Jahari, take 1
No new sketches today (not feelin’ it), so I’m sharing instead a failed character portrait for my darling Natsumi who can be visited at Rusty Salamander. Additional attempts will be made. (‘A`;;)
No new sketches today (not feelin’ it), so I’m sharing instead a failed character portrait for my darling Natsumi who can be visited at Rusty Salamander. Additional attempts will be made. (‘A`;;)
Something I started last night. I realize the kitty looks kind of huge… um… I don’t care. D: I’m thinking prints, cards, maybe mousepads (?) when it’s done.
My family used to have this huge green chair when I was a kid. I miss it.
Cats… wings… catbirds without wings… cute little gryphlets D:
I know the lighting makes no sense. I just wanted to use those colors okay ;_____;
I had considered refining the wing some more but I like the sketchy, tattered kind of look it has.
Not much to say about this one. Sarai’s one of my oldest characters and I don’t draw her often enough. :0
To begin: the following is pretty much entirely my opinion, and you may agree or disagree with it. Anything I say that sounds like “fact” is probably me just trying to state something as simply as possible to aid in the flow of writing.
More and more lately, I’ve come to realize that there are two and only two kinds of art: art for oneself, and art for money. I don’t think there’s any distinction between something you make to hang on your own wall and something you make to hang on your own wall but end up selling soon after. Even if you really really need to sell a painting by Friday to pay the rent, if you spent the process making it suited to your desires, wishes, and preferences, then I would consider it to be art for yourself.
I also don’t think there’s any distinction between the boring microscope diagrams and totally interesting animal anatomy diagrams someone might create on commission for the same textbook. Even if you hate drawing one thing and love drawing the other, you’re still making this thing for money, with someone else’s vision and requirements in mind. Any commission you are told to “go wild” on is also in this category. The buyer can be really lenient and happy with anything they receive, but ultimately there are still going to be limitations and choices made by someone other than yourself.
This brings me to a point: if you are an artist, can you tell which kind of art you’re producing?
My mother will occasionally ask me if I draw the way I do because that’s how I want to do it, or if I do that because I want people to like it, or if it’s expected that I should do it a certain way. I would quickly respond as something to the former, but after some consideration, I started to wonder. I’ll get back to this soon.
I believe these two categories apply in all fields and styles of art. Painting, drawing, sculpture. Fantasy, realism, abstraction. Some fields lend themselves more to “for money” production like graphic design, concept art, tattoo design, those caricature artists at theme parks (even if they really really love doing it!). But with enough drive to operate independently and work on your own projects (…tattooing yourself?) it doesn’t have to be “for money”. Even painters who rely on gallery sales can be working under the umbrella of art for themselves. Maybe they’ll get lucky and someone will just happen to like enough to buy what the artist liked enough to create.
So what am I doing? Am I creating for myself, or am I creating for money? It’s no secret that I’d like to pull in some cash from my creations, if possible. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that; it’s no difference than a chef getting paid for preparing food at a restaurant. But, am I creating for myself?
I’ve spent most of my years as an artist involved in various online communities (some now defunct, some quite active) with focus on artwork, critique, and artistic improvement. I’ve learned more than I could ever hope to re-impart from them, and I encourage beginners and anyone who is serious about getting into the art industry or art-for-money fields to check some of them out. But here’s the thing: is it worth it if you’re only creating for yourself?
It’s natural to want your art to be “perfect”. When you think about it, it’s hard to imagine being proud of a “satisfactory” achievement. But why? If you made it for you, and you’re satisfied… why not just let it go? I’ll admit to going back and making minor nitpicky kinds of alterations after “publishing” a piece, but 9 times out of 10 I realize it’s not going to hurt anyone if her eye is a millimeter too low or too high. I’ve come to understand very recently that most people are not as picky about wing anatomy as I am. Many people don’t understand the structure of a wing, the ways in which it is analogous to a human arm, the way feathers overlap. Maybe it’s lazy of me to do so, but with that fact in mind, I can just fudge. I can finish and be satisfied with an error that only anally retentive people like myself are going to notice, or I can work and work and work until I’m sick of the piece and don’t even want to look at it after it’s uploaded.
Which sounds like the better deal to you? What would you do? Whose standards are you trying to work towards?
I see terrible artwork every day. I used to resent the awful watercolors I’d see for sale downtown with ridiculous price tags… I would hate the people who actually bought them. But you know? I bet the person who painted every one of those horrid things enjoyed every moment of it. Watercolor and perfection don’t mix. Maybe I’m just jealous that this person can make money from something they really only meant to create or do for themselves, and their own enjoyment.
Isn’t that what everyone wishes they could do?
Magikarp thanks you for scrolling past my rambling. He thanks you with a Hyper Beam.
This started as a drawing of nobody in particular; I wanted to apply some of the things I learned about faces from the celebrity studies I’ve been doing. This end result unintentionally looks like someone I used to go to school with, whose last name just happens to be be “Wright”.
…that’s all I got D:
This “guess the celebrity” thing isn’t working. So I’m just going to draw them and tell you who they are and you can just look at them instead, ‘k.
It’s a lot more fun when I get to play around with the composition anyway~
He’s probably best known for playing Green Goblin in Spiderman (if you like mainstream films) or the gay crossdressing cop in Boondock Saints (if cult films are more your flavor). IMDb’d!
According to a very reliable source *coughgooglecough*, giraffes can and do sit… just not very often. This is one of those truths of the universe that I hope will never cease to amuse me.
(note: they don’t look this ridiculous when they sit. I just like to think they do.)
Solitude stands by the window
She turns her head as I walk in the room
I can see by her eyes she’s been waiting
Standing in the slant of the late afternoon
And she turns to me with her hand extended
Her palm is split with a flower with a flame
Solitude stands in the doorway
And I’m struck once again by her black silhouette
By her long cool stare and her silence
I suddenly remember each time we’ve met
And she turns to me with her hand extended
Her palm is split with a flower with a flame
And she says “I’ve come to set a twisted thing straight”
And she says “I’ve come to lighten this dark heart”
And she takes my wrist, I feel her imprint of fear
And I say “I’ve never thought of finding you here”
I turn to the crowd as they’re watching
They’re sitting all together in the dark in the warm
I wanted to be in there among them
I see how their eyes are gathered into one
And then she turns to me with her hand extended
Her palm is split with a flower with a flame
~Suzanne Vega
