Chris Campbell Watercolors: NEUROGRAPHS and COLOR SCHEMES

I LOVED PAINTING THIS!

What is a neurograph?

Neuroart and neurographical art are the same things. You can draw both real and abstract objects. Neurographica is an entire process that is based on a psychological method. It was developed by Russian psychologist and artist Pavel Piskarev in 2014. When we use the Neurographic algorithms while drawing we enlarge the number of working neurons. Both types of neurographic art are really fascinating. They use creativity as a therapeutic approach. This form of art helps to realize how the inner being reacts to the outer world. Neurographical art is a way to transform one’s fears and chaos in our world into something more calm and peaceful. Neuroart is a way to transform your stress into something harmonious. (from Wikipedia)

There are only 2 or 3 basics to creating neurographs. First, you try to put yourself in a peaceful atmosphere, with calm music if you desire. Using your NON DOMINANT hand, and using a dark pen that moves smoothly across paper, start at one edge of the paper. Draw loops and lines,--doodling, if you will--and end up on another edge of the paper. I added some circles to mine after the original "doodle." You can add more lines, as long as they end up going off the page.

Using your pen, you find where the lines intersect, and round off each sharp angle. Thinking of this as a meditative approach, this represents smoothing out the hard edges of problems, pains, concerns.

Here is an 8 minute video that demonstrates the process:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NoIgdt-uQR0

There are others that you might enjoy also on youtube.

Most tell you to add color in afterward, but I wanted the freedom to create my colors first, to show some things about color schemes and glazing colors.

So, our first step, before creating the neurograph lines, was to choose a color scheme. I chose a triad of yellow, blue-green, and red violet. I wet the entire paper, put yellow over the top randomly, added magenta at the bottom and into the yellow, then, before it lost its shine, I added some popcorn salt. Each person had to choose a color scheme, and begin with 2 of those colors for the base.

I also used a comb to embed some lines of texture into the piece. Dry completely.

When that was dry, I squiggled a line of dark blue and sprayed it with water to keep the edges interesting, tipping the painting a little to make the paint flow. I added some dark sodalite genuine to make it darker and add some texture. This had to be dried completely.

Next I used a circle template. I found parts that I thought were most interesting and drew different sized circles around them in pencil. I used my 3rd color plus more quin gold to paint around the circles. I wanted to "glaze" the background, creating more interest in the color. I tried to avoid hard edges except around the circles, which I want to come forward.

After this I used a sharpie to color around the circles. Then I created a "web" for the neurograph.

After that, I rounded off all edges, creating more small forms as I went along. I used some white ink for some marks and dots, and irridescent paint in areas I wanted more interest in. Pretty happy with the results. Seems like a nice way to cover up any "accidents."