Nature isn’t flat

While copying a piece of art, you’re only drawing or painting from something that’s already flat (except when you’re copying a sculpture, which I know very little about, so I’m not going to express here any opinion on it).

When copying something that’s already drawn, you don’t get to fully understand the details or why the lighting is as it is. And if you want to be really good at what you do, you must learn and understand all these things by yourself and by figuring out your own work. Also, that’s why drawing from a photo when you’re learning isn’t the best idea too. Pictures drawn from photos or other drawings usually seem flat and lifeless.

Learn to think

Any form of creativity is a process, a series of decisions you are making all the time and when copying someone’s work, you don’t think for yourself, you’re following someone else’s thought. As an artist, you must learn to think for yourself.

The objectivity

The most dreadful trap in all this is that your favourite artist doesn’t necessarily have to be a good artist, especially in places like deviantArt. You have no idea how easily you can get all the bad drawing habits from someone whom you like, but they might not be as good as you think they are. And it’s very difficult to get rid of those habits afterwards. So be careful.

Don’t get me wrong, I sometimes take photos instead of making quick sketches and then paint stuff based on them, but my skill is already pretty strong and my goal isn’t exactly to learn drawing from nature, because I can already do that.

When you’re getting the skill, it’s always better to draw from nature. Some tips what to draw to get the skill, when you’re learning:

Catch the moment

Go to a ZOO, draw a crocodile or a tortoise. They’re fairly complicated and they don’t move a lot. This can be good and bad at the same time, because you need enough time to make the right sketch, and sometimes it’s bad to spend too much time on one piece. It’s very easy to turn a live, fresh sketch into something overdone and boring. I find it very educating to draw birds, also at the ZOO. They are moving all the time, but there’s enough of them in a cage to catch a certain pose for just enough time to put it on paper. Don’t worry if the picture isn’t very exact. With this kind of sketch, the most important thing is to catch the basic shape, movement, the character of an animal, the single moment.

Think in composition terms

Look around your town. It’s full of challenging composition sets. Don’t just draw architecture lines, put some life into it.

Study to perfection

Set yourself a still life, use items of various forms and texture. This is a perfect subject to study lighting, composition, colour and detail. Even better if you have access to a live human model, it’s challenging, educating, and if you can properly draw and paint a human body, you’ll be able to draw and paint anything.

But then, over the time, I realized a few things.

• Every artist has a crisis now and then
• I don’t have to be such a perfectionist, not all art and design has to be brilliant, it’s usually enough if it’s just good.
• It’s not wrong to look for inspiration elsewhere, everyone does it, and one brain can’t possibly hold every solution to every problem
• I don’t have to be 100% creative all the time

And I’ve started to look for inspiration everywhere.

What I do to find inspiration:

I draw realistically.

No, really. I don’t post anywhere most of this stuff, even if it’s good enough for me to be happy with the result.

Drawing from nature stimulates the brain in a different way than anything else, because you don’t actually invent the composition, you have to make it from what you see, or find a good motif somewhere in the surroundings. You have the reality and you have to shape it somehow.

It usually stimulates my imagination, and more drawings are made, each one less realistic, and after a while I get a good looking abstract composition and I don’t even know when it happened.

I listen to the music

I know it’s sort of cliche, but since I experience synesthesia, I see images when I listen.

I go online

When I’m making a design, a website or a logo, or whatever, I usually look for similar things online, and then carefully try not to copy any ideas, although when some symbols are associated with one idea, you can’t use them for another idea, or people will be confused. So sometimes you just have to copy an idea for the thing to be 100% understandable.

I do something unrelated

I meet people and party. I play video games. I watch films. I make simple jewelry. I watch paintings and photos on dA. I chat with people online. I read blogs. I write blogs. I read books. I go to the ZOO. I let my brain rest.

I can spend days doing nothing, just to get a boost of inspiration afterwards (and then I work days and nights).

I go for a walk

It helps me that I look at the world in photographic terms. I can see composition everywhere, not objects. It only requires switching the brain to the “art mode” (which you gain by practice) and some concentration. Sometimes it even switches by itself.

The only thing that doesn’t really help is that I really don’t like going out alone (even for a walk). I get bored too easily. But a walk with a friend, or a loved one, can be really inspiring, and they can sometimes notice things in the surroundings that I don’t, and motivate me to go further, or somewhere I haven’t been before.

and if everything else fails…

I just wait until it goes away

It eventually does. Every time.

At first, some theory. Drawing is basically a piece of art that opeartes with a tone value, not with colour. It means, that not only works created with pencil or charcoal can be considered drawings, but also the ones created with ink or paint, even applied with a brush (or any other item, for that matter). It doesn’t depend on the tool, it depends on the piece itself and the method that is being used.

Start with getting the skill

Never start your drawing experience with fantasy pictures, manga or whatever else you like. You simply won’t be able to do it well unless you learn the proper realistic drawing from nature. Start with still life compositions, go out and find a good visual motif in the town, ask someone to pose for you.

Think composition not detail

Plan the whole composition in advance. Measure object with a pencil, with your  hand stretched. Mark the major points on your drawing.

Simplify and synthesize

At first simplify everything to basic geometric figures.  Draw what you actually see, not what you know of the object. Then mark the grades of shading: the darkest, the lightest and two or three in the middle. THEN go a little bit more into details. Make it consistent by applying the same amount of details on every part of your picture at the same time.

Know when to stop

Don’t overdo your pictures, sometimes it’s better to leave them a little bit unfinished, but with a fresh feeling. Also, make a lot of simple, quick sketches.

Use that pencil what it’s made for

Whatever you do, don’t EVER smudge the pencil/charcoal with your fingers. It’s a big no-no. The idea is to create the appropriate value of gray with the tool itself.

Use the contrast

Be sure to distinguish contrasting areas, don’t make the picture medium gray all over just because you can’t decide to push that pencil harder.

Don’t worry if at first you don’t succeed

Because you won’t. Don’t be afraid to destroy a few sheets of paper before you actually accomplish something. Even experienced artists do it.

Don’t draw on too small sheets of paper

Change your sketchbook size to bigger. It always helps.

Learn the basic knowledge

Learn about the rules of composition, the rule of the thirds, and how to create a balanced image. A good place to start is probably this Wikipedia article.

Work hard

Watch a lot of art, go to galleries, don’t listen to amateurs’ advice, learn from professionals, gain knowledge, and practice a lot.

And remember, the so called “talent” is only something that affects creativity, not the skill. It can help you get the skills faster, but you actually can learn to create reasonable realistic drawings without it.

I didn’t like it to a point where I’ve received a lower grade for my thesis examination for Master of Arts degree, because I was supposed to tell about my pictures, and I didn’t really want to. Perhaps because there was not much to tell, they were just abstract oil paintings, partially inspired by nature, and partially my imagination and emotions. A play with colour and form.

For some time I didn’t paint at all, in fear that I would reveal my emotions this way. It took me almost four years to acknowledge the fact that it isn’t necessarily a bad thing, and no one could actually hurt me by watching my paintings. More than that, I could paint emotions and be artistically satisfied by it.

That’s when I first heard about the synesthesia. After Wikipedia:

Synesthesia is a neurologically based phenomenon in which stimulation of one sensory or cognitive pathway leads to automatic, involuntary experiences in a second sensory or cognitive pathway. People who report such experiences are known as synesthetes.

So basically, synesthesia is perceiving one sense’s experience with another one.

My first thought was: “I thought that everyone else had it too!”. Seeing emotions, sounds, touch and taste as colours. I don’t think I’ve experienced this consciously so far, it’s just been with me for my whole life, and I thought it was a normal thing, so I’ve never given it much thought.

I remember one event from my childhood, I wasn’t even ten. My parents were having guests over, and they were drinking some kind of alcohol. Vodka, I think. Alcohol was rarely used in my family, so I was curious what it was and asked if I could taste it. My mom gave me her glass, so I could stick my tongue into it. I did it, didn’t like it, and said: “This tastes like blue stripes!” and everybody laughed. I was astonished that they had no clue what I was talking about, and felt a little bit offended that they were laughing at my experience. Until now I had no idea, that what I had experienced then was synesthesia.

What a great thing to play with as an artist, I thought. I began to notice stuff that I haven’t noticed before, taking it for granted and thinking it wasn’t anything cool or special. I began taking notes. I can stop being afraid of expressing emotions, because I don’t have to do that in an obvious way! I can paint the taste of coffee, or my favourite pesto. The sound of harp and bagpipes. Or the feeling of migraine, or motion sickness, for that matter. There are infinite possibilities. It can take a lifetime to complete all the things.

I started in December 2008, I’ve completed five synesthesia paintings so far and began about ten more. In the meantime I’ve got a temporary job and I had no time to paint, today was the first time since last month.

But be sure, more are coming. I’m making my life project out of this. For now, at least.

Portfolio without a blog

This one is easier. You simply post new designs as blog entries (Posts), divide them into your regular blog categories, and make a few static Pages with your CV or contact information.

You can also create a home page (in index.php) that features image thumbnails that lead to each posts. In order to do that you have to place the link to the thumbnail for each post in the Excerpt field in your admin panel, and change the <?php the_content; ?> into <?php the_excerpt; ?> in your index.php template.

Portfolio with a blog

This one is trickier. You need to save your posts for journal entries, which means that you have to put all your portfolio content into static Pages. This method has many disadvantages:

You have to decide what to do with nested pages, how to display them, will the dropdown menu be essential (but beware, some people hate dropdown menus), how to make the thing readable and intuitive.

You need a home page, whether it’s a static page or the index.php. You can, of course, make the journal or the information about you your home page, but this would be a waste of precious space that may show your best or recent work.

Some plugins and articles that may be useful for this purpose:

• Random image widget - displays a random (or the latest) image from the database
• List subpages – an easy way to create lists of subpages on their parent pages
• Usable category navigation in Wordpress pages
• Build a dynamic design portfolio with Wordpress