Artist/Artifice (Whatever)

Most people don't think themselves creative, but each day we push our own individual narratives forward. We make choices, and through action or inaction, these decisions become part of our story. A grain of sand is a mountain to something smaller than it, so then how big are our interactions really? What's the true scale of a word? How impactful is a plea for help? What are the consequences of a touch? How do these things relate to our stories as people?

The only things that are truly "real" to us are the boundaries between each other. Differences in shape, color, size, this is how we navigate the world. Take away those methods of distinction and we end up in endless grey.

I guess that's why I've always been drawn to abstract art; it makes me try to understand things in a different way. It's a means of looking at objects, people, feelings - from the inside and outside - with an open mind.

I don't know what this piece means, but it got me here so maybe that's meaning enough.

That's all for tonight, I'll hopefully be posting more art soon!

Through Eyes of Kindness

So much has happened lately, in my own life, and around the globe. Every day we're exposed to scenes of loss, heartbreak, and "righteous" anger in response. As I was sitting at my computer the other day I decided to express my feelings about all of this through art, this piece is the result.

I think that in life we're all desperately trying to connect with each other by any means that we can; whether it be sharing a story with a friend, a smile, or striking up a conversation with a stranger. We want to surround ourselves with people to ground us, center us, guide us, and to help fulfill us - and whatever we feel our ultimate purpose in this life to be. I feel like most of us view people that would cause others harm as individuals doing just that, fulfilling their purpose to cause harm, but I disagree. People that maim and murder, in my eyes, are people that have lost the tools that allow them to connect with those around them the way they normally would. They aren't "programmed to kill," or "inhuman," they're doing the only thing they can to connect - to commit atrocities that bring the attention of the entire world upon them. In today's world it seems like the cry of a mother that has lost her son echos farther than the laughter of that boy while he was alive. We need to treat the disenfranchised, the sick, and the troubled, with kindness. We need to connect with those around us. We must stop using hate and violence to respond to those that are violent and hateful to us.

It's our responsibility to create and maintain an environment that supports and surrounds our fellow humans with love, and I believe this will only happen when we can see others without hate.

Hello again!

Hey everyone, long time no see! I took a little break but I'm back with something new for you this evening.

While I was away I found that I felt digital art was getting me down. We might have things like Wacom tablets to help us create in a digital space, but it's just not the same as working with traditional materials. Drawing everything a thousand times over in Photoshop was starting to get humiliating. I know I can draw beautiful lines with a pencil or pen, but a stylus just can't seem to capture the fluidity of those strokes. For that reason what I've got to share this evening is an actual painting, I used acrylics and everything! Check it out!

I absolutely love this painting! Not only do I like the finished product, I really enjoyed making it. The proof may be in the pudding, as the saying goes, but the fun is in the creating! Now this might look a little abstract, but it's actually based on a picture I took today. You'll find that picture below.

Can you tell what it is? It's a close-up of a palm tree, right up at the very top, just before where the fronds come out. It was in my front yard and looked cool, so I thought it deserved a photo. I just love the texture in tree bark, it's so beautiful. For that reason I wanted to try and capture it in a painting. Now the color is off a bit between the two, the reason being that my printer is horrible. I tried to print the image so I could use it as a color reference, but no matter what I did my printer made the colors appear cooler than they actually were. That meant I had to do my best to remember what they really looked like! I'd say that in that respect I'd score maybe a 6 out of 10, haha!

I took a few more photos out in the yard this afternoon, and since I have some paint and canvases left over you might be seeing another painting from me soon.

I'll leave you all with a gif; first showing the reference image, then the painting. Thanks for stopping by, and I'll see you next painting!

A Break, Not Broken

Hey everyone, I don't have any art for you this evening but I do want to discuss my plans for the future of this blog.

I've posted a lot of artwork here, I've made a ton of discoveries through the work I've done, and it has been really fun! I also feel like that it has become a habit that's starting to be unproductive. Instead of focusing on the work I need to be doing to get better, I've condemned myself to throwing up a post here each day and calling it progress.

I know I mentioned before that I wanted to start doing something different, and I think that "something different" is going to be taking a step back for a bit. I'm not giving up on this blog, but I need to reevaluate my approach to improving as an artist.

This might be my last post for awhile, or it might be my last post for the next few days. I just want to make sure that I really start putting more work in so that I can get better, and if I've got something to share you'll be able to find it here!

Thanks for sticking with me, I'm sure I'll see you all soon!

Rats, er, mice!

Last night I decided I was going to do something different, and tonight I did just that! While these aren't the most impressive things I've ever drawn, they were fun! Check it out.

I drew the sketch at the top right first, but I couldn't quite use my tablet to create lines that looked the way I wanted, so I decided to switch it up. The next mouse I drew was the one on the center-left. Instead of working from a line drawing I decided to block in the mouses' shape first with a medium grey. I then added in some darker tones to help define its body a bit better, at that point I decided to start again because its pose wasn't really working for me. My final doodle was the largest mouse in the image. I followed the same steps that I used on the second mouse, but added more in the way of value and detail. This was a fun little exercise that helped me to develop a plan of attack for digital studies. It also made me realize my digital sketching technique could use some work. Guess I'll have to figure out some drills I can do to improve!

That's all for this post, check back tomorrow for something new!

A Beautiful Failure

Last evening I started the painting I'll be sharing with you now, but about halfway into the process I began listening to something titled "Why Your Drawings Suck" on YouTube. Let me just say that it was more than illuminating. Before I get into the details though, I'm going to let you see the image I was working on. Check it out!

In the interest of full disclosure I did kind of give up on this about three quarters of the way through, but there's a reason behind that! And that reason is; this sucks. It sucks. This is sucky art. I don't expect everyone that might be reading this also has the time to watch a twenty six minute long video, so let me summarize it to qualify my previous statement. The artist that created that video listed several factors that contribute to "art that sucks," I'm gonna put those below.

• Line Dependency
• Lack of References
• Technique
• Confidence
• Not Drawing Enough
• Community

Now, let me go ahead and use these bullet points to tell you why this piece sucks. I didn't use any references, I haven't been drawing enough, and I have no real community around me to critique my work. I think I can say with confidence that I have some confidence in my ability (technique), and I've never used lines as a crutch, so that checks three out of six off that list. I feel like I'd be in a much worse situation if I were struggling in other areas, so if these are the problems I have, I'm not to bummed about it.

It's really kind of crazy but I included this in my blog yesterday, and this was before I started listening to that video, "It's impossible to draw what you imagine to if you can't realize what's in front of you". That's my problem in a nutshell, and listening to Istebrak (the creator of that video) confirmed that for me. I really need to start doing more studies, use references when I have a solid concept that I want to realize, and get involved with more artists.

I find it easy for me to forget that when you're at a computer you have access to almost all of the information in the world, along with the people that share it. I so frequently use it to browse the same websites, talk to the same people through social media, and do the same stuff! For that reason I think it's time to do something different, to start being really serious about turning my passion into a career. So that's what I intend to do.

That's all for this post, check back tomorrow for something new!

Study, study, study

Sometimes it's nice to take a break from drawing imaginatively and draw from life! That's just what I did today, take a look!

To be fair, only one of these things was actually drawn from life (the sketch on the left), but it was a fun exercise! The drawing on the right side of the page was done from a picture I found of a pomegranate online. They're really a very beautiful fruit, I can see why they wound up in old masters' paintings. I used to think drawings like these were pointless, but now I realize the value of them. It's impossible to draw what you imagine to if you can't realize what's in front of you!

That's all for this post, check back tomorrow for something new!