creativity

Walking With Courage, Doodle #66

| Whitt’s End Art

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Courage, The first thing that popped into my head when I saw the prompt was the lion from the Wizard of Oz. The second thing which popped into my head was Cowardly the dog from an old cartoon show. What do both these characters have in common. They both were cowardly but in the face of obstacles they stood tall and did brave acts.

Courage may come in finally standing up to a bully in school. It may come when you walk into a doctor’s office and hear those three life changing words, “You have cancer.” It may come when you face the end of your life. The main point is no matter how much you try and avoid it there are time in your life when you must stand up like a lion, be brave and walk with your head high into the battle even when you want to crawl under a rock and hide.

If you have faith in God the Bible says in Ephesians 6:10 that we can, “Be strong in the Lord and his mighty power.”

I hope you like today’s doodle and my brief ramble.

Rope the Night Sky, Doodle #64

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There are times as an artist when you hit a creative wall. When I saw the prompt for today was night  I thought it was going to be easy to be easy to come with a good representation of the prompt.  Boy was I wrong. I went through a number of quick drafts and then tossed them aside.

After all the fuss over the prompt I finally came to one conclusion I was trying to hard to create the perfect drawing. Art is all about spontaneity. The more we try to create the perfect  brush stroke or put down the perfect pen mark the more we stifle our creativity.

While looking for something to inspire me I was redoodling  pictures on my iPad. Today’s offering is one of them. I don’t usually put theses doodle out there but it is a reminder of what we as artists do sometimes “Rope the Sky,” in order to find inspiration for our art.

Old Woman and A Guitar, Doodle #63

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The themes for today’s doodle was something musical. Like all the other es the idea for what to draw is open to inspiration. I came across a free to draw picture on Something to Draw.com of the woman pictured playing her guitar. While the piece  is not a perfect reproduction of the picture it is a reminder to us all that no matter how old you are you are never to old to learn something new.

A Man and A Violin, Doodle #62

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man-and-violin

The prompt for today was saturation which could have led me in a lot of drawing  directions. The first thing which popped into my head was a picture featuring water. After all I live near a river and figured I could do a location doodle. To bland. I then pondered about what else saturates besides water. Somehow I ended up thinking about mu and all the concerts I ever attended. The music saturates the air with sound. The picture I drew was actually inspired by my days in junior high playing the viola.

I still love the sounds of a string instrument. One of my favorite musicians is the fiddle player from the Celtic Women. I  love the way her performance takes over the stage. Our lives need to be like that of a musician. Whatever we do in life needs to be a beautiful sounds which saturates others with joy.

Life is a Mystery, Doodle #61

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babyOn this auspicious day of March 2nd the prompt for the daily doodle is a mystery. No I mean the prompt was to draw something based on the word mystery.  I spent quite a few hours pondering this one.

The reason I chose the baby and the puppy was because to me life is a mystery. Science seeks to explain life away as a process but to me life is more than a process. It is a miracle wrapped up in a mystery which can only be answered by a faith in God.  I know there will be those who disagree but that is okay. I hope you enjoy my picture “A Girl and Her Dog.”

Looking Back at an Art Life

| Whitt’s End Art

I have been creating art in one form or another for as long as I can remember. I decided to become an artist simply because I wanted to be cartoonist like Charles Schultz among others. I saw cartooning as a freedom from the constrictions I put on myself in trying to create the perfect painting.

A number of years later specifically in 2015 when my art life was at a standstill I decided to pick up a pencil and get a couple of art books and revive my love for art. Over the past two years I have had many up and downs with my art. I have created pieces in acrylics which I love working with and still use in my paintings but I have also turned back to drawing.

I decided when I was diagnosed with cancer last year I wanted to kick my art up a notch. I started my art challenge this year not to become a great artist but to try an expand on my art abilities. Over the past two months I have created pieces I am satisfied with, others I might rework for later blog entries and some, well lets say I am done with.

I have also discovered over the two months I would rather produce pieces in pen and ink that have more of a doodle feel to them instead of full fledged paintings. I will still produce paintings in acrylic because I love vibrancy of  the colors but am going to head in a whole new direction with my art. The new name of the blog will be Daily Timeout to Doodle.

The whole point of this ramble is to remind you when looking back at your art life and forward to what you will create in the future stop worrying about trying to create the kind of art others may like but be faithful to yourself and create  the kind of art you like.

 

Daily Timeout for Art

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girl-with-flowers

The final theme for February was gold. I could have gone in a lot of directions with this one but instead I chose to go with a piece entitled “Golden Haired Girl and Her Flowers.” The piece is a simple one done in colored pencil.

Don’t Take Art Criticism Personally

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Criticism, what are you gonna do with it, absolutely nothing? Well maybe not. If you’re like me when you create a piece of art and release it to the world the last thing you want to to hear is criticism. No artist wants there work panned but criticism should not be taken personally but creatively.

As an artist the first type of criticism  you deal with is internal. As an artist you know what I’m talking about Internal criticism is the little voice inside your head that tells you your work is not good,so why even try completing the piece, just scrap it and move on. This type of criticism is the easiest for me to ignore. I just press on, standing back from time to time, evaluating my piece, making adjustments and then moving on. There are times I will even step back from a piece and move on to something else until I feel my internal criticism has waned.

The hardest criticism for me take is the external kind. There were times in my art career where the fear of external criticism caused me to keep my creations from the eyes of the world. I still have those fears but now I have learned to hear the criticism, thank the people for their view and move on to the next piece of art.

The reason I can do this is because I no longer create art to please the masses. I create art which satisfies my soul and brings me the most joy. In the end no matter the outcome of the piece I can release it the world, realizing there are going to be those who don’t like the end result, those who love the end result and those who don’t care one way or the other.

So, if your concerned over criticism, don’t be, it is part of the process of having a creative spirit given to you by our Creator. An artist’s life like any part of life is not going to be easy but the rewards at the end of the road are worth the trials and tribulations or criticisms with which you’re going to have to deal.

As a teach shirt I once saw stated, “Keep on Arting.”