Howdy! In this post, I want to share with you some of my art.... but...more than that, I want to share why art is so awesome for you to do (even if you think you can't draw a stick figure!), how you can get started very easily and in a cost effective manner, and of course, how you can improve and even get to greatness. I'll include a few resources which I've learned over 7+ years of daily art, and I hope you try it out. If you have any questions, I'm here for you. Though, just to be safe- you can email me at TheArtOfOri at Gmail, and I'll try to reply quickly.
SOME BENEFITS OF ART:
- You can get abs much faster than if you were working out.
- You can make the greatest and most personal gifts that anyone has ever received (seriously... my unofficial slogan is "I make grownups cry")
- You get to express yourself.
- It gives you an entire other revenue source.
- You get a cool party trick. People are pretty fascinated by artists.
- You can truly decorate your place how you like.
- You have something fun and amazing to pursue mastery over your lifetime.
- You get a skill that you can practice/perform anywhere, any time (I've drawn on a napkin at a bar, a sketchbook in the mountains, my laptop at Starbucks, etc).
- You get major Zen.
- It has been many years since I've thought that I'm bored - if there's time to kill, I'm going to make some art.
- You now have a way to channel frustration, pain, sadness, anger, happiness.
- The study of happiness is a relatively new field, but so far it seems that the largest factor in determining a person's happiness is the degree to which they feel in control of their life. I create a new work of art every single day, no matter what... Which means that no matter what, I get to pursue the thing that I want every single day... I'm a pretty happy person.
- You make yourself smarter by painting (Google it).
For starters, I want to debunk some myths. You don't need to have ANY art education, nor ever have been to a museum. What you're seeing below is the painting I made last night (I create a new work of art every single day)- it is a selfie... but it isn't made from a photograph, rather it's "Life Drawing" - meaning, it's painted from a posing model (In this case, me). I had my webcam preview (Photobooth on Mac) on one part of my screen, and I was painting on the rest of the screen.
The painting that you saw above was not life drawing. I took a few selfies, and used my knowledge of anatomy (and looked up references of body builders) to create my above self portrait.
One quote I'd love to share with you (and that I wish I knew many years ago) is "Don't compare your day one with someone else's year 40!" I've been doing this every day for over 2,600 days... But, don't worry, I'll be showing you some of my earlier works as well....
One last thing before getting started- I talk about painting people here, but really... Just get started- you can just scribble random shapes, and someone might buy it for millions (A la Jackson Pollock)... Just get started!
You don't need to paint people... You can paint colors and moods, and shapes, and whatever makes you happy. Me personally? Sci-Fi.... So, robots, spaceships, aliens, etc..
If you've read my #introduceyourself post then you know I create a new work of art every single day (since April 21, 2012)... I'd like to think that I have improved, and people's reactions confirm my own believes that I have.
Remember, I said there's no need to have gone to a museum, or ever taken an art class - or even draw a stick figure.
This is based on my own experience in having created thousands of works of art, not on stuff from books. Wanna see that art (You probably do.. I mean, is this guy writing this any good?) These links (at the time of writing ) open up in FB albums.
You can see my journey so far, and the improvement that has come with daily practice. There you go - over 2,625 days at the time of writing this. [ Year 8 / Year 7 / Year 6 / Year 5 / Year 4 / Year 3 / Year 2 / Year 1 ]
When I started (day 1) - I just looked for cool images in magazines or online, and tried drawing those things. I painted these on an Ipad (first generation), on a $5 named Pencil.
People liked the art, but... I thought it could improve. The human figure is the hardest thing to draw/paint/sculpt. Why is that?
Well, there's a few reasons:
- The human body is extremely complex, with layers of bone, muscle, fat, skin, hair, and lesser obvious parts.
- Each body part is complex to start with, but also looks different from different angles, and depending on its rotation.
- (And this one's the real bitch of it) We all know what the human body looks like. The result is that when you show people your human drawings (whether it's the whole body, or just a piece ( a face, a hand, a nose, an eye, etc...)), they might not know why it's off... but they know that it is.
There are two main ways to improve your human art (and this is a both/and, not an either/or)- study anatomy, and do "Life Drawing". Either one will help you, both will help you far more.
Anatomy is the study of how the human body is made up (bones/tendons/muscles/ligaments/veins/fat/etc).
Life drawing is the practice of drawing what you see as a model poses.
At first, life drawing sucks.... There's all these people that make gallery-quality drawings there, while your stuff looks like the world's worst stick figures. And you know what? That's ok! None of the other people in the room will judge you for it, as they've all been there.
For example, here's one that I was proud of in my early days:
One thing you should know in advance of life drawing is that there are different lengths of time. The model will often pose for 30 seconds, a minute, 2 minutes, 5 minutes, 10 minutes, 15 minutes, 30 minutes, an hour, 2 hours, and sometimes even longer (for the longer lengths, the host will often use tape to mark where the model was posed. Trust me, I've posed before, it takes a lot of energy to hold a pose. You need the rest).
To find life drawing sessions - which are the best - you can just google your area, or look on Meetup.com. But, you can also go to the beach/pool and draw people that are just laying / sitting there. Here is a couple that was visiting me, and I painted them while they watched a movie:
But... to make life easier, and to save you from feeling insecure next to other artists, I'm going to give you a few resources that give you most of the benefits of being at a life-drawing session, but without having to spend money, or drive some place, etc...
There are sites such as quickposes.com
While there are many, this is the one that I started with, and enjoyed very much. You can choose what you want to draw (male/female/clothed/nude/seated/standing/etc). Using their timed poses, I created many pieces like this:
Now.... How to actually get drawing?
You can grab some pencils and printer paper, and get started.... But, if I may tell you a quick story, I'll tell you why I love digital.
Why Digital?
In 1996, I bought a camera that used film. It required me to finish using a roll of film, then it required me to take it to the lab to have it developed, and then I'd have to wait some time for them to develop it. The problem is the cost of the film, the cost of developing, and that it took a bunch of time to get the film back. The result? I did not get very good, because it would take a few weeks to go through the role of film, and I didn't know what I did to get those results.
In 2000 the new Canon Powershot camera came out. It changed everything because I could take a picture, look at what the settings were, look at the results, and go "Oh! THAT'S what that does!" - I didn't have to waste money on film, I didn't have to waste money on development, and I got the results instantly.
- With my art, I can paint all I want and not need the physical space. This is great because I am a digital nomad. I travel a lot, and... can you imagine storing 2,600+ paintings?
- Here's a favorite: There's an undo button!!! Try that with oil paints.
- You can try something, see how it goes.... You can try something, save one version, then work on another approach (E.g. let's see how this looks in one color AND in another).
- An app on a phone or tablet can be free, or a few dollars.... Less than the cost of a drawing pad from the art store.... On the computer, there are many applications that are free, or low-cost. An app you can use over and over at no additional cost. None digital art supplies can cost you a fortune - I've spent hundreds of dollars at a time merely on canvases, or paints. $5 or $500?
- You don't have to wait for paint to dry.
- You don't make a mess.
- You don't need much room to create the art. I've made a 70" x 40" painting sitting at a Starbucks.... If I were to paint it in traditional media (paint and canvas), I'd need an entire room.
- Digitally, you can paint a piece to be huge, or tiny...
- You can print your digital files on Canvas, on paper, on metal, on t-shirts, coffee mugs, and oh so many other things (such as posting to Steemit). To do that with traditional media, you have to scan it somehow... With a large painting, this is a bit of a nightmare (a facility that I use takes a ton of pictures - after using special lights to light the painting, then stitches them together, and color balances them all to match).
- If there's a flood/fire or other act of god (or stupidity), and a painting gets destroyed, you can print another one.
- Digital technology has gotten *so* good that people have argued with me that certain pieces are painted in oils... even though I've told them that they are digital.
- With the same tool (your tablet), you can paint with any medium (say oils, acrylics, chalk, pencil, watercolor, etc).
- Did I mention that there's no need for cleanup? :)
That's just a few reasons, I can keep going.... but the biggest points that I want you to remember are: it saves you time and money, allows you to undo, and... if you'd like to go non-digital, everything that you learned in digital (composition, color blending, etc). will transfer to traditional. Here's my favorite example:
That is me on stage with Alice Cooper and my (non-digital) painting of him. The entire time that I was painting this, my mantra was "I have no clue what I'm doing!" - and yet.. it turned out just peachy, and raised $10,000 for Alice's foundation. I hadn't used acrylics in so long.. and was scared shitless that I wouldn't be able to pull it off- but... my thousands of days paid off.
An app that I recommend on any device (tablet / phone / mac / pc) is Art Rage. This app is free on some phones, a few dollars on some tablets, and is about $79 (at the time of this writing) for a full license, or 1/2 that for an upgrade. One of my favorite features of this app are that I can start a painting on an ipad, then make it larger on the desktop, where I have more control.
I much prefer to work on the computer than on the ipad or phone. To do that, you should get a Wacom Tablet (there are other brands around, but Wacom is the golden standard).
Anything by Wacom is good.... The Cintiq is their high end line where you paint on the actual screen - this is not what I recommend, as it costs far more and can break.
A Wacom Tablet takes a little getting used to, but there are tutorials. After a short while, you forget that it wasn't always the way you were drawing.
What makes it work so well is that it is pressure sensitive (the harder you press, the darker the line), it detects the tilt of your brush, and most importantly, it is a natural gesture tool. You have used a pen, pencil, brush, or crayon.... A mouse is not how you draw / paint.
You look at the screen, but you move your stylus on the plastic tablet.
A computer is better than a tablet because it has more power. You can make much larger pieces. For example, one of my favorite sizes is 40" x 70"
A fantastic app that you will never run out of tutorials (free and paid) for is Photoshop. It used to be expensive, but now you can get it for $9 / month (2 cups of coffee at Starbucks). It is truly an amazing tool.
A couple of other cool applications that I recommend - for both quality and cost:
Rebelle 3 - This one makes epic watercolor - like... the paint actually drips, blends into the water, etc... Their acrylics and chalk is pretty great too. This one (currently) costs $89 - much cheaper than a bunch of paint / canvas.
Mischief - Not only has a great name, but there is a free version that is pretty awesome, and the professional version is only $25.
On the Ipad, Procreate is a pretty popular one that can do a lot.
I also have enjoyed Pencil - despite its simplicity.
There are so many... new ones out all the time. And they're all pretty darn cheap.
Your tablet by the way lets you also sculpt in 3D with programs like Zbrush / Sculptris / and oh so many others. I'm not live-linking these because I don't want to overwhelm you (3D is another article).
^^ This is not real... this is in 3D... but... I can have it 3D printed out of plastic or metal, or... can have it made into a lifesize bronze sculpture.
^^ Also not real... Just a nice render.
Anyways- That's a lot of reading, so I'll bring it to a wrap.
I've explained some of the benefits of art, why I recommend going digital to start, why you should look into life-drawing (in person, or on line), and I gave you some resources for apps and hardware.
As far as the "How to draw / paint / sculpt" - that's in another article... Specifically because ultimately, it depends on what you want to make. Do this- go to YouTube and type in "Painting in" - and then put in any of the apps that I mentioned above (e.g. Painting faces in Photoshop. Painting hair in Photoshop. Painting cars in Photoshop.).
One other resource I'd love to recommend is Proko. This dude knows how to teach the how-to of drawing in charcoal. He also teaches anatomy. He's funny, and has extremely well produced videos.
All right, I showed you some of the drawings for day 1.... Let me end by teaching you the greatest art lesson that I can (and this applies to anything in life)-- stick with it! Seriously, every painting sucks, until it doesn't... Keep trying. Don't beat yourself up if you don't like something... And that's another beauty of digital, it's pretty easy to hide the evidence :)
Here is how the same subject looked on day 1, and day 1,600.
Night and day... And... I might try to see how I paint her now, at day # 2,626.
I hope you've enjoyed this. It's my 2nd post on here.... I was just going to show my painting from yesterday- but then thought I'd explain why live painting is important, and then this article happened. And the reason I did all this is because you all were so darn welcoming yesterday when I posted my intro. I just want to give back.
If you've enjoyed it, you know what to do :) -- but definitely let me know. If there's something you'd like me to write about- let me know. And of course, if you'd like some custom art made for you, let me know.
Off to paint.