What Art Would I Like To Do?

I'm currently planning a new Art Website to showcase my portfolio and link to this blog. I was browsing some fantasy and science-fiction artists websites for inspiration and ideas, when I stumbled across Greg Horn's website, and it made me think about the kind of art I want to do, when I consider my skills good enough.

I would like to do:

• Advertising Posters
• Art Prints
• Calendars
• Comic Book Covers
• Fantasy Art
• Greeting Cards
• Heroes & Heroines
• D&D Miniatures Illustrations
• Licence Art - for use on T-Shirts, Ornaments
• Magazine Illustrations - Vignettes
• Movie Scenes
• Music Album Covers
• Music Artists
• Sci-fi & Fantasy Still Life
• Science-fiction Novel Book Covers
• Space Opera Scenes
• Superheroes
• Video Game Magazine Covers
• Witches & Other Supernaturally Powered Figures

So I guess I need to improve my skills by practising these kind of works! I'm off to find reference images to match these now!

Happy Sketching Everyone!

Artist's Block

I know you can get writer's block, but is it possible to get artist's block? What do you do when you don't know what to draw, and every reference photo you look at, you think you can't do? Maybe it's partly a confidence issue, and maybe it's a little of allowing the world to rest in heavy on your shoulders and stifle your creativity. Either way, I think I might have found a cure.

If I take a break, do something else, allow myself to get distracted, and best of all start laughing at something - I laugh the stress away! Then I spent some time looking in my art inspiration folder, where I've collected both pencil and colour pencil art that inspires me. Art I would love to be able to do.

I have a basic art plan to work on each week: Figure Drawing Monday, Still Life Tuesday, Wildlife Wednesday, Landscape Thursday, Urban Landscape Friday, Sci-fi Fantasy Saturday, and Colour Pencil Sunday. This gives me goals to work on to improve my art skills. I am also thinking of trying themes for each week, such as movie week, so I pick a reference related to movies for each one that week, a patriotic week, so each one has to be related to something patriotic to my country, maybe a Victorian week, so everything is Victorian related, etc, etc.

To ease myself back into regular sketching, I am also planning to try just a section of a reference photo if I am too overwhelmed by the thought of tackling a whole finished image. I will still be able to practice my drawing and rendering skills, hopefully gain confidence, and then maybe work on a full finished drawing at the end of the week.

That's the plan anyway. The main goal is just to get me sketching again. I want to be good, and I want to improve my skills. I can be a great artist if I practice. I can do this, I just need to try.

Improving My Art

I am amazed by how much my art is improving, sketching every day is making a huge difference to my art. I want to improve my art equally in all major areas. There are 7 days in a week. If I can come up with a list of 7 things to try, I can do them each week, and ensure I improve.

This idea came to me after seeing my Fashion Girl figure drawing yesterday. My figure drawing is improving much better than the last one I did. If I choose to do a figure drawing sketch once a week, my figure drawing is bound to improve. So I will make a list of the 7 different things I want to work on each week, and see where my art ends up in 3 months time. I am doing this over 12 weeks, which means 12 figure drawings - just imagine where my figure drawing will be then?

1. Figure Drawing
   (music star, movie star, fashion model, humanoid, fantasy)
   
   
2. Still Life
   (a stationery object or food)
   
   
3. Animal
   (mammal, reptile, fish, bird, insect, spider)
   
   
4. Landscape
   (greenery, trees, grass, plants, water, full natural landscape)
   
   
5. Urban Landscape
   (buildings, parts of buildings, stone statue, street, vehicles)
   
   
6. Sci-fi or Space scene
   (spaceship, stars, nebula, asteroid, aliens, alien technology)
   
   
7. Colour Pencil Piece
   (any of the other 6 items in colour)

This should keep my skills up in all these areas, and I can have fun doing them. I’m looking forward to this.

My 2011 Art Goal: Create Beautiful Art

I think this year I want to concentrate on creating beautiful art. I have been trying to do concept sketches, and am embarrassed by how badly my art looks without reference images. This year I want to really work on my art and improve it. Perhaps rather than trying to create amazing original sci-fi and fantasy art, I should concentrate on doing art from reference images and creating beautiful art. Obviously improving my skills in the process.

I think I am afraid to try creating art that I cannot see clearly in reference pictures before I start the final piece. I don't think I have ever tried to draw lizards or snakes before, and believe I should try to do that before I try to create a lizardlike creature from imagination. I remember seeing fantasy artists sketchbooks in The Encyclopedia of Fantasy and Science Fiction Art Techniques, (one of my favourite art instruction books), and it showed many drawings from life as well as some flights of fancy. The more I practice doing art from reference images the more skilled I will become, and can adapt that skill into fantasy work.

I think this year I just need more practice, work from reference images, and build a portfolio I am proud of. Then I can try more fantasy art. Or perhaps trying some flights of fancy in between? Especially in the Boris Vallejo book, Fantasy Art Techniques. He shows you how to work from reference images of the various elements, and put them all together in one painting.

Reference images is definitely the way for me to go, and I intend to work at them and create beautiful art this year.

2011 - The Year To Find My Art Style!

I've just been reading Christopher Burdett's latest blog post, 2010 - The year I got more serious. I love reading his blog posts, and it reminded me of reading his blog post this time last year. I think it was called 2010 - The year to get serious, (or something like that). I remember I found it really inspiring, and made me want to really focus on my art. I wanted to create amazing fantasy art, and I know that had I concentrated, and pushed myself to produce new art every week, I would have produced many pieces, that would have improved over the course of the year, and I might have felt closer to calling myself a professional artist now if I had.

Now I'm wondering what direction I'm going to take my art in this year. I know Christopher Burdett loves his MONSTERS! He writes so just about all over his blog! I don't think I have found my niche yet, I know I love fantasy art, but I don't have a specific goal of becoming a monster artist, fairy artist, sci-fi spaceship artist, dragon artist, etc. So perhaps this year will be spent finding my focus. I would like to try creating each type of fantasy art I can think of. Producing a piece in each genre to the best of my ability. And then having tried each, I might be in a better position to see what I like, and which I might like to focus on. In Christopher Burdett's latest post, he also speaks greatly about REFERENCES, and the importance of gathering many photo references to produce more realistic and better work. He shows images collected of photos, he then creates thumbnail drawings and ideas, before producing the final drawing and then painting (adding the colour).

I don't think I've properly tried to create a brand new creature from imagination and reference images, I've often not known where to start. But using this method I may be able to try one! I think this is the year for me to experiment, try different things, and find the type of art I want to do. I love spaceships, I think they're cool, space art looks amazing, and I don't think you see enough of it. (Or at least I don't). Something else Christopher's technique above has taught me, is that even though you're doing fantasy art, you can still use references, you can still find elements of what you want to do, in real life. For example, his Crab-Bear monster has elements of bears and crabs. A monster's mouth has giant teeth, so why not use a shark or a lion's mouth as a reference? For spaceships, take a look at sleek airplanes and maybe helicopters for the way light reflects on them, and their shape. Perhaps submarines and other sea vessels too.

So my Big Art Goals for 2011 are...

1. Sketch every day
   
2. Work on a full colour piece every week
   
3. Try a Monster Piece
   
4. Try a Spaceship Piece
   
5. Experiment and Try New Things
   
6. Look for inspiration on ConceptArt.org, Wetcanvas, and Art Blogs (see blogroll at bottom of column on right)

My Art Plan

I want to work more on my art. I love doing my art and never spend as much time on as I should. One trouble I have is when I actually find the time to sit down and draw, I find I don’t know what to draw.

So now I have a plan! A To Do List for my Art, then I have a list of ideas for images I would like to do, especially to challenge myself and help me improve. Then whenever I have the time to sit down and draw, I will be able to pick an item from my list, and start work immediately! :)

My Art Plan

(collect reference images for the following items)

• A movie scene / DVD still (e.g. Mal & Badger in Firefly)
• Space scene - nebula, planets, spaceships
• Reptiles - lizard, frog, snake
• Plants - foliage, unusual flowers, wild plants
• Street scene - an urban street, building, window, door
• Elegantly dressed lady, fashion, catalogue figure
• Music Star - Sophie Ellis Bextor, Shakira, Muse, Mika, McFly
• Unusual Still Life - keys, bank note, promo cards, tokens, keyrings, a box, plug, deodorant. Things you use every day, but never think about.
• Weapons - guns, knives, bow & arrow - maybe in use. Find a dynamic way of using them in a scene, or part of a scene.
• Actors & Actresses - posing in pictures. Dancers too.
  
  

Art - Teaching Myself

"Frozen in the Moonlight"

I am a self-taught artist, and still in the process of improving my skills. You can see a sample of my art in the header of this blog, plus some of my works I have uploaded here. Just click on an image to see a larger version of it.

"Gargoyle"

"House"

"Spider"

I haven't done much drawing in a while, I like pencil and colour pencil art - that's what I do best. I'm just not skilled with a paintbrush, probably due to a little too much playing and paint fights in school for me to learn much!

I want to be a fantasy art, I was first inspired by Boris Vallejo, I got a calendar of his back in the 90's, and it kicked off the fantasy art bug in me. I've since sought out new fantasy artists to add to my inspiration, I moved on to the works of Chris Achilleos, Luis Royo, Clyde Caldwell and Greg Horn. I would love for my meagre art talents to reach these standards, then I would be so proud of my work!

So what do I need to do to improve? All the above artists tend to focus on people in their artwork, very realistic figures. My figure drawing leaves a lot to be desired (in my humble opinion), and I want to be able to do amazing and realistic figures. I also don't have a lot of experience doing fantastic creatures, monsters or dragons. I would also love to do more backgrounds to my images, so landscape, and most especially cityscape, I would love to improve on. The simple answer to this - Practice! Now I've figured out what I want to imrove upon, I need to find reference images for these types of images, and practice them over and over again until I improve! So here's a simplified list of what I want to improve:

- Figure Drawing
- Fantastic Creatures, Monsters & Dragons
- Landscapes (Greenery)
- Cityscapes (Buildings & Architecture)
- Still Life (Weapons, Fantasy Objects)

For the fantastic creatures, monsters and dragons, I will need to collect reference images of animals, both furry and reptile animals, to be able to draw fantasy creatures. Once you can draw realistic normal animals, you can learn to draw fantasy animals really well. I've added still life as it occurred to me I don't have hardly any practice of drawing weapons, and the few I have done, have not been very good at all. So it's time to improve on them as well.

If I stick to this plan with my art, and work on these various subjects, by the end of this year I should be able to do these subjects with much greater ease, and be much more able to produce high quality fantasy art of my own. Wish me Luck!