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!

ArtOrder Creator - Great for getting new ideas!

I just visited the new ArtOrder blog (they've moved!), and found a link to a really cool ArtOrder Creator widget. You click the AO button at the bottom and it generates a whole series of ArtOrder specifications for you. If there's anything you want to twek slightly, just click the grey buttons to the right of each line you want to alter. It's a lot of fun, and you can get new ideas when you're stuck for inspiration!

Here's what it came up with for me, funnily enough I've been really interested in Steampunk lately, so think I may give this one a try!

(Click image for larger view)

This would also be really handy if, like me, you're an amateur artist and want to see how you could have a go at doing commissions, without actually committing to one and risk letting a client down. A test run if you like!

Colour Pencil Art Inspiration

I decided to trawl the 'net in search of inspiration today, so I specifically searched for colour pencil art in the style I would like to be able to recreate.

So please note, I DID NOT CREATE ANY OF THE ART IN THIS POST! Please see artist info and link back to where I found the art underneath each picture. I have only posted these images here as I find them inspiring, and hope to promote more colour pencil art.

Lizard
by ~Katie~

Ghostbusting
by Chris Hoffman

Alien
by Chris Hoffman

Living In Two Worlds
by Peter Williams

Jared Padalecki
by Ana Rey

Scott & Jean
by Anthony Klein

Please note, I DID NOT CREATE ANY OF THE ART IN THIS POST! Please see artist info and link back to where I found the art underneath each picture in this post. Thank you.

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)

Inspired by Lunchtime Sketches

I stumbled across an artist, DCriler, on the DrawnToday blog, where I found the Lunchtime Sketches post there, and Aspen's Story post on his own blog. I love how well detailed these sketches are, and how they're fantasy themed. These sketches took a couple of lunchtime breaks to complete, so it's great practice every day, and fun too. I'd love to try this, I only have half an hour lunch break, but I'm sure I could find some time each day to sketch. These look great, and would be fun to try.

I see on the DrawnToday blog he also did a quick master copy when he ran out of ideas - another great way to practice when you don't know what to do. This could be a good way to kickstart my creative juices and get me producing more of the art I want to! If I can sketch every day, as well as working on a piece or challenge each week, I should be able to improve and complete the work I want to do get done. Thanks for the inspiration, DCriler!