Art Instruction

Balzer Designs: Art Journal Every Day: In Pursuit of a Drawing Style

| Whitt’s End Art

If you’re new to Art Journal Every Day, there is a short introduction here. All of the previous posts can be found archived here. There is a flickr group for sharing right here. Remember, it’s just ten minutes of nourishing your creative self every day! No need to finish anything or even like it. If you’ve done some art journaling this week and you’ve blogged about it, or put it on flickr, please leave a link in the linky list at the end of this post. Thanks! Today we have a guest post from Michelle Mathey. As soon as I…
— Read on balzerdesigns.typepad.com/balzer_designs/2013/03/art-journal-every-day-in-pursuit-of-a-drawing-style.html

3 Reasons I Don’t Use Expensive Art Materials

| Whitt’s End Art

When it comes to buying my art supplies the cheaper the better. I know this goes against all creative logic because as every artist know to create the best art pieces you need to spend some money on your supplies. I have my reasons for not spending mucho bucks on art supplies.

  1. I love the challenge of taking something which can be picked up at the local dollar or arts and crafts stores. I also like to draw and paint on old book pages because I am recycling something that might otherwise end up in the trash can.
  2. I experiment a lot with different art projects so it would be a waste to spend a fortune on art supplies for practice art pieces.
  3. I also like the availability of low cost art supplies because at this point in my life many times it is all I can afford until I start selling my artwork. This is why I seek out the bargains at a big box store or from a local arts and craft store.

These are the three main reasons I love to buy low cost art supplies. The main thing as an artist to remember it doesn’t matter what us in your hand when you create art as long as you’re creating.

Daily Drawing #190, Create A Good Character, Read the Book

| Whitt’s End Art

As an artist one of my favorite things to do is create a character. In this one the goal was to create a fantasy portrait. I used an old magazine ad to get my characters hair and hat and then drew in the face. She is meant to be an half elf character from a rough novel I wrote years ago. While I like the picture I am also reminded in order to build our character we can either seek our many self help books on the topic at the library or else choose the one book which has character building advice throughout the pages. The book of course is the Bible. Just reading the book of Proverbs can offer you life advice for each area of your life and that is just one book in the Bible. So go and get your Bible, open it up and start reading. The best time for getting your character drawn is now.

3 Reasons to Art; A Brief Overview

| Whitt’s End Art

I have delved into creating art for most of life. The reasons I started to create art are various. Here are three.

  1. I returned to my love of art over three decades ago. One of the reasons is it helps me to relax. At one point in my life I dealt with anxiety issues. One of my doctors suggested I take up a quiet hobby. I used to doodle so I figured I would try my hand at cartooning. One thing led to another and I started to create more fine art projects. Art still helps me to relax.
  2. The second reason I love to art is the challenge. I am a self taught artist. A lot of what I know comes from books and lately YouTube videos. Trying to become a better artist is not only restful but it also challenging. I also look for drawing projects which are hard for me to draw. This I feel helps me grow as a person as wells as an artist.
  3. The last reason I art is because I love sharing with others what I create. I know I will probably never become rich off of my art but it doesn’t matter. My goal for creating art, other than it relaxing nature and the mental challenge it brings, is to maybe bring a smile to someones face. Art by it’s very nature is a participation media. Artists create so others can see or hear the fruits of our labors.

These are the three maim reasons I create art. Maybe you can add your reasons as comments to this article.

How Do You Draw Thee, Let Me Count the Ways

| Whitt’s End Art

I still think when it comes to art I am a little ADD. I like to tinker with so many different mediums there are times I feel like I am as the proverbial saying goes, “A jack of all mediums a master of none.” I in my own opinion need to pick one or two mediums and practice with them until I get proficient in their use, but I just can’t seem to be able to differentiate as to the ones I like the best. Here is the list of the mediums I use.

Drawing pencils, which I use everyday. Drawing pencils for me offer the most simplistic way to render a picture.  I use mostly Faber pencils from HB to F. My favorite pencil to use is the standard #2 HB writing pencil. Where I work you can literally find them on the floor so they are real cheap.

Pens, I also use a lot. I like the flow of ink across the paper, especially a blue ballpoint pen. When to pens I also go cheap. I feel you don’t need to pay a fortune to get a good looking drawing.

Colored and Watercolor pencils, These are the newest additions to my stable of mediums. My colored pencil of choice is the Prismacolor colored pencil. I love the way the colors flow across the page and the ease of use. I prefer the harder colored pencils to the softer ones. The harder ones hold the point longer and need less sharpening. As for watercolor pencils right now I am using a set I get at the local craft store on sale.

Hard Chalk Pastels, use to be my favorite way to render a picture. These days I have gravitated away from chalk pastels though I still use them for highlights in some of my pictures. The problem for me with chalk pastels is not the colors. I love the color palette they pro, uce. Their only drawback is the messiness they produce with all the rubbing and the blowing off of the powder. They of course their is the fixative you have to use each time.

Acrylic and Watercolor Paints, I lumped these two together because they both can be used straight out of the tubes or diluted with water. While my use of watercolors had been limited to some of the paints which come in the pads, I have also used some colors right out of the tube. Watercolors still mystify me, especially washes, so right now I limit their use. Acrylics I love, and use them a lot in my pictures. Right now the only drawback for me is getting those fine little details in my painting so will sometimes use markers or colored pencils to fill in the details.

So you can see I dabble in a lot of mediums, there are still some I have lying around the house like crayons and oil pastels which I have yet to dabble. I still feel a little ADD but I guess being an artist is experimenting and trying a number of different ways to create an image. I have even started to use a little digital editing in my pictures.

What’s Art Got To Do With Life?

| Whitt’s End Art

 

I must admit as an artist there are times I struggle with the whys.

  • Why am I spending so much time creating art?
  • Why do I get so frustrated when I can’t get a picture to look the way I picture in my mind?
  • Why do I think I am any good at this thing called art?
  • Why, why why?

Then I remember art is in my blood. It is something I feel compelled to do with my time. Not because it is essential to my life, no wait, yes it is essential to my daily life. Art to me set up everything else in my life. It helps me to see the details in every situation. It helps to insure I have as much determination and drove to learn in everything else I do in life. Most importantly my art helps me be me by allowing me to show my creative side.

Art is life drawn from the inside. It helps you relax when times are tough. It allows someone to express themselves when words can’t come to mind. We were all created to create art in one form or anther..

Van Gogh, his work is an Inspiration

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vangogh

I am a big fan of Vincent Van Gogh. His artwork has brought me more inspiration than any other artist except for maybe the portraits of Rembrandt. Van Gogh’s painting are not only colorful but they do not entirely capture the truthfulness of a scene.

As a new artist many years ago I felt very down on myself because I could not give my painting the truthfulness of a scene. My paintings did not have the look of a photograph like other artists. Over the years I almost gave up on art because I could not reproduce lifelike work then I discovered artists like VanGogh.

I looked at his paintings and saw hope. While I know Van Gogh did not have the availability of photographic he did have paints and pens and took to creating the things he saw around  him in paints. His renderings may not be photographic reminders they are wonderful recreations in color or pen and ink. His paintings give us colorful renderings of flowers or landscapes with people. The hope I saw in Van Gogh’s paintings was the fact my paintings did not have to look exactly as what I was recreating but they could be a representation done in my style and in my way.

As artist we are not all going to create our art in the same way but we must all never give up on our art. Keep plugging away. Keep rendering until you develop your own style and your own art. Like Van Gogh create paintings that feel good to you and remember you are never going to please everyone but good art starts with pleasing yourself and then putting your work out there.