Determined willpower

In the past few years I've noticed something that only the most recognized illustrators, artists and creatives share which I believe is their success; determined perseverance and willpower. They have the determination to be the best in their field, to spread their art into the world, or to create their little hearts out til the fingers lay still with satisfactoin. In order to do that, they need to do their "THING" almost constantly. Otherwise they'll never grow as artists or individuals.
They also have the willpower to not let the pesky things in life which try to bog you down keep them down.

A few artists can be named as immediate influences on my own craft, be they peer, uber-famous or passed onto the big studio in the sky. If I name them you have to promise to not be offended by the lack of mention of a certain so-and-so, cause it is late, I'm trying to get sleepy, I've had a rough couple of days, and most importantly My Brain Is Lame At Remembering!

Classmates moved me to try to push past my "Not enough hours in the day" rut did so by working 40 hour weeks while attending the same classes as I, by caring for their children, by being able to hold freelancing projects while doing some or all of the above, by making AMAZING pieces of work all while being social and great peer-artists who would answer any and all questions, no matter how retarded. I can always count on Baker, Hill, Seiberling or Semidei to take a moment and describe what they just did or just give a helping hand getting my own stuff. Whether I watched them push through a difficult course of classes for a semester, rock out the projects while holding down crazy work hours, or hold it together while life kept the punches coming, I could only sit back in wonder and ask myself "Why can't you handle the same problems with such grit?"
So I watched, and learned.

The living artists I look up to are always pushing their boundaries in the pieces they publish weekly and monthly. They work to master the anatomy, lighting and color designs that bring their images to six degrees from living flesh. They fight the two dimensional restrictions and pull the viewer into a world that, even after Centuries, still captivates and holds the viewer spellbound.
I had the honor to pester and recieve feedback from such instructors as Higgins-Bond, Von Hager and Preston-of-the-Jeff-Type. I looked over their shoulders at the perfect blades of grass, the morbidly perfect disfigurement of a Monster, or graceful pastels and recieved answers about all the questions of technique and where to find the supplies.
Ross has shown that anatomy isn't perfected in a computer (even though that's how I practice) and McKean shows me that you don't have to just draw one thing over and over, or hell, even just Draw. If and idea works better in film or sculpy, then you damn well better use that outlet or the idea will fall flat.
More watching, more learning.

The great artists of the past I look to, Frazetta and Kahlo, pushed past massive restrictions to continue their craft. They're kindof like my little art-saints to invoke when I'm in pain and try to throw little pity-parties for my hands and...well, every joint.
Frazetta had numerous strokes in his advanced years, and 3 times over he kick-started himself back into the artists' seat and re-taught himself to draw....sometimes with his submissive left hand. Kahlo suffered massive injuries in a bus accident when she was hardly 18 which left her with ill-healed bones, permenantly injured organs and a damned strong determination. She learned to paint her own portrait and casts while she recovered from this accident, but she was never free of it. She suffered massive pains from this accident throughout life, and had a slight morphine addiction to keep that pain at bay. She painted through that pain, always, and even through the morphine.

Now I'm watching myself and learning that if I push, I'll break though those invisible binds that feel so tight on the hands. That I can stretch, sketch a bit, get a little work done, and not feel self-pity about being a 27 year old artist with an unknown chronic inflammation which causes random bouts of pretty heavy pain.

Today was one of those days, and even though it weighed my hands down at work, I worked through it once I got home. I'm about to sketch a little, time permitting before bed, and even though my fingers are stiff from whateverthehelliswrong, I will try to keep a positive outlook, try to keep a strong willpower to stay true to my artistic nature and persevere to create.
Let's see what happens.

Ohmigohh!

Ok, so if you've heard me make the noise spelled above, will you know what it says...thus I apologize to those out of the loop. But it's a noise I make when a little excited and pleasantly surprised and a little hyper.
But, the Testify! shadowcast poster was approved earlier, and then printed, and I'm really, really excited for two reasons.
1) I just illustrated people I know doing something they like for a public show.
2) I just did the above in record time (for me)

You see, the post on the....5th? was the first day of shading and about the second day of working on the project after it was concieved. Today's the 8th. I pretty much just did a poster of 15 figures (mostly half figures) in less than a week. This makes me happy cause that means I've grown as an artist since this time last year, when I would've taken a MONTH to do the same thing. I woke up early to work on it, was diligent about ONLY working on it, and completed a complex project with Time To Spare before the deadline.
That last part is a BIG thing I've been working on as a habitual Procrastinating Artist.

Between now and the showing of Repo: The Genetic Opera I'll be slaving away painting and glossing the 40+ new heartwork pendants and assembling displays for everything. Luckily, Saturday isn't the only show I need everything I planned on doing, so if it doesn't get done tomorrow I still need it for the 31st at Oblivion and in August for the Starving Artists' Benefit August 21 & 22.

Shiloh

Even though I push myself to work on the entire piece at all times, I break that rule while doing very complicated pieces or those with multiple figures. The Testify! Shadowcast Portrait has 15 figures, if you include the corpse, so I sketched the absolute darks and lights in before attacking one figure with the shading and colors. Below you can see essentially the finished idea for the foreground figures...the background figures will have varying degrees of detail based on their story importance.
I was going for a very pulp fiction-graphic novel style with personal detail mixed with slight abstracts.



The level of detail relies on well placed lines and proper shapes instead of number of lines. Hopefully Shiloh here looks as much like the shadow actress as I feel she does, but you'd have to know her to give good judgement.

Now, let's see if I can knock out at least 5 more today!

Trying to Define

two groups that I referenced to in the previous post: Hobby Artists and People Who Fantasize about the Romance of Art. There is Nothing wrong with belonging or not belonging to either catagory, I just figured to attempt a definition since I started rambling about it.

Hobby Artists are what the Tax Monsters call those artists who dabble in a little art outside of their main means of income and don't make more money than they spend on supplies. It's easy for any artist to be a hobby artist, you can be trained, have an education, or completely self-taught. To keep from being labeled "Hobby Artist" you have to dedicate time, energy and blood to hone your skills and Earn An Income. Hobby Artists still have a passion, but most aren't as focused with what to do with said passion.

People Who Fantasize about the Romance of Art actually kindof bug me. They're the ones who come up to me while I'm sketching in public, Oooh and Aaah about how "Wonderful it must be to be an artist" and how "Differently artists must see the world" and all that other blather. They aren't complimenting my style, subject or composition, they're simply amazed at the image coming out of my fingers and compare it to the fantasy realms of things that don't exist, like faeries, dragons and virgins. Mostly, they're male and using lines like that to pick me up, but I'll keep the generalization to one plane, cause women do it too.
These people don't usually see the time, dedication and neglected life that it takes to make such sketches.

Now, maybe there is something unique about the drive to create. And yes, I suppose something is wired differently in most artists' brains that make us see the world differently, but That Doesn't Mean we're a magical bunch of weirdos. We're just a different flavor of the same human race that accountants, chemists and engineers are crafted from.

And I hate how my words sound so cold, calculated and jaded, but I swear they aren't the tones I'd use verbally. I do appreciate that what comes as second nature and driven will to me is a foreign language to others. Really :) I love it when people look through my sketches and leave feedback or their interpretation of what I've done. I LOVE feedback and insight from the viewer.
But I don't like feeling like someone is verbally patting my head like a small child when they look into my sketchbook.

Does this make any sense, or am I being "unapproachable" again?

Studio

is word that should conjure a place of quite solitude and inspiration, and probably does if you are a hobby-artist or someone who has fantasies about the romantic aspect of art. But to a professional, the word "Studio" means the same as "Home Office", only with a feeling of pride and accomplishment since you are able to dedicate a spot in your home to your life-blood's passion.

I mentioned Hobby-Artists and People Who Fantasize About Romantic Art. There is nothing wrong with belonging to either catagory, and I'll try to define them in the next post, just to keep this one about my studio. But remember, I'm a visual thinker and general blather on without ever making coherent points. So, don't take offense if you think I'm insulting, cause I'm not.
I strive to be a professional. I strive to not wait for inspiration, but to just knock out the illustration, the pendants, the sculptures, the squiggles. I strive to work on a deadline-based world, which some people wouldn't consider "creative" and a "characteristic trait of an artist." Well, that's why I'm not part of the above groups.

I see my studio as a morphing office where I currently store all my reference, supplies and equipment. I generally use my laptop on the sofa next to Hobbit, to minimize the neglect that hours and hours of brainstorming, researching and creating will lead to, but everything else is in that tiny 12'x12' place. Well, everything plus both our book collections.
Needless to say, this is the best studio I can smash together til we get a bigger house :)


Here is the little work-corner, with the current project of Heartwork Pendants in the creation stage. I generally make as many pendants as I have clay for (currently this is nearly 2 boxes worth) and bake after stabbing, molding and sculpting each into a satisfactory shape.

Right now they all look like malformed pieces of flesh, that's the awesomely organic super sculpy shade of pink, but soon I'll pack up all the random bits and lay out the painting supplies and bleed life into them.


I have my inventory sitting out within eyeshot so I can make sure to make replacements of old designs or stretch the heartworks to new territories.


The last step is to affix all the pieces that could possibly come loose then to paint them with a gloss coat. I'm still experimenting with glosses that do what I want, but right now I have a pretty strong favorite that leaves an amazing shine to it all.

So, there's the mess and all that makes up my official play-area, my studio. Since I work in so many mediums I have to keep it pretty flexible to work in. And the small amount of space I have keeps things looking pretty random. I'll prolly post the next stage of creation with the heartworks, but I have sketching to get onto!