I think we all know that drawing isn’t exactly the most exciting activity. Although it is relaxing, maybe coloring in that thousandth strand of hair is getting a little bit boring. That’s why I usually listen to a variety of different things when I draw. I used to only listen to generic top 40 music, but over the years I’ve found a few more interesting drawing accompaniments. Here are a few of my favorite things to listen to while drawing. Podcasts Radio isn’t dead. Ok, perhaps it is-but the radio drama isn’t. Through the internet you can listen to thousands of free podcasts and some of them are really good. Alice Isn’t Dead Alice isn’t Dead is the lastest offering from acclaimed Welcome To Nightvale writer Joseph Fink. It is about a truck driver traveling all over the country in search of her wife. I don’t want to say anymore to ruin the surprise, but there is a lot more to the story than that in true Nightvale fashion. It manages to be both poignant and terrifying all in the same show and I’m really excited to see where this brand new podcast goes. The Black Tapes The Black Tapes is […]
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Does it seem like you can’t come up with a good idea? Maybe you just have no motivation to draw. This is the dreaded ‘Artist’s Block’ and don’t worry-all artists experience it at some point in their life. Sometimes it only happens for a day or two, sometimes for a month. The most important thing you can do is try to break out of it before it turns into a long dry spell. I’ve compiled a few ways that have helped me come out of an artist’s block, and will hopefully help others experiencing the same issue. Use a prompt generator The Seventh Sanctum has a generator for just about anything to do with magic and more. It is super fun to take a random character from their General Person Generator and draw it. I’m pretty sure you can spend an hour or two on their site and still not look at all of their generators. It hasn’t been updated in a while, but all the generators still work perfectly fine. Hey, if something doesn’t need fixing, why fix it? ArtPrompts is made just for artists who need drawing prompts. They have generators for characters, creatures, enviroments, objects, and situations. For those […]
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Looking throughout the entire history of art, sometimes it seems like every idea has already been done. There is nothing new to be done looking at the whirlwind of different art styles in the 20th century, or is there? Where will art be in the future? In 5 years, in 10? No one could possibly predict the future of art with certainty, but I’m going to make a few general predictions here. Time-Based We’re used to art being static 2D images on canvas, but that is starting to change. We’re familiar with cartoons, but what if we started animating works of art? Thanks to programs like Adobe Aftereffects, time-based art is becoming more commonplace. There is a whole study dedicated to this called Motion Media Design. It is basically animating, but you usually aren’t animating characters or stories. See my example above or think of any TV intro you’ve seen in the past 5 years. It’s a really cool field and it is also my minor so I’m pretty excited to see where it goes. Augmented Reality Imagine if you are wearing Google Glass or some other type of smart lenses and you are in NYC on Easter. Suddenly, every single skyscraper […]
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Ok, I want you to stop, think, and ask yourself the question “What is Art?”. Now think of the variety of art throughout all of history. Does that definition still stand? Are you starting to see holes or contradictions form when you start to think of the work of Dadaists or Minimalists compared to that of the Renaissance masters? Is art meant to be enjoyed? Matisse created his works for businessmen to come home, relax, and view the same way we might have a Netflix show running in the background today. Others argued that art was not meant to be an ‘easy chair’ for people to relax in but an intellectually challenging pastime. So is art a passive object meant to be admired or a puzzle meant to be deciphered? Does art take technical skill? I think we all know of the famous Renaissance artists Michelangelo, da Vinci, Botticelli, and Raphael. They spent their lives trying to accurately capture human anatomy in paint or sculpture. For years, one of the main goals in art was to accurately capture the life around them. Once pictures were able to capture life with perfect accuracy, artist’s job as human cameras were no longer needed. Why […]
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