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!

Everyone's work on here is AMAZING. I would take pages if I independently discussed all that I really loved, so I will just say WOW and KUDOS to everyone's work!

I suppose I am not really the artist here, more the model, but my fiancee is the photographer. I think we work well together, and actually just had a photo shoot the other night. We'd love for you all to have a look!!

Scott and Erin

I just added my latest drawing to my gallery.  It's a portrait from a photo, actually a Time Magazine cover, of Mother Teresa.  It scanned in too light and I really should play with the image a little and re scan it. 

Working from a photo was interesting.  I used the grid method to get the composition in place, and even some carbon paper to get the facial wrinkles where they're supposed to be.  I think the eye on the right side lost some detail in the scanning.  She has an assymetrical face and the eyes are very different from each other.  I'm not sure I really like working from a photo, but at least the model sits still!

My art class assignment is to do a charcoal portrait.  This week I couldn't get anybody to sit for me.  I'd had a discussion with Sister Trinita about Rembrandt's self portraits and decided that I'd try that.  I made some progress today and will try to get it done tomorrow.  After you look at yourself for a while, you forget that it's you and get involved in the line, value and composition.  

The latest I've churned out, still a work in progress: http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y152/sauvi/g unmen3-copy.jpg

Last summer, part of an artbook compilation with friends: http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y152/sauvi/b yakko02-copy.jpg

And this last one must be a good two years old now - but it's Chinese New Year's soon again :): http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y152/sauvi/c ny2006.jpg

Hey Clairelaine - I'm starting a portrait drawing class on Monday!

I've done a lot of different types of studio classes, but I avoided portrait/figure drawing classes in college since I believed them to be to difficult. However, I'm finally going to try it out. I'm nervous but real excited since I haven't taken any art classes in a few years. Good luck on your charcoal portrait!

now that your drawing a bit more clairelaine, have you given any extra thought about a tablet? :D really an amazing tool for art!

I'm still in art college, but I'll be graduating soon! I do kid's stuff, and it can be found here abouts: http://katedwiggins.blogspot.com/ ;

I'd love to do kid's books, or really any sort of kid's media stuff! I'll also be back tracking through this thread to see some art--it would be great to find some friendly fellow artists on here!

Original Post by loriklorik:

now that your drawing a bit more clairelaine, have you given any extra thought about a tablet? :D really an amazing tool for art!

 

Not really.  I am thinking about auditing the computer graphics class to learn more about it before making a decision about this.  Right now my real need is to re-learn the basic skill of drawing what I see.  It's very important to me.  I sometimes feel that getting caught up in technical stuff will hinder me in this pursuit.

katydid, I like your fresh originality!  Looking forward to seeing more!

it can get kinda techy if you get into photoediting and filters / custom brushes... but digital can also be really basic.

Drawing is drawing no matter what you do it on (and so is the learning how). Digital just makes fixing mistakes easier and lets a person explore a lot more without needing a studio full of paint / canvas / brushes.

http://conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t =47859

this thread is a good example, painting is painting... still have to learn the same things (but digital lets you work through it a lot easier i find)

the speed painting i see people do on photoshop are amazinggg. and that type of skill / understanding completely translates over to traditional art also! like this one! http://youtube.com/watch?v=xJNvKjQHv8I

i think the most important aspects to learning art are...

1) dedication / time

2) resources / tools

digital is just a huge tool :D

I have enjoyed seeing the various items here. Everyone is so great. As for myself, I was never good at any visual types of art. My preferred medium is to write poetry. I have written poems since I was a teenager and still do, although I simply do not seem to have the time these days. I hope to return to it soon. Take care all.

Lorik, there's nothing in those links that leads me to believe it makes for better art.  All it seems to be is cartoons and trite copies of what's already been done, and commercial images. 

I'm not interested in imaginary subjects.  I want to draw the real things that exist in the world.  I've searched for demos of computer applications for what I consider real art, and can't find anything that would lead me to believe it is a creative tool.  But I'm still thinking of auditing the course I mentioned, just to see for myself how it works.

Art, to me, is a form if communication.  I'm telling the viewer what I saw and trying to get him to see it too.  I have the most to say about the real world - the plants, animals, people and even the air and light.  I have nothing to say about spiderman, and neither did that artist doing the speed painting.

I guess this all comes from early classical art training.  Art is born of art. 

I agree about learning the basics in concrete, natural media before making the jump to digital. But when you start dabbling in oils, canvasses, markers, and inks/pens the cost of materials start racking up really quickly. When all my investment consists of a tablet and one or two computer programs, digital painting offers a much more economic solution. Art in general has always been the embodiment of 'practice makes perfect' - digital media offers endless canvasses and brushes for you to work your way to perfection. It also makes it easier to cover up your mistakes. I started working with watercolor when I was younger - I find it was the most unforgiving media next to India ink I had to work with.

Also, I think it's amazing how digital art can imitate natural media so well.

As far as cartoons and trite copies of what's already been done, maybe that's just their way of expression? I remember, back in high school, my art teachers stressed that anime/cartoons was a poor form of art and still, a lot of art snobs will frown upon it. I find that art is art if it's done well and with the appropriate principles of art kept: lines, balance of negative and white space, proportion, value, and etc. It does not necessarily have to be "realism". I respect photorealism to be sure, being able to reproduce something you see is a great skill. But imagination, to be able to show someone something you've envisioned solely in your mind, I find it almost breathtaking, even if they are just a heap of lines on paper. It's still communication, isn't it? Even if their vision consists of Spiderman.

I am passionate about drawing/painting in all forms :)

Original Post by sauvignon:

As far as cartoons and trite copies of what's already been done, maybe that's just their way of expression? 

Or maybe that's the only art they've been exposed to, so their expression is limited.  Art is born of art.  The more great art someone sees, (and I'm not just talking about the classics) the more they realize the fullness of expression and emotion that art can bring. 

It's such a shame that art education is the first thing cut when schools need to economize.

I've got one of the best educations that an art school can offer, and I can sit down and paint something if I have to. I have had wonderful teachers and a great education in the classics, and I still choose to draw digitally. It is a matter of opinion, not exposure.

When I first started art school I wanted to be a figure painter, actually, and you don't get much more classical than that--it turns out I have much more fun and ability drawing for kids. I don't think that wanting to work that way is in any way 'less' than drawing a still life. Art IS a tool of communication and expression. I want to work in educational books and software for children to express myself. I happen to work digitally. I don't think I've done anything off the computer in years--and I happen to have zero problems with that, and neither have any of the recruiters who come to school looking for artists.

There is a difference between a fine artist and an illustrator. If someone wants to be one or the other it doesn't make the other in any way inferior, which I might be wrong, but that is what it sounds like is being said. If I choose to work for Carter's baby clothing or for American Greetings or Halmark doing cards or drawing children's books--commercial art--it will likely reach and inspire more people than if any painting of mine were hanging in a gallery. That is how I choose to express myself--digital and all.

Not to mention the BEST digital artists out there--you never knew it was done digitally at all unless they want you to. I love seeing people crowd around a piece at shows and try and figure out how someone did it--digital is just another tool like a brush or a pen or a printing press :)

it doesn't make for "better" art, just different...

 

i've been a digital artist working with a tablet for some time, but still paint in other media too. it just widens what i have access to

http://www.toeknuckles.com/digital.php

 

as for stuff being trite and already done...well, you know what they say. nothing new under the sun! art's a very personal thing, obviously.

it should be noted, though, that the imagination guides the artwork, not the medium itself.

Any new work out there?  I'd love to see it.  I just watched a demo of Microsoft Paint and it was really interesting.  I enjoy playing with my pencils too much to make the effort to learn it.  I guess I'm just too old.

I've been doing some work in litho pencil, using turpentine to paint over it and develop contrast and shading.  It's fun.

I used to write stories, but when I went to engineering college all of my talent went out of the window.  Now I can't write at all anymore.  But I remember it was such an enjoyable experience to sit down at the computer and type away at some story I was working on.  I never was one for making outlines or anything, I just typed what came to mind.  I especially liked to write romance novels involving vampires.  I only ever finished one however, but I have lots that I started but never completed.

Original Post by sauvignon:

I agree about learning the basics in concrete, natural media before making the jump to digital. But when you start dabbling in oils, canvasses, markers, and inks/pens the cost of materials start racking up really quickly. When all my investment consists of a tablet and one or two computer programs, digital painting offers a much more economic solution. Art in general has always been the embodiment of 'practice makes perfect' - digital media offers endless canvasses and brushes for you to work your way to perfection. It also makes it easier to cover up your mistakes. I started working with watercolor when I was younger - I find it was the most unforgiving media next to India ink I had to work with.

Also, I think it's amazing how digital art can imitate natural media so well.

As far as cartoons and trite copies of what's already been done, maybe that's just their way of expression? I remember, back in high school, my art teachers stressed that anime/cartoons was a poor form of art and still, a lot of art snobs will frown upon it. I find that art is art if it's done well and with the appropriate principles of art kept: lines, balance of negative and white space, proportion, value, and etc. It does not necessarily have to be "realism". I respect photorealism to be sure, being able to reproduce something you see is a great skill. But imagination, to be able to show someone something you've envisioned solely in your mind, I find it almost breathtaking, even if they are just a heap of lines on paper. It's still communication, isn't it? Even if their vision consists of Spiderman.

I am passionate about drawing/painting in all forms :)

You know, I was just so impressed by KatyDid's art, I put it on my 'blog', and you would not believe the number of e-mails I get from friends and family around the country, who remark about her beautiful talent.

The lovely woman with the raven is as fine as anything Walt Disney ever offered up - think of Snow White, and there's Katy's finished product.

Art is art is art - a CREATION, and those 'art snobs', are usually those narrow-minded, 'died in the wool', non-creative 'thinkers', but rarely can produce much of anything.  They drool over the works of others while they often dribble out a poor rendering that never catches the eye, and certainly has no value as a piece one would pay money for.

We can discuss the value of art from a dollar stand-point - a debate that would go on for weeks/months.

Picasso once was a fine painter, but when he could throw his sketches out, and grab up thousands for them, don't you think he dug through his pile of 'trashed' pieces; dusted them off, and started making MORE money than he'd made when he labored for perfection.

The best example of 'snob' art was when my dentist put up a drawing his daughter did - she was 12.  I was sitting in the dental chair; told him that the framed piece reminded me of a Picasso.  He asked me if I thought it WAS a Picasso - I told him:  "No, I think it looks like something you stole from one of your 10-year old patients."  My dentist laughed - told me it was his daughter's work, but most of the time when he asked this question, people (primarily old women), would tell him that he was fortunate to have a real Picasso in his office, and wondered what he'd paid for it.

With this experiment functioning well (his daughter is now grown), he loves to play with people's minds - and that's what most people do; those who have very fine art collections, are either having someone buy it for them, or have actually developed a certain 'taste', and have brought pieces into their home because they really enjoy them.

Okay, I'm pretty sick of the pop-ups now; this is the 6th one, so it's time to finish this post!  Thank you, Ms. Sauvignon, for an excellent post - and your finished works show that you have 'perfected' a style that is certainly pleasing to own; pleasing because of it's artistic value, and pleasing to the one who wants to buy it because it does have a 're-sale' potential as well.  Diane

HOLY COW!

There is some serious TALENT on cc! How awesome! I really enjoyed viewing everyone's art :)!!! I hope you deviantart users don't mind me watching you!

I'm a bit shy about showing my art because I really never learned the basics and my art is just really kind of awkwardly flamboyant (just like me :P ) AND YEAH! SCREW THAT! I'll suck it up and show you guys anyways~ you all are such a nice bunch :)

Here is my deviantart site!

Is that PINK ROSE a photo, are did you paint that?!?  That is one of the most beautiful roses I've ever seen - it looks like a photo'; if it isn't, what a wonderful talent you have indeed!

I liked the other art pieces, but I'm one who gravitates towards the REALISM - or if not 'real', then completely the other direction (such as Dali', MCE, or the likes of Andy Warhol).  So glad you joined the many who are a bit 'slow' to reveal another side of themselves - to get way from 'food', and let us see the beautfy of the inner-self/creative self.  Diane