5 Subscribe-Worthy Artist Blogs
Sep 14, 2009 Art General
My plan for today was to do an ear tutorial, but alas I ran out of daylight before I could finish (daylight being necessary for the documentation of the drawing process). I have to apologize for my recent lack of meaty posts. I’ve just started back at work after having two months off and I’m re-adjusting to my new schedule. Add to that planning a surpirse birthday party for my other half and suddenly it’s that much harder to find time to paint and blog and everything else!
In leiu of the ear tutorial, I bring you a list of five bloggers that I follow!
One of the advantages of this kind of blog that I didn’t expect has been the network of other artist bloggers I’ve found. The internet is full of artists sharing their ideas, their techniques, their troubles and challenges. Here are a few art blogs that I have come to know and love, and I hope you will too!
Don’t forget to check out 5 MORE Subscribe-Worthy Artist Blogs.
Art Biz Blog by Alyson Stanfield
This blog is a great resource for art business and marketing ideas. Here you’ll find informative, in-depth articles, as well as some lively discussion in the comments section. Reader participation is encouraged, especially on “Deep Thought Thursdays.”
Creative Influences by Kim Rodefferfunk
Kim is another artist/blogger who shares not only her own artwork, but also ideas and inspiration. Kim is incredibly warm and supportive and goes out of her way to create an online network of artists. This blog is full of hints and tips which Kim offers up through her own experiences. You’ll also find tons of links to interesting and helpful sites on this blog.
I’ve referred to Stan’s blog several times before, and it’s worth another mention! This site has some excellent tutorials on how to draw facial features, as well as information on painting and basic studio practices. Not to mention, Stan has also figured out a way to make a professional portfolio for ten dollars!
This blog has been in operation for five years now and it’s a perfect place to go for recent art headlines and some accompanying conversation. Although the updates have been somewhat infrequent lately, this one is worth a mention for the interesting commentary on contemporary art.
OrbisPlanis by Byrne Smith
Byrne’s mission is to inspire us all to be better artists. He provides instructional articles as well as educational ones. He is constantly expanding his artistic horizons and sharing everything he has learned with the rest of the world.
There you go, five artist blogs that you should go and subscribe to… right now!
Are you an artist who blogs? Leave a comment with a link back to your blog so that I can check it out!
Tags: art
Contact Form Troubles
Sep 13, 2009 Art General, Special Bulletins
Hello readers!
Just letting you know that my contact form has been out of commission for an undetermined amount of time. I recieved a message on Twitter from someone telling me that they’d sent me a message on my site. When I went and checked, there was no message.
After a bit of trial and error, I found that the contact form wasn’t sending messages anymore for some unknown reason.
So if you’ve sent me a message through that contact form and are wondering why you haven’t had a reply… that’s why!
I’ve changed the contact form and fixed up some files and it seems to be working properly. I’m going to check it occasionally to make sure nothing goes wonky.
Sorry about that!!
The Reflective Statement: Your Path to Artistic Enlightenment!
Sep 9, 2009 Art General
As an artist, it’s extremely important to be self aware. You need to be aware of your process, your decision making, your strengths and weaknesses, and your prejudices. Knowing these things can help you learn from your mistakes and play to your strengths. When you are aware of the things you’re doing intuitively, you are more able to use create strategies for yourself to overcome challenges in your work. You’re also able to circumvent the things you do that might be holding you back artistically. One way to become more aware is by writing a reflective statement.
What is a Reflective Statement?
A reflective statement is a written record of your artistic process for an individual piece. It describes step by step what you did and, more importantly, why. It can also talk about some of the challenges you faced and how you overcame them. It can even touch on things you want to address in your next piece.
Why Write a Reflective Statement?
Writing a reflective statement forces you to be aware of your decision making process while you are creating. This includes the things you do conscious, as well as the things you do intuitively. It can become a record of your thoughts while you’re working and is something to refer to later to remind yourself of things you want to explore further. A reflective statement is a good follow-up or conclusion to an artwork. Rather than setting it aside as done, you have a chance to reflect on what you have learned.
I was first introduced to reflective statements in a painting class. We were required to hand one in along with every painting we completed. Knowing that I would be writing about my process made me pay much more attention to it. I found myself writing my statement in my head as I worked, which made me very conscious of the things I was doing.
I found it so helpful that I continue to write reflective statements today, even though no one is expecting me to hand one in. Here is an excerpt from a reflective statement I wrote for the piece featured on this post:
Because the last orange painting I did ended up being a very red-y painting, I was very conscious of adding enough yellow to make a proper orange. I wasn’t happy with the colour of that painting because when I added white for highlights, the whole piece took on a bit of a peachy salmon tinge. In this piece, I made sure I added extra yellow to the highlights. However, I must have gone too far in that direction because I’m no longer sure that I would classify the painting as orange. It is now more of a sandstone yellow, which I don’t mind.
How to Write a Reflective Statement
Think of the reflective statement as an exercise in journaling about your creative process. Don’t write for anyone but yourself, and don’t worry about spelling or punctuation or grammar. I find that free-writing helps get the ideas flowing. If you’re stuck, here are some questions to ask yourself to get you started:
- What did you start with?
- What did you do next?
- Why did you choose that (brush/colour/pencil)?
- Why didn’t you choose a different (brush/colour/pencil)?
- What problems did you encounter?
- How did you solve them?
- Were their issues you couldn’t solve?
- What is working well and why?
- What isn’t working well and why?
- What did you learn in this piece that you can apply in the next?
I encourage everyone to try this with at least one piece! You’ll become more aware of your decision making process and you’ll have a written record of your thoughts. It’s a great exercise to help you get in tune with your intuitive, creative side
If you do give it a try, and you feel comfortable enough, share it by commenting here with a link to your blog!
Tags: art tips, Creativity
How to Shade a Sphere – Tutorial
Sep 4, 2009 Drawing, Tutorials
Aside from being an impressive skill to brag about to your friends, knowing how to draw and shade a sphere can really help you when it comes to realistic drawings. The shading of a sphere is what shows us that it is a round, three dimensional object and not just a flat circle. Once you know how to shade a sphere, you also have the tools to shade an apple, the tip of a nose, the cheeks and forehead. The principle is the same!
When drawing a sphere, you need to consider your light source.
Here we can see that the light source is coming from the left of the sphere. This puts the highlight on the left of the ball, and casts a shadow to the right. You can see on the bottom right where the light has bounced off the floor and back onto the sphere to create a reflection in the shadowed area.
Here, the light is coming from the front and to the left of the sphere. This changes the shadows. Now the cast shadow is coming from the back of the sphere, and the highlight is more towards the middle. Notice that we still have a reflection at on the back edge of the sphere.
In this example, the light is coming from behind and to the left of the sphere. The cast shadow is in front and the highlight towards the left, top edge. The area of reflected light is now much bigger, and our shadow is darker.
Backlighting is much more dramatic. The highlight is along the very top edge and the shadow is very deep.
How to Shade a Sphere Tutorial
I’m going to be working from life for this one, using the first example as a reference. Your first step is to draw the outline of your sphere and the shadow it casts using a B pencil. To get the shape of the shadow right, it can sometimes help to draw the whole thing on top of the sphere, then erase your lines.
Next, outline the edges of your shadows and highlights. I usually draw the highlight bigger than what I want so that I can shade up to that point and blend past it. You want to keep the highlight as white as possible.
Still using your B pencil, start to very lightly shade the area around the highlight. Work your way to the edge of the sphere and the edge of the shadow.
Squint to see the more subtle shading of this shape, and add another darker layer along the edge of the shadow. You don’t need to press any harder, just keep shading the same area until it gradually gets darker.
Now take your 2B pencil and shade in the entire shadow area. Try to make a gradual transition between the shadow and the midtones. You don’t want a solid line between the two.
Again, we’ll use the same pencil to shade in another darker layer where we see the darkest shadows.
Now the fun part! Use your blending stick to blend your pencil marks together. It’s important to work from light to dark. Start at the highlight and blend inwards, keeping the center free of graphite. You want the white of the paper to show through as the brightest part.
Next, we’ll work on the cast shadow. The edge of the sphere against the cast shadow should be nice and sharp. Since the cast shadow is the darkest value, use a 4B pencil to shade in the area directly underneath the sphere.
Using your 2B again, shade in the rest of the shadow. You’ll notice that in my reference, there is a second light source (the window) that is causing different shapes to appear within the shadow. This second, dimmer light source is casting a second, lighter shadow.
Now you can blend out the shadow. Pay attention to the edges of your cast shadow. It is sharper closer to the sphere and gets lighter and softer the further away it gets. At this point, you’re almost done! All you need to do is use your kneaded eraser to clean up your edges and re-define your highlight and the reflection. Voila, a sphere!
Now you can use your skills to draw virtually anything with a rounded shape. The rules are the same! A highlight, a range of midtones, the shadow with a reflection, and a cast shadow! Practice this using a ball and a lamp to hone your skills and try out different light sources. Have fun!
Tags: blending, getting started, shading, Tutorials
The Art of Deconstruction
Sep 2, 2009 Art General, Creativity, On my Easel
Speaking of taking risks…
I just had my meeting today with my prof from art school. He told me exactly what I expected he would: I’m not getting anywhere, my paintings were mediocre at best, I needed to take it to the next level.
Okay, he wasn’t quite so mean as that, but that was the basic gist of it.
He also had some very nice things to say about me and my work in general, he just felt like my recent work wasn’t up to snuff. And I agree.
I’ve known it for awhile now. That’s not to say that what I was doing wasn’t relevant or useful. It’s been a great learning experience for me and I’ve definitely gained a knowledge of paint and colour in the process. However, they weren’t strong works in an intellectual and contemporary view point.
So what did I do? I took the canvas off the stretcher and tore it into pieces!
How good did it feel? GREAT!
You have no idea how liberating and freeing it is to destroy your own art! If you’ve never tried it, you should!
Deconstruction was what started me on the path I’m on now. During my last year at art school, I was farting around painting shapes on doors. I didn’t know what I was doing. One of my teachers said to me, “do something extreme! burn it, or tear it apart!” So I did. I tore that door into pieces, then used the pieces to build a whole new painting. The ideas snowballed and soon I had a process that freed me from my pre-occupation with the final product, but also used my strengths as a logical, systematic thinker.
Back to today… My teacher basically told me I had too much going on in each painting and that all these elements were fighting for attention. He said that I was too wishy washy: I had to either get really clean, or really messy. He hinted at destroying the paintings and going back to a collage/assemblage style of work.
Well, it was the kick in the butt I needed to make me do what I knew I had to do! Before I lost my nerve I got out my pliers, pried the staples out of the back of my painting and tore the canvas up. I must say, it looks better already! I’m not sure where I’ll go next, but that’s the beauty of the process! I think I’ll start with some sketchy lines and then paint out some areas before rearranging the pieces and building it up.
I’ll keep you updated on the progress!
I will admit, I chose one of my least favorites to try this on, but the rest of them will have their turn, I’m thinking! Here’s the original piece pre-deconstruction. What do you think? Improvement or not?
Tags: art, Creativity, oil painting, paintings
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