Calling all Artists

If you are an artist, if you draw, paint, sculpt, do needlework, take pictures or any other art, or if you have an interest, I'd like to meet you!

Now that I'm retired, I've gone back to the drawing I love but didn't have time for.  Here is a little of my WORK.  Show me yours!

The problem with my portraits is, they are life size, on 24" x 36" paper.  That's way too big for my scanner.  But I think I can take them to the copy center and have them reduced down to 8.5" x 11", making them easy to scan.  It's a project I might not get around to very soon.

1. Nocturne, Sketch w/pencil & Marker

2. Extraterrestrial, Sketch

3. Medusa, Pencils (In Progress)

4. Dragonfly, Marker

5. Claw/Hoof, Sketch

6. Flow, Stippling (thousands of tiny dots done w/a marker)

The last one is my fave, you can turn the thing any which way and you always see something different, stipplings just take FOREVER.

I just love your Owl Claire. 

I like the last one too.  You really expressed the contours with the stippling technique.

Thank You. I'm still working on it. I freak out every time I work on it cause I'm so worried I'm going to mess it up. I like that I can erase pencil .

I've never tried stippling because of what you said, that you're worried you're going to mess it up.

I have a four piece painting I'm working on with tones from Pi, Clockwork Orange and Requiem for a Dream....I've stopped working on it because I'm afriad I'm going to mess it up. lol  It's only paint and canvas, I wish I'd get over that! 

I really like your dragonfly! 

woo! my first ever post here! huzzah!

i've been an artist for&n bsp;some time now

i do digital painting mos tly these days, but i&nbs p;do like to experiment!

you can see my stuff at my website - toeknuckles.com

 

awesome seeing so many pe ople into art!

damnit...i have no idea why that post turned out like that, and editing it doesn't seem to help....hmmm....

anyways, the webpage is toeknuckles.com.....hopefully this post turns out ok?

I suck serious bum when it comes to Visual Art, because I have dyspraxia. However, I am an actor, poet, and singer. I'm at University right now studying general Theatre, hoping to make it past the tough audition process to get into the acting program. At my school, 60 first years are accepted to study all aspects of theatre, and 12 of those (6 boys, 6 girls) are accepted to acting in their second year. I'm getting nervous for auditions already. Acting is my absolute passion. I love it with every fibre of my being (to be cliché). My world begins and ends with the theatre. Acting completes me. Everything I am, I am because I can perform. If someone told me I could never perform again in my life, I wouldn't want to go on living.
The best part is, I'm just about as far from the stereotypical actor as you can get. When I'm in my acting classes, I'm funny, outgoing, and absolutley nuts. Once I step into the real world, I become quiet, introspective, and very secretive. I have a hard time making friends, because I'm terrified of people. Off stage, I can't stand to be looked at. Acting is the chance I have to escape from the pathetic, emotionally wasted, and highly disappointing person I am in real life, and become something greater than me. I can be anyone I want to, say anything I want to. I get to wear beautiful costumes, enter through "Cast and Crew Only" doors, and do horribly grand or humiliating things in front of audiences of hundreds (hopefully thousands, in the future). It's exhilerating.

hey, ive always been into art. dont do so much now, because of work etc. life seems to get in the way, never seem to have time to sit and paint. but ive put a few things ive done in my profile, cant work out how to make links!

Wow... looking at your number of posts, how do you have time.

I have been here for only a few days, and already am feeling very depressed.  My calories are under 1200 a day, and I am gaining weight.   How can that be?

I love photography, and have lots of pics at  http://www.flickr.com/photos/12641375@N06/

I think I get more exercise taking pictures than I do painting although I have done some of that and some charcoals.  I get too depressed at my art, so stick to photos.  With digital cameras, if it is bad, just delete, and you are never reminded of it ever again.

I think if your calories are too low (ie: under 1200), your body can sometimes go into starvation mode and hold on to your extra fat, making you gain weight, or at least plateau. You might want to talk to someone about upping your caloric intake.

xclairebearx, links are easy once you know how.  Copy the URL of what you want to link, from the address bar of your browser.

Go to where you want to put it and type in the title you want to give it like this

See my picture

Then Highlight that and look at the edit bar at the top of the post.  Find the little blue chain link and click on it and a box will appear.  Paste or type the URL into the top space that says "link URL" then click on insert, and there you are.

If you don't understand my instructions, PM me and we'll work on it.

Original Post by tatjanaturtle:

I've never tried stippling because of what you said, that you're worried you're going to mess it up.

I have a four piece painting I'm working on with tones from Pi, Clockwork Orange and Requiem for a Dream....I've stopped working on it because I'm afriad I'm going to mess it up. lol  It's only paint and canvas, I wish I'd get over that! 

I really like your dragonfly! 

Thank You Tatjana. I hear you about the paint canvas. Are you gonna post any pics of those? They sound pretty cool based on what you've said.

Hey, you know what I tried recently that was actually fun!? Not too long ago - I went on you tube and watch vids of Bob Ross (you know, the "happy tree" guy with the 'fro), and tried some of the stuff out. - Loved it! So fun, I was surprised at how decent it turned out. I realized I like oil paints better than acrylics.

My most recent artistic endeavor has turned towards instrument making. This is the electric guitar I recently built.

I've been a tattoo artist, sold a few paintings, done a mural or two, taken an obscene amount of artsy-fartsy black and white photos... You name it, I've tried it. I still haven't found my 'niche' though. So I just keep trying new things. I'm having a good time as a luthier though. I'll probably stick with it for awhile.

t_k - Wow, that's a really nice guitar!

Thank you. That was/is my first. I've got the next two all planned out and will probably start working on them in earnest after the holidays.

 

My wife seems to think the kids should have presents or something instead of me building more guitars (it's not like I didn't already own a few )

I actually shot probably 40 pictures or so of the process of building it. It is my intent at some point in the future to put a website up documenting the process of building all of them.

Here's a couple more photos of it:

Customizing the headstock I wanted to make it my own, so I did those graphics. The shape of the guitar is called a telecaster, which I am punning on calling it a hell-e-caster. Notice serial number 0001

A mock-up before I screwed everything together and put strings on it.

Starting to wire everything up. I know...not very artsy, but it has to be done

Clamping the neck in place so I can mark it up for drilling.

 

I really had a good time doing that. I can't wait to do more.

 

That's so cool. Just think, you could build them and sell them and make a "custom guitar" business out of it (if you wanted to). It could be a hobby and you could even get tax breaks for buying the supplies and having a business... Or not.

Pssst.... Wanna buy a custom guitar?

No?

Bummer.

 

I've always derived some part of my income from self-employment and/or side projects. The percentage of that has varied over the years from very little (selling an occasional piece of art) to running my own company. So of course the thought of selling them has crossed my mind.

The thing is... The big guys are awfully efficient. Computer controlled everything means high volume production at very low cost. Not only that, but all the "affordable" (less than say.... $1000) models are made overseas where labor is cheap.

Anything made in the US uses that as an advertising point to justify the price tag which is usually going to be between $1-3 grand. The market will support guitar sales in the $2k price range, however, certainly not at the volume of three and four hundred dollar guitars.

At an average price of $2k a guitar, once you subtract material and production costs, I can't build them fast enough by hand --even if I did it full time, and assumed that I always had back orders-- to make a living. They'd need to go for more like $5-$7 thousand a piece. I'm highly unlikely to get a back log of instrument orders at that price range.

So what are my options? I could get financing and build efficient production facilities so I can raise my volume, lower my costs, and increase sales, but that entails a LOT of risk. There are very few major electric guitar manufacturers that still build in the US and all of them make most of their money of from guitars made overseas. The chance of bankruptcy here is HIGH. My business plan would essentially be: "Make myself enough of a threat to one them that they buy me to keep me off the street". Becoming a major manufacturer in the US is so unlikely that I probably have a better chance of winning the lottery.

Plan two would be build a really, really nice instrument and try to convince someone famous to play it. Then, said artist, is supposed to rant and rave about how it's the best instrument ever and everyone should get one. That's exactly what Paul Reed Smith did, and boy did it ever work for him. I'm not sure that lightning is going to hit twice like that though. I do, however, sometimes run into professional musicians, so I could maybe go this route. Though I'm probably not going to write a business plan that says:

1.Give guitar to famous dude

2. ????

3. Profit!!

There are other avenues I could explore, but most likely I'll just continue to make them for fun until I either get bored with it and move on to something else (historically, this is the most likely scenario) or I run out of room to store them. Maybe I'll give a few away or try to sell them to aspiring musicians at cost.

Actually... that's not a bad idea. Maybe I'll look into donating them to "Save the Music" or something. Give them do underprivileged kids.

Hmm... I need to go do some research.

Good for you and going back to drawingit's a great stress reliever.

I'm been doing some sort of art since I was a kid,depends on the mood what I do.I'm a graphic painter and work with all mediums again depends on project and mood.My big project right now is a mural on a friends daughter's room wall the whole thing 17 x 6,so I'll be busy for a while

i worked on the side as a portrait artist for a while... now i'm a senior visual communications major and i do enough graphic design, illustration, and photography it'll make your head spin.

i'm washing design school off me since it's the holidays now, if you're interested i'll upload my work on photobucket too but it's mostly objective oriented artwork so it's not really 'art'.

it's funny tho... cuz i'll probably do the same thing when i retire some extremely far day, which means i never will really retire.