s. CommentLuv looks like it’s working! yay
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Thanks Anita! For your comments, for all your help keeping things working on my blog, and for your friendship.
Excellent points, Bean. I suppose that comes with time and practice. Something discernible after enough feedback from readers.
I do know — from friends, family members, and social media acquaintances — that my posts are read by some who do not want to leave comments. I get some emails from subscribers — which is good for feedback too.
Reading a lot of blogs helps me learn the process more specifically as well. What are the bloggers I admire doing? What kind of public feedback are they getting?
Thanks so much for coming by, Bean.
William Zinsser offers some of the best advice around on writing, and he lists “the four basic premises of writing” as “clarity, brevity, simplicity, and humanity.” I’m thinking this applies to drawing and painting as well, as do Zinsser’s opening two sentences in his well-known essay “Simplicity”
(http://tinyurl.com/bcskjo): “Clutter is the disease of American writing. We are a society strangling in unnecessary words, circular constructions, pompous frills and meaningless jargon.”
Zinsser points out that “The writer must therefore constantly ask himself: What am I trying to say?” I suspect the artist must also ask this question. But I do think the writer has an advantage because it is a lot easy to strike out unnecessary words on a page than unnecessary lines on a canvas.
PS: Good cookies and good fortunes for everyone, I trust!
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Ahh — Terro. I have that book of Zinsser’s. After reading your comment last night, I dug it out and took it to bed with me. Not smart. Not relaxing the mind a bit. Hahaha!
It was originally published in 1976, but what he wrote is as true today as then — except for the timing and medium. Back then he said we had about 30 seconds to hook a reader — now the reader knows at first glance, and if she reads at all, we have about 3 seconds for her to decide if it’s worth her precious time. She can read the whole thing in 30 seconds! Or not.
Simplicity — it’s a word that does comfort me. I have signs to myself in several places: Pare down!
Thank you so much. Glad you liked the cookies. Think I’ll head over to Plum Duff.
Hey, I read a lot of blogs on a daily basis and for the most part, people lack substance but, I just wanted to make a quick comment to say GREAT blog!…..I”ll be checking in on a regularly now….Keep up the good work!
-Robert Shumake
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