So, this is my first blog post, which is hopefully the first of many, documenting my journey as an artist and finding my artistic voice.
After feeling generally frustrated with life, I realised after nearly 10 years of leaving school I did nothing creative with my life. Being creative is an excellent way of giving myself ‘me’ time, and I had missed this. During my teenage years I was heavily influenced by manga & anime, and mostly spent my time working on OC’s and drawing my friends. Once I left school this pretty much died a death, and other thing became more important in my life: boyfriends, alcohol, video games, working to earn money, and travelling.
A couple of years ago I picked up a pencil again, but I had no creative direction, so I just drew whatever came to mind. My drawings were atrocious. No sense of scale, composition, or any other fundamentals that help make up art, at least not in the semi-realism I was aiming for.
So that I didn’t waste my money too much I bought a cheap drawing tablet to see how I got on with it. Aside from finding it exceptionally frustrating due to it’s cheapness and not working very well I found I quite liked drawing straight onto my computer screen, and promptly upgraded to a Wacom Bamboo.
Then come a couple more years of stalling, mostly due to more holidays, and then moving house 3 times in 18 months. I did pump out a few drawings and sketches, but nothing I was particularly proud of. I am my own worst critic. I will post the ones I find half decent.
To help me get back on track I was going through the CTRL Paint videos, but I felt like I reached a point I could go no further before going over the basics of drawing again.
Currently I am working on Drawing On The Right Side Of The Brain by Betty Edwards. I find the book easy to follow, but don’t agree with all of her techniques. I’m more than halfway through the book, and my next assignment is to draw a portrait, which I am cacking myself over! Overall I’ve been pleased with my results from this book, in particular how to draw in perspective.
I’m not too sure what I’ll do after finishing the above book, I will probably go back to CTRL Paint and carry on from where I left off. For Xmas I’l be receiving an Asus Vivotab Note 8, which is like a very cheap version of the Companion Cintiq, or the Surface Pro 3. I’ve had a quick play with it before it was wrapped away for Xmas, hopefully I’ll get on with it OK for the sketches and drawings I want to do on it.
I’m also thinking of taking a home-learning university course in Fine Art. I’m stuck in a dead-end job, which despite future prospects has yielded nothing for 3 years yet, and I’m getting itchy feet. All other jobs I look at for graphics design, or artworking, or even just repro-ing require a degree, and I feel like I won’t be taken seriously in the industry unless I have a degree. I know that a strong portfolio counts (something which I’m working on), but what’s the point if my job application gets thrown straight in the bin if I don’t have a university degree?
Anyway, that’s enough from me for now, in the meantime I hope you enjoy my other ramblings, and the sketches I will post on here! Please feel free to constructively feed back on anything I post.
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