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Sep 1, 2010 Art General, Painting
As artists, we see a lot of artwork. If you’re like me, you probably admire a range of styles. I periodically get a twinge of “I wish I could do that,” but in reality it’s not a subject I am drawn to. There’s nothing wrong with having many interests and experimenting with new techniques (in fact, I encourage it!), but identifying your artistic strengths can help keep you focused and lead to a more mature and developed art practice. It is also an important step in creating a body of work. Once you know your strengths, you can either use them to your advantage, or challenge them.
Let’s look at a couple ways to identify your strengths.
Artifact Experiment
I did this exercise in the last year of my BFA program and it was a huge eye opener.
Each person was asked to bring a selection of “artifacts” from our lives. We weren’t told what kind of artifacts or what they were for, just to pick 6-10 items from our lives.
* If you want to try this exercise, I suggest you think of your artifacts now, before you read about their purpose!
One by one, we shared out items and discussed what they had in common. It was amazing how each person’s artifacts had a common theme. One person’s items were all about her family. Another person’s were the same oatmeal colour. Another’s had to do with comfort.
I was one of the last to share and I remember panicking, thinking that I hadn’t understood the assignment. I couldn’t see any relation between my items, but when it was my turn, another student said, “it’s like little vignettes of your life.” And it was! The artifacts I chose reflected my linear, compartmentalized way of thinking.
With a little abstract thinking, we can apply these themes to an art practice. The family person might focus on ideas of relationships and connections. The oatmeal person has a colour scheme to work with and the comfort person could investigate ways to express softness and warmth.
For me, it translated into creating a whole image out of parts, fragments, of another image. Compartmentalize.
Overall Survey
Rather than looking at your life, this exercise looks at your art.
Go through all of your old work and select the most successful pieces, regardless of style and subject matter.
Again, we’re looking for patterns and themes. What is it that all or most of your best work has in common? You may need to see past the superficial subject matter and try to examine every possible facet of your art and the decisions you make.
When I did this with my own work, I was surprised at the similarities I found. I compared my old drawings of fantasy creatures, a selection of my favorite school assignments and more recent abstract paintings. Even though they appeared to be completely different, closer inspection revealed that they had colour palettes of the same intensity, a highly structured composition and quite often a reference to the grid.
For example, look at these two works: a coloured pencil drawing of a fairy and a constructed abstract painting. Opposites? Well, they both have the same intense oranges and lines that draw the eye to a central focus. Both embody (or attempt to embody) a feeling of suspension and weightlessness. And these are the things that intrigue me!
Final Thoughts
These exercises alone may not give you what you need to develop a body of work, but htey can provide you with a jumping off point by ientifying the things you have a deep interest in. By working with your identified strengths, you can begin to develop your ideas and your unique artistic language.
Recent Entries
Aug 27, 2010 Drawing, Tutorials
Hair on its own can be enough to send the beginning portrait artist into fits of anxiety.
Make it curly hair and the anxiety only increases!
Curly hair presents its own set of unique challenges, but at the end of the day, drawing it is no different from drawing straight hair.
The key to drawing realistic, curly hair is paying close attention to the interlocking shapes, building layers of texture with your pencil strokes, and simplify, simplify, simplify!
If this is your first time here, make sure you check out my tips for drawing hair and my tutorial for straight hair. I’ve also written about how to draw different hair colours.
This tutorial features a slightly different technique than my tutorial for straight hair. Instead of shading in the values, I am using only pencil strokes to create volume. Both techniques are good and valid and produce similar effects; it’s just a matter of preference!
Our reference image again comes from the Wetcanvas Image Library, which is a great place to go for royalty free images to practice your drawing skills.
First, we’re going to use an Hb or 2H pencil to draw our gridlines. Then we can start to map out the basic shapes created by the hair. To help you identify these shapes, it can be useful to squint at the reference. This is where it’s important to simplify. You can’t draw every single hair, instead focus on the “chunks” of hair and the major shadows and highlights. Follow the grid to help you get an accurate line drawing. Carefully erase the gridlines.
Next, using a B pencil,we will lay in the pencil strokes in the direction of the hair growth. The important part here is that you treat each chunk as separate. Use a wrist-flicking motion to create each pencil stroke, going from the darkest part of each chunk and pulling towards the highlight. Build up layers in the darkest areas, letting the pencil lines taper off. Pull a few strokes all the way through the highlight as well. It’s also essential to make sure that each pencil stroke curves in the direction of the curl.
Now we’ll use a 2B to darken the shadows and add another dimension to the hair. Again, pull some lines all the way through the highlight, but focus on building layers in the darkest areas. You want to make sure that your pencil is nice and sharp!
All we have left are a few finishing touches. Use a kneaded eraser to clean up the highlights. You can also use a 4B or 3B to make the shadows even darker. The last thing we need to do is add some fly-away hairs. No hair sits flat and perfect, so adding some fly-aways will make your drawing look that much more realistic.
Did you like this? Let me know what other tutorials you’d like to see!
Aug 23, 2010 Promotion and Exhibition
A couple of weeks ago I talked about the importance of informally acknowledging your goals. This practice can help you begin the process of breaking an overwhelming aspiration into manageable steps, an essential part of attaining your goals.
Probably the most common and overwhelming of an artist’s goals is that of getting a gallery exhibition. What do you need to do? Where do you start?
Here is a checklist of the steps I believe are necessary to prepare you for applying for a gallery exhibition. Where you are in your art career will determine where you are on the checklist. Obviously many of these steps will require time and dedication. This isn’t something you can do in an afternoon! If you are early in your career, it may take a year or more before you’re ready to apply for an exhibition.
For a more detailed explanation of any of the steps, click on the links provided.
The “Get Your Art Into a Gallery” Checklist
Create a cohesive body of work.
From your body of work, select the art for your proposal.
Get good quality documentation of your selected works.
Research galleries to find the right venue for your art and find out their submission guidelines.
Write an artist statement.
Write a proposal outlining the details of your exhibition.
Create your artist resume or CV detailing your education and accomplishments as an artist.
Write a short cover letter to each gallery introducing yourself and your art.
Assemble your exhibition proposal.
Ensure that your entire package is presented in a professional way.
Once your exhibition package is complete, you are ready to ship it out to your intended galleries! Don’t forget to check their submission deadlines.
Also remember that you probably will not hear back for several months. It takes time for the curators to go through every submission.
Extra Advice: Keep track of the galleries you’ve applied to and their responses. Don’t get discouraged by a “thanks but no thanks” letter. You can always try again the following exhibition year!
Aug 18, 2010 Promotion and Exhibition
Most professionals agree that a business card is one of your most valuable marketing tools. It’s small, portable, relatively affordable and can be given to anyone and everyone you meet.
The trick, of course, is getting your business card to work for you.
Design
Some people will tel you that artists are not graphic designers and that you should hire someone to design your business cards for you. Others will say that as an artist you’re in the perfect position to design your own promotional material. My stance? It depends.
If you
- have access to a program like Photoshop, Gimp or Coreldraw;
- have some experience with said program;
- are comfortable with designing your own products;
- and have extra time to devote to the design process
by all means design your own business cards!
I design my cards myself for a variety of reasons: it’s inexpensive, it gives me complete control, and I enjoy it. As with anything, there is a learning curve. My business cards of several years ago definitely look less professional than those I have now, and in a few years I’ll probably look back and say the same thing!
If you’re hesitant or uncomfortable on the computer, you may want to look into different options.If you decide to hire out, make sure you work closely with your designer to get the look you want. Artist business cards are slightly different than other run-of-the-mill cards and need special considerations.
Graphics
Personally, I like to keep graphic elements to a minimum. Unlike other businesses, you don’t need any kind of logo or other designs. The most prominent graphic on your card should be your art. Let me emphasize: your art should be on your card! If there’s no art on your business card, you’ve done something wrong already!
Make sure you start with a good quality image, then build your other design elements around it. Your card should compliment and showcase your work, not compete with it.
I’m a bit of a minimalist when it comes to design. My advice is to not get too fancy; sometimes the simplest layouts are the most effective.
One option to showcase your work is to crop it to create a “detail” view. You can then use this detail as your background. Another option is to feature your art on one side of the card and have your information printed on the back.
If you’re looking for inspiration, check out these creative business card designs.
Essential Information
Remember that your business card is a pretty small space to work with. You don’t want to cram everything about yourself onto it. Instead, stick with the basic, essential info and include it in a way that is clear and logical. You don’t want people to have to search for anything.
The most important information is your name, phone number, e-mail address, website (if you have one), and possibly your mailing address.
Remember:
- keep fonts legible
- make sure your text stands out from the background
- use a big enough font size (no smaller than 10)
If people can’t read your business card, you’ve failed!
Tweak It
I have always found that my first design is always a bit flat and lifeless. The second design is always better! Don’t be afraid to move things around and try different colour combinations. If you need cards for an event, make sure you leave yourself enough time to tweak the design.
Printing
Once you’re perfected your design, you will need to decide if you want to print your cards yourself or have someone do them for you.
I’ve always printed my own cards. Here’s why:
- I can print small quantities of cards
- I can change my design frequently to reflect my latest work
- I can print multiple designs to feature different artworks
- I have more control over the process
To print business cards at home, you will need a decent printer. For paper, I recommend the business card paper you can get from almost any stationery store. The one I use is a heavy, white, card stock that easily snaps apart without any perforations. I’ve always had great experiences with this! It can even be printed on both sides.
Conclusion
Whether you design and print them yourself or have them done professionally, the purpose of your business card is to show peole what you do (your art), who you are (your name), and how they can contact you (your info). Include those elements, arrange them in a tasteful, legible, pleasing way, and you’re on the right track!
Aug 15, 2010 Drawing
I recently got an e-mail from a reader asking me how to draw dark hair. Drawing different coloured hair has more to do with the pencils you use than using different techniques. Here are the guidelines I use when drawing blonde, brunette, and black hair.
To learn more about the specific techniques for drawing realistic hair, read my hair drawing tips and check out my step-by-step tutorial.
Blonde Hair
Here I have used only two pencils: a 2H and a B. I started with the 2H as the bottom layer, pulling each stroke towards the highlight in the centre. It’s important to let a few pencil strokes go all the way through the highlight. Then I used the B to darken the shadows, also pulling a few strokes all the way across the highlight.
With blonde hair, the shadows aren’t as dark and the highlight area is usually larger and brighter.
Brown or Brunette Hair
Brunette hair requires more layers than blonde hair to create the darker values. I used exactly the same method and technique as I did for blonde hair, but I also used a 2B pencil to create the darker shadows.
You’ll notice that the highlighted area is smaller and looks more like individual hairs are reflecting light. For brunette hair, you will want to draw more pencil strokes through the highlight.
Black Hair
Again, I started with a 2H pencil, then a B pencil, then a 2B pencil. For black hair, I use an even darker pencil to create the rich, dark shadows. Here I’ve used a 4B and a 6B pencil. It’s all about creating layers to simulate the texture of the hair.
I’ve also made sure to continue the dark pencil lines throughout the highlight. At the very end, I used a kneaded eraser to pick up a few bright highlights.
Conclusion
As you can see, it’s not really a matter of using different techniques. Drawing darker hair requires more layers and softer pencils. Light hair has a big, broad highlight and dark hair has highlights on just a few hairs.
As always, use a good reference image and pay close attention to the value. When working with pencil, it’s the value that will communicate the hair colour!
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