Hallo

There's a new feature called premium content that allows users to make file downloads available for a charge. This seems to be something with a vast range of different possibilities that range from quite nice to to quite lame. Of course we are all always against commercialization and sell-outs and everything and don't want things to change but there are some interesting options here.

Obviously everyone is going to know whether or not this is something he or she could use and how much sense it's going to make for what you do specifically but there's two points I want to adress.

I always thought it was lame when people sell stuff like brushes or psd files. This is probably just my personal opinion and many will certainly disagree for valid reasons, but I think, if you make some brushes, and you ask money for something as tiny as that, you are lame. Sorry. Actually, the point here is not that it will kill someone to pay like one buck for something tiny, it's just that it changes the entire conversation from "Here, have this, if it helps you I'm happy" to "Before I will share this with you you will have to transfer some of your property to me." Just... no. It's a dick move and, to me, on the same level as charging hundreds of moniez to let people watch you draw something and describe what you're doing on a workshop. Or asking people to pay you for critiques or paintovers or feedback. I think it's dishonest and I don't like it. The "but my time has value" excuse doesn't really work here either - because then you should be charging ACTUAL rates, which a normal person can't (and shouldn't) pay.
For this reason, I kindly ask all my peers, especially those who already make a living with their work anyways, to not be dickwads and ask money from kids who are learning. It lowers you in my eyes and if you do it then I don't want to talk to you anymore. If you need money, do contract work. Corporations have a shitload of money, so that's where you should make a living. Leave the kids alone. It goes without saying that my stuff, files, and tutorials will stay free.

Back to the premium content feature, a perspective I personally really like would be something akin to crowdfunding/name your price/flattr kind of thing: You'd just be doing normal stuff and uploading it like usual and if someone decides he or she likes it there's an option to give you moniez (a matter of choice). Especially for people who do webcomics or other stuff that relies on a vibe and a connection with watchers or readers while not being something that you could probably make a living off by doing it for hire this would be good. Everyone could read it, those who have some money left over can support it, those who have a bit more can give a bit more if they want. I actually hope to see a lot more like that, I read a ton of webcomics and always feel bad since it's so hard to support these people if they're not selling a book or something. But, and here's a big but, 20% is a huge cut that dA is taking, so this is probably not going to replace kickstarter or direct donations.


Anyways, here's a tiny thing to end this entry. Something that'd probably be somewhat of a dream or at least a goal of a lot of artists would be to make a living off their work indirectly - that is, through royalties, prints, donations etc as opposed to rates you charge for jobs, and then to have more time on their hands to produce more work, which in turn would support them again. After all if you work freelance, on second thought about what I said above, the money you get from the corporations indirectly comes from the kids just as well, minus what the CEOs take. So, for the future what I hope for in this field is that we see more growth in the independent sector, more selfpublished graphic novels, more webcomics that sell books and stickers themselves, more indie games, more people being creative and more people supporting them in return for what they do - basically the middle class producing, innovating and trading between each other like they should be in a healthy economy. Especially in the field of comics/manga/graphic novels there's a lot of room for improvement. I'm not even gonna mention the music sector here since we all are oh so against record companies. I just wish there was a platform that would finance itself through advertising rather than taking a percentage. But then again, the money that comes from corporations who pay to advertise is money that you paid at some point just as well. So the question is how do we get the most direct (and most financially lossless) connection from the consumer to the creator.

So in summary my point is, whatever! Do what you like and try not to starve! Cheers!

It's been quite a while since I wrote a preachy "THINK ABOUT YO' ART"-type journal, and some of my newer watchers may not know that this is a particular(ly annoying) habit of mine.  This is a subject I've had on my mind for quite some time for a number of reasons, and it's recently coalesced into a semi-soluble form so here we go.  (As an aside- this journal does have some recycled ideas from a previous post of mine, but obviously I hadn't really said everything I wanted to on the subject.)

It's no mystery that I love this website.  I came in at the tail end of the pre-critique wonder years, when the internet discovered and exploited that, yes, we don't always produce the highest quality art here.  There's a lot of unpleasantness directed towards DeviantArt.  At RISD, I made a point to never mention that I had an account here, because of the looks of disgust I would get haha and people would think about me differently.  It was something to be ridiculed over.  

I honestly think we're entering a new phase, though.  There are a lot of professional artists joining up on DA, recognizing it for a fantastic way to interact with other people in a language we all speak.  It's a combination of a portfolio website and Facebook, and it's ahead of its time and it's fantastic.  I no longer hide from anyone that I am a very active member here, and every single honest-to-god work offer I've gotten has come directly from my connections on this site.

However, like I said, I think we're entering a new phase, and I have some thoughts.

If you're a creative person and you have a facebook, you have undoubtedly read Ira Glass's poignant quote about taste.  If you need a refresher:

_____________________________________________

"What nobody tells people who are beginners — and I really wish someone had told this to me . . . is that all of us who do creative work, we get into it because we have good taste. But there is this gap. For the first couple years you make stuff, and it's just not that good. It's trying to be good, it has potential, but it's not.

But your taste, the thing that got you into the game, is still killer. And your taste is why your work disappoints you. A lot of people never get past this phase. They quit. Most people I know who do interesting, creative work went through years of this. We know our work doesn't have this special thing that we want it to have. We all go through this. And if you are just starting out or you are still in this phase, you gotta know it's normal and the most important thing you can do is do a lot of work. Put yourself on a deadline so that every week you will finish one story.

It is only by going through a volume of work that you will close that gap, and your work will be as good as your ambitions. And I took longer to figure out how to do this than anyone I've ever met. It's gonna take awhile. It's normal to take awhile. You've just gotta fight your way through."
_____________________________________________

God bless you, Ira Glass.  I mean, the man works in radio and speaks well for a living, so nothing I can say after that is going to be quite as affecting.  Acknowledging everything he's just said and after meditating on if for months, I've got to say that I don't entirely agree with him.  I don't think anything he's said is incorrect, but I do believe that there's another side, which he didn't really get to: taste development.  

"Taste Level" is one of those phrases bandied about in art school and no one can really put their finger on it but they know it's something we're all aiming for.  

Shall we take a look at what I considered my "best to date" 5 years ago?  

You know that "Draw This Again!" meme?  Those honest to god alarm me.  If I were to "draw this again" with the piece I posted above, the right panel would be empty, because I no longer believe it's worth drawing.  Not to get down on the subject matter or anyone who likes it.  

I could easily say this ditty: is a recent and very similar piece.  Lurchy posture, focus on pretty lady, lots of hair, lack of explicit storyline, indulgence in the media.  The thing is, that drawing was done in an hour, and almost not shared at all because it is so far from the level of finish I usually require from myself.  That purple drawing, on the other hand, I slaved over for DAYS.  DAYS.  And it was my MASTERPIECE.  

I'm trying to say I'm not immune. I obviously maintain plenty of the same visual fetishes that I had 5 years ago.  However.  I no longer think "pretty lady, big hair" merits an illustration, I now recognize that those are simple aesthetic soft spots of mine, in which I allow myself to indulge every once in a while when, for instance, I'm on vacation.  And there are certain items of questionable taste I'll NEVER grow out of: Fanart, cleavage, backlighting.  God knows I work them in whenever possible.

The thing is, I have yet to see a "Draw This Again!" meme that makes any notable changes to composition, content, or impact of the work.  Is a person's ability to draw more convincing clothing folds or a more roguish grin evidence of what they have accomplished in their last two+ years of artistic development?  This is a matter of taste, and we are limiting ourselves.

Defenders of DeviantArt (such as myself) like to say that we encourage each other to improve, but it is my opinion that we also perpetuate bad habits and insulate ourselves against real-world standards.  Taste is a big deal.  And as a community, we don't have the best taste.  We allow ourselves to draw sketchbooks full of faces and measure our improvement by how many times we had to erase the eyelashes before they looked right.  We balk at the idea of considering composition, of learning color theory, of trying to put story into our works, because it's a vast and unfamiliar ocean and it's comfy here in the shade of the DA umbrella.  We convince ourselves we don't WANT to do that stuff, anyway, this is just for fun, and if we wanted to do complete illustrations, we would!

Well maybe this is true and I don't mean to criticize hobbyists, and obviously I used to follow this exact code of conduct, but even those of us who are genuinely content to just practice running poses or angry faces should accept that there is a greater standard of taste outside of DA and we are willfully shutting it out.

Taste Level is the doorway through which we peek at every Skill aspect.  DeviantArt has programmed us to see Expression, Posing, and Media through the tiny crack in between the door and the frame and to think that's all that's there.  But if we were to open that door, there is just so much more behind it.  Skill is only one part of artistic development.  Yes, skill encompasses technique, anatomy, expression, composition, value, narrative, anything else you can think of.  But without Taste, we would ignore all of that in favor of a really stellar pair of eyebrows.  

I don't want to close with any aggressive demands like "it's time to man up" or whatever, but now you know my thoughts, and I'm looking forward to hearing anything you guys have to say.  Thanks for reading.

Well, that was fun.

Let's just go over what I posted yesterday: I voiced that I have no opinion on guns in America, because I don't live there and as such; don't care. I said that I, personally, am afraid of guns and think they're industrial killing machines. And I posed a vague, hypothetical question that could have been applied to any situation where an old law/doctrine is in effect.

That's it. Nothing more. Harshest word in there was "change" followed by a question mark. Not "ban", not "make guns illegal" and certainly not "outlaw free speech and trial by jury", which some people with a slightly looser grasp on reality seem to think go hand in hand with owning the firearms I said I don't care about.

Well, today, I am going to post an opinion: if you're the kind of insecure, paranoid little twit that flies off the handle when someone poses a simple question, and who holds weapons and the laws that permit them with such religious reverence that you perceive that question as nothing short of an inexcusable, blasphemous attack, you probably shouldn't be trusted with a pointed stick let alone a gun.

Get a grip.

1. As an artist your first loyalty is to your art. Unless this is the case, you're going to be a second-rate artist. "
- Margaret Atwood
 
2. You must master fundamentals, but you can never do so by watching another man paint."
- Andrew Loomis, Figure Drawing for All it's Worth

3. The only excuse for making a useless thing is that one admires it intensely."
- Oscar Wilde

4. The practice of art is not to make a living, It is to make your soul grow."
- Kurt Vonnegut

5. Nothing is original. This is good because humans are forgetful. We need to be told things often and in different ways to remember."
- Austin Kleon, Steal Like an Artist

6. Only you can give the world your unique viewpoint."
- Neil Gaiman
 
7. Allow yourself to feel good about your work. Otherwise there is no point to doing it. If you never feel good about it, then you are just torturing yourself and then it is not worth it."
- Unknown

8. Only by struggling courageously against what seem like overwhelming odds can man succeed in wringing meaning out of his existence."
- Freud

9. Stop looking at other people's artwork for reference, instead look at photos and find your own style."
- Sam Wolfe Connelly

10. Make Good Art."
- Neil Gaiman

Sometimes it just takes a while to get it right.

 
In early 2011 I began a piece I back then called 'Fairy' - I had an idea of this alien looking woman staring into the vast emptiness with a slightly lost look on her face. Her main feature was to be her brilliant blue eyes. I started the piece and I had fun with it for a little while but then I got incredibly frustrated because I was unable to transfer the image in my head onto the wacom tablet.


The early, abandoned piece.

A year later I was looking through my folder of pieces from 2011 and found the abandoned file. I decided to pick up on it again and see if I could make something of it. At first I felt inspired by an old German Oil Painting by Christian Seybold (1695-1768) - a portrait of an old woman.


Alte Frau by Christian Seybold (1695-1768)

I turned the "fairy" into an old Avalon priestess instead and made it more of a portrait study.


Early stages of the Avalon Priestess.

Although there was some improvement I was still struggling a lot, I just couldn't get the face proportions correct despite multiple references so I ended up abandoning the piece again, at least for a while.

About four months later I was working on my Trollkin calendar project, my time was limited to get it finished in time for Christmas so I was looking for possible "shortcuts" to get a good looking finished piece I could be proud of into the calendar, which is when I came across the abandoned piece again. So I picked it up again. I decided to go back to the original image size instead of a mere portrait, and this time - despite struggling, I worked my way through the tough hurdles. My husband helped me take some new reference images for the piece and after a couple of weeks of determination I finally managed to finish it.


Morgaine, also known as Morgan Le Fay, sister of King Arthur © Kiri Østergaard Leonard, 2012

Comparing the two images I can see that from 2011 to 2012 I learned a lot. I hope that 2013 will be as good a year as 2012 and that in a year from now my artwork will have made the same leap. It can be incredibly discouraging when your artwork do not match up to your own expectations but it is also very rewarding when you can look back and see you have improved, it makes it all worth it.

So don't give up if you are having a really hard time with something you are working on, just put it aside for now and pick it up later.

Comparison image: 2011 to 2012.

About curves ans lines
[link]

The internet is a wonderful resource for artists and illustrators. I have picked out my ten favourite blogs that I like to follow. These blogs are all pearls of information, resources and helpful lessons on art and illustration so if you are not already following them, you really should check them out!

 


1. Gurney Journey - [link] is maintained by Imaginative Realism master James Gurney. James Gurney shares with us his journey in art work, he blogs about a wide variety of topics, all related to the visual world. His blog has also inspired two high recommendable books on how to paint.

 

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2. Muddy Colors - [link] is an illustration collective by 13 professional artists and illustrators, mainly working in the field of Imaginative Realism and Fantasy, who are all highly successful. They share lessons in both the creation of art, but also the business side as well as a look into their own process when they create.

 
[I had to remove entry # 3, because the blog was taken down]
 

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4. Lines and Colors - [link] is written by Charley Parker. It showcases artwork from all over the world and throughout history as well. It is a wonderful source of inspiration as well as a brief lesson in art history and a great showcase of current artists and illustrators.

 

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5. Illustration Art - [link] is written by David Apatoff. The blog is an intriguing mixture of art history and intellect. David Apatoff offer his opinion of various illustrators from history and also sparks a long discussion from his loyal followers. The comments are as interesting to read as the posts.

 

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6. Marc Scheff Illustration - [link]. Marc Scheff is a very skilled illustrator, who is also very big on sharing information. His blog is very informative on the art and business of illustration. It is a great go to for resources on freelancing as well as tips on studying art. Marc Scheff is also involved in both Awesome Horse Studios, that I previously posted an interview on - [see here] and Illustration Age.

 

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7.Noah's Art - [link]. The author Noah Bradley is a successful young illustrator with an edge. Noah shares his thoughts, lessons learned and encouragement on his blog. He is also very honest and is not afraid to point out the frequent mistakes young artists may make, but does so is a very helpful manner and there is little doubt, he knows what he is talking about. He is also a member of Awesome Horse Studios.

 

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8.Forbidden Visions - [link] is written by Oliver Wetter, who is another illustrator with an edge. Oliver shares his thoughts and experiences on illustrating and creating. Not only is his blog full of good advice but there are also good resources to be found. His posts are very well written and always makes you put things into consideration.

 

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9.Academy of Art and Creature Design - [link] is a blog with multiple authors and a huge amounts of wonderful resources on creature and character design. The blog is written for online AAU students and is a great place to go for art lessons. Definitely a must-read for all art students.

 

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10.Urban Sketchers - [link] is perhaps not so much a 'must' but it is nonetheless a very enjoyable blog. Sketching is an important mean to improving for all artists and there is something very enjoyable about the life sketches hold compared to finished pieces. Urban sketchers have made it their goal to display the world we live in one drawing at a time. People from all over the world submit sketches from their country/area/travels.

 

That is all for now, if you have any blogs you feel are a must-read please do submit them in the comments!

 

 

Every day i hear how talented I am - I think this is a incorrect. I think that talent is confused with work. I do believe there is talent in every artist, but it is only 5%- you see when we were younger we all drew the same. As we got older, many people stopped trying to draw due to comments, lack of interest or what ever other reason they put there. The others that continued, like all things learned that it is 95% work, frustration, tears, anger, determination, persistence, practice, practice, practice, & more practice that allows them to create the artwork you see. Many people just grade the artist on the end result, in reality they missed the struggle and battle that truly defines the piece created. I enjoy the 5% talent I see around me yet I respect the 95% dedication that these great artist put out that makes their works fantastic. I believe anyone can learn to draw- they just have to want it bad enough. and that means that they are willing to show us by putting the effort in to it to make it work.

keep creating
trav

For about two years I have been a big fan of listening to art podcasts while doing my artwork. In that time I have listened my way through many, many hours of illustrators sharing advice and experiences. There are some really informative gems out there and there are some more laid back, but still entertaining podcasts. All of them have one thing in common - they are for artists by artists. If you are an art student who is looking for a glipse into what working as an illustrator is actually like I would even more so recommend that you try out some of these links and give it a listen, you will learn a lot.

 


1. The Ninja Mountain Podcast - [link]The Ninja Mountain Podcast has over a 100 episodes on its back. It is a casual, light hearted but also informative podcast with that catch phrase 'For Artist, by Artist' - the panel changes from episode to episode and as a result you get a lot of great input of experiences from many different, professional illustrators. Now and then the conversation trails of into non art related matters, but it always has good entertainment value and it's my overall experience you can find a lot of great advice in this podcast.

 


2. ArtCast by Chris Oatley - [link]ArtCast is a ultra informative podcast by Disney character designer Christ Oatley. Chris Oatley shares of his own personal experience and learning curve and is aiming to inspire and really encourage fellow artists. He's also open to answer any question about art you may have so I highly recommend his site.

 


3. Paperwing's Podcast - [link]
The Paperwing podcast is a collaborative effort between Disney character designer Chris Oatley and IDW comics creator Lora Innes. It is mainly focused on comics however there is a lot of great advice you can apply to your general illustration practice as well. Paperwing also provides some really great tutorials that are especially helpful to art students.

 


4. Drawn Today Podcast - [link]
Drawn Today currently runs 34 episodes. This is one of my favourite podcasts because it's one of the more serious and really well informed groups of illustrators out there. Drawn Today, like Ninja Mountain, also have a panel that changes every now and so often so you get a lot of different input from illustrators in various genres.

 


5. Escape from Illustration Island Podcast - [link]
Escape from Illustration Island is no longer putting out new episodes however it does have a count of 81 solid ones. It is created and hosted by Illustration Age founder Thomas James. The podcast mainly focuses on interview with artists in many different genres, so it's great for perspective beyond fantasy illustration. There are a lot of really interesting interviews.

 

 

 

During my second semester of foundation at Pratt institute I had a very interesting drawing teacher named Douglas Wirls. One my last day of class, where we had our final review he told me something that will stick with me forever. Professor Wirls said to me:

"It is your responsibility as an artist to care about your own work. It is a responsibility you have to your work, that you MUST care about it and seek to improve it, because no one else is ever going to care about it as much as you. No one else is as personally engaged in it as you are, so if you give up, that is entirely on you. No one is going to stop you one way or another, it is all on you. It is YOUR responsibility."

It made me think, and although it has only been less than a year since he said this to me I have often reminded myself and taken solace in it. Perhaps during the early years of learning, this reminder is most valuable.

It can be an incredibly frustrating path to improve your artistic skillset. Sometimes the pencil just does not put down the marks you image and at times you may look at your work and feel it is all hopeless and never improving, but if you want to get better the only way is practicing. There is no shortcut.

You owe it to your work to keep going and improve.