Art process

How many materials an artist needs? People have a preference for specific colors. Even if you buy a set of hundreds of colors after a month of regular use you will notice 5-6 colors are finished. So why not buy those most used ones only. Another truth about colors is just getting more on mixing basic ones. During fine art lessons many tasks on mixing colors are usually given. Students have to generate over 20 colors out of 3-4 basic ones. Talking about other tools you can actually use many things around as art materials. You can paint even without a brush. The image above is drawn with ink and stick. You can use old plastic credit or discount card instead of pallete knive. Posters can be made of masking type and sponge. You can see other example in my post on workshop made with paper, scissors, 2 acrylic paints colors, thred and sponge: https://lentochko.blogspot.com/2017/03/masterclass-in-poznan.html Minimal art materials set. So, summariznig all it up I recomend: whatman whatman,...

 If I ever get an interview with an illustrator one of my question to him or her will sound "Are you using prepared assets and backgrounds for better performance". Some repeatable element in illustations also make sense because of better recognizability and help to keep a plot by put known actors to next episodes.  And the next questions would probably be about assets management process. You know there actually are standart sets of people mocks, greenery used for architecture visualisations, collages, floor plan drawing itself.  Here is example I've used many times in my works. Different people drawn in similar type sitting around the table. I can mix them wherever I whant in my later works. It can be changed to show people making project estimation by story points: Another case you can use same people presented in a way of "colleagues sitting at business meeting":  Stand for minute and think what assets sets can you build to perfrom better in your future projec...

After long painfull thoughts to put some conclusions to text I finally giving hints for starting artists:  1. Put everything in context It difficult to find a person who can't draw some things in a really attractive way. From my observations even many drawing masterclasses promote welldrawn standalone things as final result. But if you look precisely at real designers and artists artworks you will notice that most of them become so loved because they cooperate with context brilliantly.  2. Feal comfortable drawing on big paper sizes Back to previous point nobody can percept well small faded drawing hanging on the wall. The distance people see paintings on walls or books on the shelves is too long and it makes tension to catch a message of a subtly drawn picture on a papersheet from notepad. Same for other side - it takes more tension for artist to transform to miniature real size object as well. Looks like doing double more work for double less result. 3. Do not hesitate to dr...

Here is introduced a serie of articles that are actually a studying plan that consists of 15-17 tasks - appoximate number of weeks semesters: Part 1: Setup Part 2: Basic shapes linear drawing Part 3: Shapes and shades drawing Part 4: Textures study Part 5: Reflections study Part 6: Drapery drawing study Part 7: Drawing complex shapes  Part 8: Plein air Part 9: Multiple plans study Part 10: Skin painting Part 11: Portrait in collage technique Part 12: Reproduction Part 13: Composition from set Part 14: Same idea in defferent techniques Part 15: Realistic to abstract Part 16: By choice Part 17: Final assesment

Setting up the goal.      It can sound like reverse engineering :). Let's define what are the final objectives of getting a new skill or sharping one you already have. References of works that made you motivated to start you learning roadmap should be taken into accout as much as possible. So, here is the start point: take a reference picture and simply duplicate it. If you afraid that it can take enormouse amount of time just set a limit to 45 min or 1,5 hours and then you can compare yor artwork with reference, define what things didn't go well and make a check list. Setting up the goal.      Set time to be commited per week. (on some marathons frequence can be set even per day). Try to think what pretext can be appear at planned time to give up drawing session and specify prevention procedures for that. Keep materials in accessible place.      Make materials to be prepared and keep them in accessible place while it become a habit. If you w...

  The very basic skill before drawing thing of a complex shapes is ability to display object of a basic shape in perspective properly. Intial practical task for studens in academic drawing are usually liniar drawing of simple geometric shapes made of gispsun of a similar size (normally it 15x20cm, 20x20cm) for better perception. Even invisible edges must be drawn to execute that task. Check next steps: Part 3: Shapes and shades drawing Part 4: Textures study Part 5: Reflections study Part 6: Drapery drawing study Part 7: Drawing complex shapes  Part 8: Plein air Part 9: Multiple plans study Part 10: Skin painting Part 11: Portrait in collage technique Part 12: Reproduction Part 13: Composition from set Part 14: Same idea in defferent techniques Part 15: Realistic to abstract Part 16: By choice Part 17: Final assesment