How art is improving everything in my life

I think these needs to be another theme I would like to share. When I go to lectures about the business and professionalism of working as an artist I am that person who is slowly sinking in my seat from embarrassment realizing I am that artist they are talking about who did NOT have a professional attitude. It's not terribly uncomfortable mostly because I am finding out what I was doing wrong and what I need to do to correct it.

What I have learned from the pros I have been studying with is the mindset of the professional, the attitude of a professional, and the behavior of a professional artist. That has been, for me, the most wonderful discovery of all.

What I did not expect is how it affected my attitude in my day job. I have finally learned to love it! It is helping me to get to my goal of being a self-supporting professional artist. It pays for my education and materials. I am learning how to handle business aspects such as working with print vendors, invoicing and filing and archiving. I am especially learning to leave my ego locked up in a little cage at home and to not miss it at all.

Learning how to be a pro as an artist has taught me how to be a pro at the job I don't really WANT to do and it has made me so much happier with my situation in general. I love this job now. I love that I make things good for other people. I love that I feel a sense of fulfilled responsibility that allows me to indulge in the thing that is my passion and my current goal (I have many!).

Drawing, composition, color, value, technique, mediums are all so fun to learn. But the sense of pride in myself that I am building comes from learning how to be professional. THAT has been the best lesson of all.

My current best source (other than the teachers with SmarterArtSchool and Illustration Master Class) is a wonderful book call "The War of Art" by Steven Pressfield. I highly recommend it - especially getting the audio version. It's like having a coach in the room with you while you work.

Learning to love my day job: AWESOME!!

Rose Red and Snow White - Final

Here it is!!!

Now it's time to move on to the next one...

Rose Red & Snow White in Progress

Here is an in progress shot of my Rose Red & Snow White painting for Smart School. This is my second go round with it and I am already so much more pleased. I am finally starting to find my painting method (it's still very much an amalgamation of what I have been learning from other artists) or I should say my brush confidence and this has been going more smoothly. I've also begun to learn how to use less saturated color and to reference my value scale for better values. I would say this is at about 1/4 of the way through. I'll keep you posted at to how far it gets!

Here is what I started for the first round (it is not finished and will most likely get gessoed over a year or so from now). I feel like I am riding a rocket - but I make sure I look at the masters to keep my humility firmly in place!!!

I really cannot say enough about Smart School - I have already begun the first week of the new semester, and even though I am only on "lurk" mode my head already hurts form the sheer amount of information I have received. These two paintings are only about six weeks apart. I am STILL growing!

Not • Quite • Final...

It's not QUITE final yet...

I still have tweaks to do to this but it's something I am so proud of - and two weeks form now will no doubt hate! Over the summer I had attended the Illustration Masterclass where one of our teachers had challenged me to do what I was REALLY passionate about (thank you Iain!). The thing I always found most fascinating about illustration was putting a face on the characters in my favorite books. I was always drawn to the faces of the people I imagined as I read and I spent hours trying to bring them to life. This painting is my answer to that challenge as well as being an assignment from the Smart School class with Greg Manchess I took over the fall.

I consider this just a stepping stone. I have already gotten some great criticism on this already (Thanks Marc!) and will be making some tweaks over the next few weeks and will post that when it is done. The difference a truly educated eye makes is fascinating and I am all too slowly acquiring that eye myself.

Okay - did I drop enough names? With good reason. I would not have achieved this much without their knowledge and generosity!

This is a painting of one of my favorite characters of all time: Menolly.

My early influences

This is one of the several books I own on Alphonse Mucha. Many artists I know are in love with this man's work and with Art Nouveau in general. It's the design, the organic quality, the beauty, the infatuation with nature as design, it's the whole package. Maybe fashion got tired of it but artists never get tired of it. Anytime I am working n new designs I look at this work for inspiration. 

This one was the big score for me in college - I got the LAST ONE in the US - it took about a month for them to hunt it down and ship it to me and it was a frightening $80 in 1988. I have treasured this thing all my adult life and it is definitely one of my desert island books. Seeing the prices for it on Amazon kind of blew me away but I will sell my Legos before I ever part with it. It was also one of the few books that had photos of his Slav Epic and they were only black and white. You can now see them in glorious color online - I believe they are on display now. This is such a treasure trove because it has just about EVERYTHING he did...

Had to post about this - it really is one of my biggest influences and the sheer desire to paint like this is what drove me out of the graphic design program I hated and into the Illustration program I wanted...

Progress...

Part of SmArt School was doing and redoing - most of us challenged ourselves to do this because we were learning so much so fast that within only a few weeks we would look at what we had done and KNOW all the things we needed to fix or change. These were done only about 4 weeks apart but the difference amazed even me!

I still want to do another one as I am still developing in a rapid fire way...

Where to begin

This is where I began as a young artist just learning how to describe the world around me with a pencil. When I was in ninth or tenth grade it was rather obvious I was an artist. I was so lucky to have a teacher who was interested in helping me develop and I have to credit Mr. Cauvel with introducing me to this book. I have pretty much every iteration of this book and I still come back to it from time to time to refresh what it is I learned in it. 

I can honestly say if it hadn't been for Mr. Cauvel (and all my other art teachers) I wouldn't have made it at all. This book was the first big step and personally I feel every artist should have it in their library - which most do. I know this isn't really news for most artists that this book is pivotal in learning but at least for me it is one of the most important - as in if I only had ten books on a desert island important.

If you are just starting out learning how to draw - this is the best place to start for anyone.