productive-creative.com

I got a chance to listen to Steve Pavlina’s new podcast on “creative self expression“. He is a guy putting himself out there. I admire his ability to post novels on his blog and then make these very informative podcast.

This latest one is right in my area of interest but I don’t have to add anything to what he said…. for tonight. I’m still thinking about what he said.

“Your own creativity is the very mechanism by which you’ll achieve everything else you could possibly want.”

Check out the audio during your lunch break.

When you start drawing you might start to ask yourself “what is wrong with this drawing”. Most likely as a beginning artist you are not thinking about composition, line weight, balance, or any other helpful concepts. You are having trouble truly seeing and are making use of the symbols in your head. I will try to clarify symbols..

Our brains are very powerful, but they also make many shortcuts to be able to make decisions very quickly. One of the ways it does this is by using symbols. Symbols take all our understanding of a certain type of object and simplifies it into one easy to understand form. People have made use of this in street signs, warning signs, logo’s etc… Anything where we need quick easy information in picture form. This is great for everyday life, but it works against us when we try to accurately draw something we see. Read the rest of this entry »

Over these past couple years as I’ve been learning to draw without a teacher, I’ve found many useful forums for learning from other artists and getting questions answered. Check These guys out.

http://www.tsofa.com/forum.php - There is tons of good instruction on this site along with some phenomenal artists. You should definitely check this place out.

http://www.conceptart.org/forums/ - The main site seems to have an emphasis on concept art for movies and video games but this site was where I found out about the wonderful world of atelier schools for art

http://forums.cgsociety.org/ -this sites main emphasis is on computer generated graphics and 3d modeling but there are some great forums here for beginning artists and for figure drawing projects

http://www.drawingboard.org/index.php - This is a place to post daily drawings and sketches. There is some instruction on this site, but not as much as the others, but still its a good one to check out.

This site has only been online a couple days and Ive been loving the response Ive gotten so far. Thank you so much.

Well, you gotta start with the basics right?

About a year ago I got a copy of the Academy of Realist Art “How to draw the Figure” DVD. In it is a demonstration of how to sharpen a pencil. Well you might say “Hey, I know how to sharpen a pencil. I learned that in elementary school!”

The way you learned to sharpen your pencil in elementary school is fine if your just learning your ABC’s or writing a term paper. But whether your just starting to learn to draw or are an accomplished artists you need to take time at the beginning to set up your tools correctly.

Read the rest of this entry »