Whether your medium is traditional, digital, or in a realm of its own, if it’s visual (or you hope it will be one of these days), here’s a place to talk about it, dream about it, or share ideas, no matter if you’re an artist or not. By special request of Purple Panda. The last Visual Arts thread appeared in July, 2007.
Patience, Please
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MMMMMMmmmmmmmmmm. I got a bunch of canvases and acrylics for christmas.
I like drawing superhero cartoons, Space Art, and a little anime on the side.
I just drew an amazing (IMHO) self-portrait in Art the other day. It surprised me at how good I was.
I like drawing with charcoals. That and I like pastels.
And I love to make books. And bead.
I’m going to start a project that shall incorporate my writing as well as visual arts. It shall be a book with a hollowed space (I’ll make the book too). it will have my writing and copper and keys and symbolism. I like it.
I can draw a little, but not very well. I can draw pretty well when I have something to copy off of (not trace, copy) but if I’m doing something completely original I get stuck pretty fast.
i need a new sketch book. i like using water colours. i hate my art class. tho i’m kinda liking what we’re doing currently. and i’m on the side sort of doing the big bangthing. which i won’t send in but mabe to MB………..
(6) Kagcomix, I’m curious. What is it you hate about your art class?
Yay! ::hugs GAPAs for making thread::
I recently started drawing, as I said in my Hot Soup post, and it’s really fun! I haven’t really been challenging myself, though. All I did today was draw stick-figures of squirrels. It’s surprisingly addicting! Tomorrow I’ll actually try and draw their bodies.
I really loved my art class in Kindergarten and most of elementary school — our teacher was great with kids, and had some really fun project ideas. But then, when I got into middle school, art class was rather dreadful. We had the same teacher, she just wasn’t very good at teaching older kids. Most of the projects were dull and uninteresting, and we never learned anything. That’s when I started taking painting classes outside of school, and it was really fun!
I go to a creative and performing arts school, as most of you know, and I’m quite jealous of the visual artists. Visual Arts is the only major in the entire school that always love their major. I only like my major when we’re doing Creative Nonfiction (I don’t like the other teachers and genres), but the visual artists always have a lot of fun.
Rebecca – have you always liked art?
7- (Rebecca) all the people in my art class anoy me. i sit across from the most gossipy, cruel, anoying boy and beside me is a girl very much the same but without the cruel. my teacher is incredibly vague in her instructions and she also changes the directions 20 minutes into the work period which is frustrating. i find the enviroment created by all this quite agravating which consequently puts in me in a bad mood. i do try to be positive about it but my spirits realy have trouble being raised when it comes to art class. it is a totaly negative atmosphere that does not make me want to work therefore my mark is dropping. my mom tells me that i should do well out of spite, but really, when things anoy, frustrate, anger me and generaly put me in a bad mood i really do not feel any motivation to try hard. those may seem trival (is that the right word) reasons but it realy does make me dread 4th period on day2.
Ooh, I totally hear that, because that’s how my middle school art classes were.
Right now I’m in an art school where I’m doing many types of art, such as printmaking, painting, stained glass, pottery, papercutting, and murals. ‘Tis very fun!
(8) Stick-figure squirrels sounds like a great idea, Purple Panda! Squirrels are such fun to watch, too. You can learn a lot about them by drawing.
In answer to your question, I always liked looking at art, and I enjoyed drawing okay, but I just doodled around. Believe me, my early efforts were nothing special in the least, and no one suggested I should pursue it. Singing was more my thing; my brother Bill was the designated artist (he, too, moved on to other interests).
I first got excited about art during my junior year of college when I took a drawing class required for my then major (which soon changed to studio art). But I didn’t really fall in love with it until just a few years ago.
Two things, I think, transformed my attitude. First, I made the commitment to draw or paint at least 5-6 days a week. Second, I began writing letters about what I was doing, which turned into a kind of journal — except it was more fun and made my experience seem more real to tell someone else. While I painted I thought about what I would write, and while I wrote I thought about painting.
(9) That doesn’t sound trivial to me, Kagy. Any class is difficult when the atmosphere is unpleasant, art especially so. Creativity needs room to stretch and tumble about and play without the fear of being stomped on. Everyone becomes less creative when stressed out.
8- You draw squirrel stick figures, Purple Panda? Cool! I was taught by a master squirrel stick figure maker. She gave them a sort of half-oval body, a circle for a head, stick legs, and a tail that was basically a big circle attached to the body. Most annoying things, these squirrels. Which is why I drew hundreds of them everywhere. Bahahaha.
12- i did that with horses for a year.
We have tons of squirrels in our yard — our gigantic oak tree is home to many of them. THF has been videotaping squirrels lately (by lately I mean in the past year), and we’re planning on making some sort of documentary about squirrels, but make it sort of a mockumentary, where they try and take over the world.
When I make them into stick figures, I make their heads as circles, little ears, eyes, and two rodent teeth. Then, I draw their body, arms, and legs as lines. I always give them a large, bushy tail. I tried to draw the bodies today, and failed miserably. So I went back to stick figures to make myself happy again, but then I didn’t have time to go back and draw more regular squirrels. I will tomorrow, though!
Awww! Stick figure squirrels!! That’s so cute!
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I wonder if my squirrel will work…
ummm? oh I see the squirrell..sort..of
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I shou;dnt mock of squirrell drawings because..believe it or not this is a cat
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Its a bunny!!!
I have been taking a lot of pictures lately, but not really drawing. Some abstract doodles+song lyrics but nothing really…
Just finished drawing a scene of the beach at night with stars overhead.
Went to art class today and started an acrylics of two kittehs.
Art is Art. Everything else is everything else.
Ad Reinhardt
ThE WEirDo wItH THe pOlKAdoT tOp hAt
Fishies!
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Attacked by a shark…
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Sorry to all you fish lovers….
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No!!!!!!! It got messed up!
It was supposed to be
Fishies!
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Attacked by a shark…
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Sorry to all you fish lovers….
)~(>{!!!!!!!!}>>{!!!!!!!!}>)+()>
What??? Not again…
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Maybe it will work better this time.
!!!!!!!!!!! NOT AGAIN??????????
tHe wEiRDo iN tHE PoLkA dOt HAt
Having fun with photoshop today. Now I’m going to go out and take some pictures of the woods beyond the subdivision near me… nice grey sky today, it would look good with black and white.
kewl, i have a forest near me too.
ThE weIRdO iN tHE PolKAdOt tOp hAT
PEACE AND PIES FOR EVERYONE!
Meh to my camera. Grr to it no being able to take good close-ups. Grr to it having issues with focused landscapes, even when I put it too that setting. Meh to the way pictures never have the same colors, shadows, or look in the real world, on the camera, or in the computer. They are all different… my lovely water one didn’t work. It was lighter on the camera, but you can barely see it on the computer.
It’s a great camera for people portraits and daytime shots, but not dusk, or veryvery close pictures. Which is what I want to do. *sigh*
would it be okay if i sent in a piece of my art? it’s not muse related it’s just that it’s a milestone for me because i coloured it on the computer, and it looks prety good. sorta.
(30) Sure, Kagcomix. This thread is about any form of visual arts.
Thanks Rebecca! I’m sending it right now!
(32) I couldn’t open the file — what format is it supposed to be in? Can you save it as a JPG or BMP and try again?
It’s a Paint.Net (paint dot net) file. I can’t open them, either. Kag, can Paint.Net save files in other formats?
33&34- i’ll see what I can do.
35- Sometimes on my computer, I can right-click and open them using something like ColorSync Utility (random program on computer) and that lets me save them as a jpeg, even if the program I made them in doesn’t.
Yesterday I made a cool picture, it was of two dead trees (only sky and branches/trunk visible) and played around with the highlights, shadows, saturation, temperature, and contrast so it looked really cool, then added text in photoshop and some flames. It looks really apocalyptic, the colors burt orangeish and dark. The text is, appropriately, “This is the way the world ends/this is the way the world ends/this is the way the world ends/not with a bang but a whimper.”
First thing I’ve done in a while, and I’m quite pleased with it.
So wait a minute. We can send you our artwork and you’ll post it here?
(37) Sure. We’d love to see what you’re working on.
Awesome! Sending…
…and receiving. Here is a stained-glass menorah created by groundhog22:
wow thats really good
Wow, Groundhog 22! That’s really great. All my stained glass creations have melted somehow.
My [mother’s] camera is clunky and weird. I can’t figure it out at all.
Well, I’ve made videos of things with it but crappy ones.
I took a photo shoot of me wearing a ponytail. With it, I fooled half my school into thinking I had a twin sister. And my infamous UFO pictures, of course. Should I send the best of those in? They’re fifth grader fooling material.
40- Very nice. I made a stained glass window hanger shaped like a compass once.
Thanks TCF, Beavo and KaiYves! *does a happy people-like-my-work dance*
Beavo – Cool, you do stained glass too? And just curious, how did your pieces melt? I’ve seen things crack from heat, (overuse of the soddering iron) but melt?
Maybe I will scan some of my Space Art, if it fits on the scanner.
44-I don’t exactly do stained glass, but I’ve made a few. Yes, they melted, and I have no idea how. Well, not completely melted, but all deformed and puddly.
I might send one or two UFO pictures in. They’re fake, of course, but pretty good for a fourth grader (which was when I took them). Should I?
(45) KaiYves, what kind of space art do you do? We’d love to see it. I’ve done a few pieces inspired by telescope photos. It’s quite an interesting challenge to render dark sky in watercolor.
I used to draw all the time and I really liked sculpture, but high school has kicked all the drive out of me. They convince us that we’re all rebellious teens who don’t care about school or our future or anything but ourselves, and the people who weren’t already like that just get really down on themselves.
I’m not able to take art or choir this year. It crushes me because I loved both of those so much in middle school. I’m going to join choir again as soon as I can, but I’m not going to join art. My friend Alan is an amazing artist, but the art class completely clashes with everything he does. He writes comics and just draws other things.
47- Colored pencil drawings of planets, vehicles and constellations. My most recent one was a view of Orion and the Milky Way over a beach.
My scanner’s not too good, though. It butchered my anime.
That’s really cool, groundhog22! I’ve never done anything with stained glass — how do you do it?
I took a glass workshop once, and we made beads and marbles on small fires. It was really fun, and sometime I’d like to take a glass-blowing class.
Maybe I’ll send in a painting I did a few years ago. ::ponders:: Okay, I will. ::sends::
None of my stuff would fit on the scanner, I usually work in poster sizes.
A landscape by Purple Panda:
52- Wow!
52 – Wow! That’s incredible!
I wish I was artistically talented.
50/52- I actually remember that painting
I think you showed it to me/VF a while after you did it.
46 – (Beavo) Ah well. But you know, if you don’t like them, there’s always the chance that you could pass them off as the latest modern art form and make a fortune selling them. Unlikely, but it’s worth a shot, right?
50 – (Purple Panda) Well, I drew a pattern, cut it up into pieces with special scissors, traced around all the pieces of the pattern onto glass, cut out the pieces of glass, ground all the edges of the pieces, put copper tape on all of the edges of the pieces, and soddered all of the pieces together. There’s one more step that I want to do but can’t which is to make the sodder look coppery by putting some sort of liquid on it, but my school only has the kind which makes the sodder black. I’d buy some myself, but there are no stained glass supply shops in [snip-snip–place where I am living currently].
52 – (Purple Panda again) Awesome painting! Watercolors, right?
(56) I think I have some copper patina in my garage; too bad I can’t beam it to you through the Internet.
groundhog22 (56): No, it’s oil on canvas, actually. I haven’t really done much work with watercolors, though I would like to because it sounds like a lot of fun to do. I have a book about watercolor painting which I have read cover-to-cover several times, I just have to go get the watercolors/paper/etc. and actually do it.
(56, 57) At this size it’s hard to see the canvas texture. Before I looked more closely, I thought it might be pastel — it has that kind of feel, with the style of the brush strokes and the way Pan breaks up the colors. Have you worked with pastels, Purple Panda?
(51) KaiYves, do you have access to a digital camera? You could send a photo.
56- If I were you I’d go find an art supply shop the next time you are on vacation somewhere and buy what you can’t find where you live…
In response to lady bunniful’s request, yes, I have taken several art classes. I don’t remember much about one except that all we did was draw and it was pretty boring. I took one that we made masks in and it was AWESOME. We got to do mummy masks where we made mache molds of our faces. It was really cool.
I say as much multimedia art as possible. In art class this year we did linoleum prints like Andy Warhol (my favorite artist) and they turned out REALLY cool.
Lady Bunniful-My middle school art classes were great. Our art teacher would sometimes have projects about specific things, like drawing a still life of the objects on the table. A few times though, he would give us the medium and tell us to do anything with it. Those were my favorite things to do. I like to have a basic idea. Having a subject and depicting it in any meduim or having a meduim and any subject are good.
Lady Bunniful’s Request:
I have taken many art classes in and out of school. They were very different experiences — I really liked the classes I took outside of school, and I didn’t like the classes inside school. I liked art class in school until about second grade. Our teacher was good with little kids, but not really anyone else. What I didn’t like about art classes in school, was that the teacher wanted you to do things her way. She would give you an assignment, and you had very little freedom. You had to do everything a specific way, and the only element of personal creativity was the subject of the project, and sometimes you didn’t even have that option. Once, we were doing clay sculptures of people, and I was doing my grandmother. I actually enjoyed this project in the beginning, because although we had specific requirements (size, and other things you had to add, etc.), we could make it of whomever we wanted, and she wasn’t hovering over us the entire time telling us things that would make it better or telling us how the person didn’t look real, etc. But then, when we were painting them, she told me that I had to make the hair brown. “But her hair is gray–” I said. “Well, I think that brown would compliment the blue hair better. Make it brown.” “But, her hair is gray!” She told me that if I wanted to be a good artist, I would have to learn how to change things (even if that’s not the way they originally were), to make them look better. I very very very very strongly disagreed, and ended up getting a B on the project because I made the hair gray, against her “orders.”
Most of my art class experiences weren’t that bad, but mainly I just didn’t like how she told you ways to do it that she liked better, taking away pretty much all of the creativity you had. I liked learning things for myself, not having someone telling me everything all the time, because that’s part of learning.
I had a much better time in the art classes I took outside of school. I took acrylic/oil painting classes at the Pittsburgh Center for the Arts (snip if I can’t say that), and the teacher was fantastic. (The class was three hours every week, and there were about seven other people in the class. It wasn’t really a class, though, because everyone basically picked their own section of the room and set up all their materials, and worked individually.) Every week, there was a different still-life you could paint or you could bring your own individual project to work on. The first few weeks I came I painted the still-lifes, for practice, but then I brought in my own things to work on. I also started with acrylic paint — but then, after taking an art class in the summer with oil paint, I decided I liked them better and dragged my mom to the art store to get oil paints. (The first oil painting I ever did was the landscape in post 52.)
The teacher would go around to each person in the class, and give them suggestions to improve their work. He carried around canvas paper with him, so he could demonstrate how to do things, instead of demonstrating on your own work (which my school art teacher did, and that is another reason I didn’t like her). He would suggest/show/teach you different techniques to use, and also ask you questions about the painting, so you could think about what would make it better for yourself, instead of telling you exactly what to do. I liked that a lot, because when you find things and figure things out by yourself, you actually learn them better and learn how to look for them next time. When someone tells you exactly what to do, there isn’t really a learning aspect. You don’t learn how to look for ways to improve your work, because you have someone telling you all the time. (I’m not sure if this makes sense, it’s hard to explain.)
I stopped art-type-things last year, because of a few reasons. One, is because I was so busy and didn’t have time to take classes (grr homework). I had only really learned to enjoy painting, and it took too much time to get out the paints, paint, and put everything away, and I didn’t have much time to do that either (grr homework). So, I tried drawing, which I thought would be less-mess, etc., and wasn’t such a big production every time I wanted to do it. But, I discovered that I am very very very bad at drawing. So, I just kind of gave up. But now, I want to start doing it again, because I figure that if I don’t draw, I’ll never get better at it.
I hope that helps!
Gaea (61): If you like Andy Warhol, you should come to Pittsburgh — there’s an awesome Andy Warhol museum, and many other locations around town featuring his work and such. (He was from Pittsburgh.)
Lady Bunniful’s request:
Art is required in my school, up until the grade I’m in. I enjoy Art class this year, especially shading but i despise my art teacher. I’m sure your students will love you Lady Bunniful, as long as you don’t tell them their Maple Leaves look like marijuana leaves. (true story!) I also don”t like the project we are working on now. She is making us research different artists and then copy a piece of thier artwork onto a ceramic tile.
(63) Wow, Purple Panda, that is very helpful indeed. That’s all I have time to say right at this moment, but I did want to let you know how much I appreciate your taking the time to write such a long and thoughtful reply. You make perfect sense.
Thanks to Gaea, Unintended Pun, and greekgurl, also. I may have some follow-up questions to ask, if you don’t mind.
I haven’t really taken any art classes very recently but I’ve taken creative writing classes and a lot of what Purple Panda said about her good art class seemed similar to what my writing class is like. Our teachers give us a lot of things to inspire us and a lot of ideas of what we could write but they don’t make us follow their views or write what the idea they gave was. They give us plenty of time on our own to work.
It seemed to me that PP’s art class was the art equivalent to my writing class.
Good luck forming ideas for your class, Rebecca!
Art isn’t required at my current school, but I’ve taken some classes in the past, so I guess I can comment. Basically what PP said – give lots of freedom. I went to an art class one summer where we had to do exactly what the teacher said. We weren’t allowed to have any freedom on the actual drawing bit, so when it came to the coloring part we backlashed…my brother made his horse radioactive, for example, using all the neon colors (which actually looked pretty nice on the black construction paper). But anyways, the teacher didn’t like it much, especially when we did it repeatedly. Ironically, at the end of the summer that picture of my brothers’ got chosen to be in the art showfor all the kids’ work in all the classes during the entire summer.
51- No, unfortunately.
I used to take art classes but quit because I was stuck doing watercolors of pandas and it was at a bad time.
I want something more freeform I suppose, or at least a little more mature.
i just do marble painting, sketching, and photography that’s about it. I’m pretty good at animal photography i guess but watercolor i stink at it SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO much!!!!
PEACE AND PIE FOR EVERYONE!
ThE weIRdO iN tHE PolKAdOt tOp hAT
70 – Cool! I love photography too, but I haven’t had much of a chance to do any.
71 – Excuse me, but that would be considered a PoPo (a Pointless Post). Could you please not do that?
hmmmm, sorry i just keep forgetting to sign after my first post so i post after, i keep trying to remember to put it on the same post but then forgot so i put it on a different one, sorry again!
PEACE AND PIES FOR EVERYONE
ThE weIRdO iN tHE PolKAdOt tOp hAT
Lady Bunniful’s request: I’ve been taking watercolor classes for the past five or six summers and I first of all totally agree with Purple Panda on the creativity thing. The second thing is that if you’re doing watercolors with this person, you need to demonstrate–a lot. It’s hard enough learning a difficult medium like watercolors as it is, you don’t want to make it harder. Also, in the same vein, some people in the youth class that I took at first (I’m in the adult class now) got really frustrated when they discovered that they couldn’t really correct their mistakes (my teacher didn’t believe in white paint, he called it “cheater paint”) so be prepared for possible black moods after larger mistakes. Other than that, I think it’s awesome that you’re an art teacher!
PP, a very good post. I feel your pain from that one art teacher… I hate people telling me what to do to make it ‘better’ in their eyes when it’s the opposite of what I want to do. Same with when we interpret poems in english, just because the poem means one thing for my teacher doesn’t mean I didn’t get something completely different out of it. Which is why I didn’t do well on any poetry quizzes last year when he would give them before explaining his view of the poem.
I also would suggest giving a lot of artistic freedom, but not just leaving people to fend for themselves. At the start of the class if you let them pick whatever they want, they will likely choose something they are more comfortable with. This would be fine to learn more about it and how to make it better, but also suggest different things they could try, like someone who enjoys drawing with pencils painting or someone who only does still lifes to try an abstract, so they can learn different mediums too. Maybe give goals at the beginning, like ‘everyone should at least try as many different styles and mediums as they can’ or ‘after you finish what you’re currently working on, try using a style you’ve never done before.’ But only if they have time for it, if it takes them a while to do something don’t rush them or make them leave it unfinished. That was a big pet peeve of mine in art class, not having time to complete something so it was the way I wanted it to be or having to hurry so it was below my standards.
I mostly took art in school, but one summer when I was a lot younger, I barely remember it, I took an art class at a supply store… it was really a lot of fun, and I wish I had time to take art in school. As it is I may not be able to take Physics next year so I don’t know if I’d ever be able too, but I really wish I could.
I like teachers that give advise on how to use the materials but do not restrict what one wants to do. For instance, this year we got to work with plaster gauze which was fun. She wanted the surfaces smooth and the faces painted in solid colors. I didn’t smooth my sufficiently (I didn’t want to, I liked the texture) and a friend lightly ran the paintbrush over the project, only getting the high parts with paint. It looked awesome and the teacher gave her an 88. I got an 85 or something.
*mutiny in the ranks*
I had to take the class so I could take glass working next semester…Now I get to play with fire! I wanted to branch out a bit.
For Lady Bunniful:
I take art once a week. What I love about my art teacher is that when you ask her for help or even if she has has a gentle suggestion about the content of your work, she poses what she says in a question to you. “Do you think that color scheme would work?” She never forces anything.
She is very firm on technique though. She explains the how-tos very clearly and if you argue with her, she lets you do what you want, and only after you mess up does she correct you with a gentle I-told-you-so
Everyone’s artwork is so beautiful. I am generally terrible at art, but I found my love of photography after a photography project for my school project. One random thing I learned about photography is that people who are afraid of the camera are actually great subjects for photos especially if the lighting is right. For example, I have one picture from my sister’s birthday party that has three girls turning their heads from the camera/burying their heads in each other on one side and dark shadows of my garage and tree on the right. It looks like they’re really suffering.
In answer to Lady Bunniful:
One of the things I wish I had learned in the painting classes I took was how to shade properly. Shading is quite difficult, and I’m realizing now I could use more experience with it. Especially shading on animals. Another thing I’d have liked to practice was perspective. My art class once did a vanishing-point drawing, and it was very cool, but the teacher never taught us when you were supposed to use one vanishing point and when you were supposed to use two.
In the last art class I took, the teacher played music, probably to help us concentrate and relax. But it didn’t help me at all, because the music was popular, and I am much more into classical. Obviously, you can’t please everyone, so I’d suggest not having music.
Watercolors are really great. One of the most fun things I’ve done is learning how to combine techniques–wet into wet washes, splattering, salt, that sort of thing. A problem I commonly run into with watercolors is trying to portray every miniscule detail and getting too caught up with it to look at my painting as a whole.
Also, I notice that I can learn from the way someone else paints the same as if there were someone there telling me what to do with my brush. So I think showing your students examples of others’ painting techniques is invaluable.
Just recently I bought a drawing book at an art store, and I took it home and sat down to draw. But I could not get any information out of it. It was really quite odd. It could have something to do with my learning style versus the book’s teaching style, but it didn’t help me at all, even though it looked great when I picked it upin the store.
Good luck with your students!
(end attacking Lady Bunniful with art experience)
Lady Bunnyful:
I wish I had learned how to draw people. I really wish i had that training so i could use the skills in my comics. I like watercolours. i also really enjoyed pen and ink. i find boring people a turn off (i don’t think you’ll have that problem). good luck. i wish you were my teacher.
Lady Bunniful:
Don’t expect your student to be perfect. My art teacher seemed to want students to be Picasso when coming into 6th grade. She was overly picky. She took a lot of points of on one assignment for having bumpy lines when it was an assignment in Sharpie and I’ve never seen any smooth Sharpie lines and for only using cool colors (which I did on purpose). The assignment was about value techniques too. Try a variety of mediums. I really liked photography and scratchboard.
I was drawing with colored pencils yesterday and did some landscapes, but my problem is knowing how to finish them. I’m about halfway done with a bunch of stuff, but I have no idea what else to do with them — I know there is something missing, but I don’t know what.
I really want to take a watercolor class, though. If I have time this semester I’ll try to find a class at the Center for the Arts, but I might have to wait until this summer.
A couple weeks ago, the backpack that I got from one of the scholarship organizations that gave me money got a rip in it. Then one of the straps nearly fell off, and then the zipper to the main pocket broke. Since I didn’t bring my still-functional backpack from highschool with me, I had to buy a new bag. I didn’t like anyo of the colos or patterns of bags at the store, so I bought a white one and am in the middle of coloring it with tie-dye style bursts. Each one is a completely different pattern. I have fallen in love with my bag. Wheeee!!! (I’ll send a pic to the GAPAs when I finish.)
Rebecca: have you started teaching the Muser yet? How is it going?
(84) Purple Panda, we started last Wednesday. She was sick today though. I think it went well. In fact, we seem to be a good match, from what I can tell so far. I’ve been meaning to report back — and also to reply to the many useful comments from the blog. But so much is happening lately, it’s hard to sit down and bring it all into focus with words.
Thanks for asking!
Does this thread allow computer generated art? I do a lot of stuff in Photoshop and I finished something recently…’course I have help from outside resources (aka textures people make) so I dunno if it’s allowed…
Good luck with your teaching, Rebecca!
86- Well I’d like to see.
I like making things in PS too…
(86, 87) Absolutely. Art is art, as far as I’m concerned.
Sorry, Axa, I didn’t see your comment earlier. The 13th was a very strange day.
Yay! I’ll send them in then…and its okay! XD
To be fair, I used stuff from kekoah and Rain Harbor on LJ. I need to use Photoshop more and make my own textures… -__- On my list of things to do more argh
Here are some graphics from Axa. Click on them to see at full size.
I like watercolor painting. It’s fun and relaxing. My favorite one that I have done so far is a storm over a lake. Does anyone know any good watercolor books?
(91) I like watercolor, too, soccergirl216. It’s been my primary medium for the last four years.
One of my favorite watercolor books is called Making Watercolor Sing, by Jeanne Dobie. My biggest argument with her is that she still uses some of the old-style non-lightfast pigments, but one can substitute permanent colors for hers. A beautiful (and fun) book is called The Tao of Watercolor by Jeanne Carbonetti.
A good, annotated list of books at various skill levels can be found at handprint.com/HP/WCL/wbooks.html. And maybe one day mine will be out there, but that could be a long wait….
I’ve skimmed through at least fifty or sixty watercolor books, probably more. I always learn something. But I’ve also found that watercolor books, even more than those for other media, tend to be on the dogmatic side and make watercolor sound much more frightening and exacting than it is, so beware of any author that says her or his way is THE proper way.
92- yeah. the thing i’ve found about art books is that you will always learn something but you just need to remember that you can do it your way and it doesn’t have to bee exactly the same way as theirs. *grumbles about “how to draw” books*
(93) Kagy, have you read Bert Dodson’s Keys to Drawing? His is one of the better drawing books out there, I think, because he focuses on how to SEE rather than specific styles of drawing. But you’re right. Many how-to drawing books are simply annoying.
I’m kind of rediscovering drawing through teaching. Come to think of it, I rediscover drawing at every turning point of my artistic life. Sometimes I’ve learned completely new approaches. It’s so basic and so satisfying.
94- no i haven’t read it but I’ll look for it at the library! I love looking back through my huge files of drawings and seeing how my style has changed.
92- Thanks for the tip! I am going to try and find those books at the library.
Sorry I haven’t posted here in awhile, I have a lot of things I want to say but never seem to have enough time nor brainpower to say them. I’ll try to post a nice, thoughtful post tomorrow if I can!
REBECCA I have a question. Have you ever done anything like HDR photograph? I really want to try it. I took some pictures with different exposures to try with, but now I don’t think photoshop elements has a function that can do it (CS2 does though)… I’m going to try just layering them and editing the opacity for now, but I’d like to know if you had any experiences with it/what you think.
(98) Jadestone, well, I hadn’t until you mentioned it. Now I’ve done a couple of experiments. So far the results haven’t produced anything especially inspiring, but the photos I took may not be the best subjects. I’ll let you know if I come up with anything interesting.
99- Okay, thanks. I tired with what I took, but there’s no clouds anywhere near here or things with real depth in them which seem to look especially good with the HDR from some of the pictures I’ve seen. But I have seen some really amazing ones from a set of not very great pictures I could have taken, so I wanted to try.
Jadestone, I tried one with clouds, but they changed so much between the first exposure and the last, the merge produced a completely different sky! Unfortunately, the difference wasn’t an improvement. But I’ll try again when I come across a subject that looks like it might have better potential.
Rebecca — I’m glad you’re having a good time with your Muser-student!
I really want to take an art class this summer, if I can fit it in between volunteering at the Children’s Hospital, other organizations, Model UN, studying ahead for next year, and Sign Language. I’m sure I’ll find a place to put it.
I want to go to high school for visual arts, but I can’t draw figures (animal/human bodies) for my life. I get the shapes and all okay, and I’m actually pretty good at faces, but as a whole, the compilation of everything in the image seems a bit off.
(103) THF, I had/have that problem. When I strated painting, most of my works ended up with two horizon lines. Facial features would show up in different perspectives. The list goes on. Getting objects to relate to each other in the proper proportions and perspectives is not an easy task for most of us. But that’s something a good visual arts program should teach you.
how do we send things to admins?
and reset our name?
105 – You just change your name in the “name” box. Also, I’m pretty sure there’s an e-mail address to write to GAPAs.
106- there going to put it up as I post this I know, but It’s gapa @ musefanpage.com
No spaces.
105, 106 – The GAPA’s e-mail address (GAPA means Great and Powerful Administrator, by the way) is gapa @musefanpage.com
Except without the space.
I may remember to send in a picture of my green man mask later. I am pleased with how it turned out.
108- haha thanks i was on here for a while in 06 so i know GAPA
but thanks to all who told me the email
Also, I may get to take art ! at a school near me (mine doesn’t offer it) as summer school. Which would be lovely. And if I manage to do art II also, I could take a photography class there as well. Which would be amazing.
Robert Rauschenberg died. *droops*
-92 hmmm…watercolor? i prefer gouache.
I am super-duper excited at the moment. I got an English assigment about the Tempest involving making a poster that shows the conflict between Prospero and Caliban. Naturally, as usually happens, I encountered adversity in the form of “artist’s block” and the serious limitations of not being able to draw. Lost in a maze of confusion and bewilderment, I went to the art store to buy a posterboard and perhaps gleam some inspiration from the colorful array that greeted me. I admit that I didn’t expect my rpoject to succeed; I was planning on festering away in some dingy corner and failing miserably. However, fortune, in a less perverse mood than usual, saw it fit to bestow a crumb of an idea upon me. And now all is not lost!
Thanks, Nesu!
I just found some splendid red tissue paper in the back of a Eric Carle “How to Make a Collage Book”. Its fiery red. Its texture is light and arid. Its design is complex, without being busy, and it is perfectly suited to fire. *is ecstatic*
Sorry about the double post…
I just had some major drip painting fun! I wanted to make a drippy letter effect, so I mixed paint with water and it worked! Huzzah!
Hypatia — I have that book, too! I haven’t seen it in several years, but I used to spend a lot of time just looking at the paper and trying to figure out how it was painted. At times I got rather dizzy….
117-I think I know just what you mean. So many colors, so many motifs, but it never really get too busy… Which is very nice.
Great book!
hmmm….as a painter and graphic artist, i love seeing the things other MBers have submitted.
*tries to get scanner working so she can scan in picture of a hpb in ”natural setting” * *scanner and vixen begin battle* *vixen loses dramatically* *sticks out tongue at scanner*
I am hopeless when it comes to electronics.
I’ve just been reading over this thread again, and I realized that I never responded to Rebecca asking about pastels. Or, at least, if I did, I missed it.
I have a small set of oil pastels, but I haven’t really used them. I never really know what you’re supposed to do with them. Do you use them like pencils? paints? It’s all so confusing…. Has anyone worked with pastels before?
My favorite medium happens to be *gulps* craypa, which is essentially pastel. Mostly, I like them because I can blur and mix, and they give nice blotches of clear defined color (clarity always appeals to me because it makes my dysfunctional drawings seem somewhat more normal) …
121- Yeah, I got 8th place in national oil pastels contest. I didn’t like my piece. Well, basically, you use them like crayons. You should definately work from left to right (if you are righthanded), because they don’t dry like paints. I lay the color on pretty thick, which makes it look very …. three dimensional. the oil pastels are very forgiving, in that if you make a mistake, you can scrape off the color with, for example, an artists spatula. the black is going to get smudged every where in your piece, so use that last, if possible. I drew my picture on black construction paper, but really, any tectured paper like sketching paper will work.
It’s not much, but seriously, they are really simple.
I painted a vixen today. On a green background. I wish now that I had made the backgrown red.
123-Nice on the contest!
I always draw on black paper with craypas…Easier somehow…
124. It makes the picture’s light work differently. I like dark light instead of light light.
122 – Gaah, I am horrible at craypas. Give me a nice set of watercolors any day.
125 – What exactly do you mean by dark light? Like negative space? Or the fact that the paper doesn’t give any light to the drawing since it’s black?
126- I find that reds and stuff shine brighter, but that yes, the paper doesn’t give off any light. It’s hard to explain, but if you are using alot of dark colors or hues in your picture, black paper will make the picture darker and brighter.
I’m going to put some black into the background of the vixen.
I went to the art store today and got a bunch of canvases (for oils), and I also got a set of pastels. I have some oil pastels, but most of them are broken, so I got a new set of “drawing pastels.” They’re a lot harder than regular pastels, but they’re really fun to work with, and they still blend really well.
128-I ♥ art stores! I love trying out all the different colors/ medium available (the store near my house allows you to sample things)! It makes me oddly happy…
Craypa/Pastel users — what kind of paper (regardless of color) do you use? I’ve just been using them in my sketchbook, but I don’t know if there is a specific surface they should be used on.
Wow. I can only draw horses and fantasy creatures (dragons, griffons, etc.) I’m pretty good at those though.
I have been taking a ton of pictures lately. As in more this summer than the past 16 years of my life total. O.o
Some editing on the computer, but not a ton, usually just messing with contrast/saturation//b&w points until it looks like what I actually saw. I’m entering some in my county’s fair. Maybe I’ll send some in when I pick the ones I like?
I tried to draw clouds today, with drawing pastels. They actually somewhat looked like clouds, but about halfway through the drawing the clouds were in a completely different position (it was a really windy day over the lake). Next time, I’ll definitely take a picture so I can continue working on it after they’ve moved.
Clouds are about the only thing I can draw reletively well (with pencil at least, haven’t tried them in other mediums…).
I realize I never did send in pics of my Green Man mask. Hum. Just submitted it to the fair. Maybe if it does well I’ll get some initiative or something XD
I like drawing a bit, I’m just not very good at it.
I like photography better. I haven’t had a lot of practice with it, but I just got my own digital camera and find it fascinating. I’d really like to take some classes on it. Maybe.
Rebecca – I’m looking for a good free-download application (for Macs) that works with abstract drawings. And any other free visual arts applications, too, of course.
I’ve been drawing a lot lately, and I think I may even be getting better at it. I drew a bunch of sunsets with Pan’s drawing pastels, and then I drew this awesome chickadee, and now I’m trying to draw other animals. And all sorts of other things, too, I guess.
I’m starting by drawing the basic outline of major body parts (ex: If I were drawing a dog, I would draw the head, the body, the legs, and the tail) and then sort of joining them together. I don’t have much, but I think I’m getting better and soon I want to add more detail.
So anyway, any suggestions at all on drawing animals?
(136) THF — off the top of my head, all the freebies I’m familiar with are for Windows only, but if I find anything, I’ll let you know.
As for animals…they’re one of my very favorite drawing subjects. In fact, recently I’ve been working on a whole series, mostly lemurs, gibbons, meerkats, &c. Cats are my specialty, but I’ve drawn a fair number of dogs, birds, and other assorted critters. I don’t have time right at the moment to say more, but I’ll try to write something about drawing animals in the next day or two.
In the meantime, would it be possible for you to scan a couple of your drawings and email them? Not to post (unless you want to) — just if I see your work, I might be able to be more helpful.
137 – If I remember, I will scan and send my drawings in as soon as I finish lunch. Thanks for the help!
The pictures are being sent to gapa@musefanpage.com as I type.
(139) Thanks, THF, we got them. I like what you’re doing. No time to write about them today, but I’ll get something up in the next day or two.
I’m having a lot of fun with abstract-like art things. Right now I’m drawing a sort of stained-glass window thing that, although it could never be set in glass and put up on a wall, is turning out to be quite interesting.
I’ve been carving soap for a while, (which most of you probably already know) and I want to get some candles and melt them down and carve that. Or do some other things with various colors of melted wax… that might be fun…
I just got an art book (it’s amazing, called Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain) and a bunch of supplies, and now I’m getting set to learn what I can. I have a bunch of drawing pencils, fresh clean sketchpads, a small manual pencil sharpener, and some other stuff and I am so totally ready to figure out how to draw.
Hi, THF. Sorry I haven’t been able to get back to you about your drawings. I haven’t forgotten! The outside world has been much more demanding than I expected it to be this month.
I love drawing, so it’s good to see someone get excited about it. I’ll post something as soon as I get the chance. Thanks for your patience. In the meantime, enjoy!
142- Art books? Art books depress me. I draw my own style! And I’m somewhat good at drawing humans. Wait, make that girls. I cannot draw boys, animals, landscapes, and anything else. Now, Gwynevere101, on the other hand, can draw people REALLY WELL. Seriously. She going to send in a big group “photo” she drew of all of us. How do I know? Well…. she’s my older sister!
143 – Excellent! I figured you hadn’t forgotten.
144 – That’s what I thought too – but this is an amazing book that doesn’t have you copy, it teaches you to see like an artist. It is phenomenal, seriously. And I draw my own style, but I figured it’d probably be good to learn how to perceive and then move up/down.
(145, 142) Several of my friends have recommended Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain.
I’ve done three drawings of my (left) hand, all of which have serious issues but overall look pretty good. When I get the chance (aka when I’m not feeling as lazy as I am now) I’ll scan them in and send them to the GAPAs to post.
Now, GAPAs, you are getting sleepy… you should check your gapa@musefanpage.com email to delete all the emails you’ve gotten about the short blog shut-down and discover that THF (what a lovely child she is) has sent you 4 scanned images of her hand that she drew. Before you do this, however, you should get your time turner and turn it back a few minutes so that you don’t use up any proper time just to please Taiwan Hippo Fan.
Drawing a peach without color but still make it look like a peach has proved currently impossible to me.
Hm, I think I’ll conduct an experiment when I get back to school. I’ll ask Leafy and Olivia to draw the item that I say, and I’ll draw them too. Then I’ll scan them and send them in. Then you’ll see how different a Filipino’s, Korean’s, and German’s hands are. (Yes, Olivia came from Korea in fourth grade, but Leafy and I have a lot of roots in the Philipines and Germany. So sue me for stretching the truth a little bit.)
Okay, GAPAs, I sent the pictures again! Yay!
For all people who will read this: The mysterious spherical object held in one of the drawings is a peach. The fact that it doesn’t look much like a peach may be misleading, but really, it’s a peach.
150 – I like peaches.
Whatever your peach looks like, I’m sure it’s better then what I could do.
150- What she said.
150-I’m drawing a nectarine in art class. and failing.
I am trying to make a graphic of a mermaid. It looks weird. When I’m done, ill send it.
Fruits are hard to draw without color. I tried an apple once, at a weird angle, and failed.
I drew a waterfall on the computer today for my Grandma’s birthday card (her birthday was a week ago
)in about 10 minutes. It’s really sloppy, but our printer’s inaccurate enough so none of it really shows. 
155 – I haven’t tried. I don’t want to, really, because I can barely draw fruits with color.
Drawing with Flash is amazingly fun. I got to do it againat movie making camp this week, as well as playing with Motion, so I got to make the title of our movie’s Os into bombs, and then make them blow up.
I have stuff 2 send!
Sending……….
Okay, now is the time where the 5 drawings miraculously appear on the blog, without any further transportation issues and without anyone having to use up their valuable time.
155 – I’d like to see the picture!
The only thing that I could do to make it look somewhat like a peach was the little seam thing on the top and side of the peach, but it was still at a strange angle, so it didn’t really work.
156 – I love Flash! I don’t, you know, have it, but in the few times that I’ve used it, I’ve had a lot of fun.
(158) And miraculously, they appear. I had to darken all the images in order for them to show up enough to see.
(159) Nice job, THF! You have a good eye. Hands are notoriously tricky to draw, but except for the index finger on the “flick,” the proportions are sound and convincing — and even that one is not far off. In the same drawing, I love how you caught the curve of the fourth finger. The lighting in that one is very nice, too.
The peach is fine, by the way. What’s more significant is the hand looks like it’s really grasping the peach. Some shadowing under the fingers would heighten the impression. In general, enhancing the contrast between your lights and darks would make these even more effective.
Excellent! Thanks a bunch, Rebecca! And I see you managed to take my signature out as well.
Okay. These drawings are on the page in the same order as I drew them, over the course of three days.
The first one is the only one I drew following the instructions in Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain exactly. It’s my fist, (obviously), but I couldn’t always get it to stop moving, so it was difficult to draw. I also “toned” the paper, so it was easier to shade, but I toned it way too dark, so it looks… like that.
The one thing from the book that I pretty much stopped using entirely after the fist was this plexiglass “picture plane” thing. I held it over (that’s right, directly on top of) my fist, and I drew the shapes I saw right on the plane with a dry-erase marker. Then I took the shapes that I drew on the plexiglass and drew them again on the toned drawing paper, and then I still had to go look at my hand to finish the drawing. My main problem with this technique was that it was too many chances for the image to change or get accidentally altered, so I didn’t use the picture plane for any of the other 3 pictures.
For the 2nd one, I toned the paper a lot lighter (although it was still pretty dark, so I didn’t tone the paper at all for the next two), and I just drew exactly what I saw. The issue with the index finger proportion is quite obvious, but I didn’t even see it until I finished the drawing. I think the reason this happened was because I left only the outline of the shapes for the drawing, took my hand out of the pose, and didn’t come back to the drawing until the next day. My hand obviously didn’t come to exactly the same position, so I couldn’t draw the rest of the details properly. One of those details was that wrinkle in my hand that really establishes the edge between my finger and my palm, and since I drew it looking at a slightly different pose that I looked at from a slightly different angle, I made the finger look too small.
The third one was just testing to see how realistic I could make my hand look without any shading. The only 2 problems are that my hand looks too disconnected from my wrist/forearm and that my pinkie sticks out a bit too much (when I hold my hand out, my little finger does stick out at a weird angle, but in this case, it looks almost like some strange grafted finger).
And now, for the grand finale, the hand-holding-peach drawing thingy. The problems with this one are small and few, but definitely ones I’d like to fix. For example, as soon as I scanned this drawing, I noticed a few places I could shade better, a couple of ways I could make the peach look a little peachier, and I darkened a few too-light edges. But overall, this is a drawing of which I am immensely proud.
160 – Thanks!
The peach drawing is probably better because I had something to keep my hand in place – the peach gave me something to hold on to, so it was almost like a mold of some sort.
Also, I forgot to say the materials and such that I used. For toning the ground, I used a paper towel and a 4B graphite stick (I also used this for most of the shading in the peach drawing). For the actual lines, I just used the standard #2 pencil that also happens to say “Feliz Cumpleaños” on it. I used a tiny bit of kneaded eraser for the light spots on the hands, but I used a white plastic Staedtler solid eraser for erasing the toned background on #s 1 and 2.
163 – It’s not really boring. It triggers a… state of mind, I guess, that finds this stuff fascinating and even fun. The only reasons I’m moving on are because my hand is getting cramped and because I want to keep learning stuff from this book.
Force her to come over to the Visual Arts thread and keep it alive! Maybe you both can send some pictures to the GAPAs to post.
So…. erm… How ’bout them oil paints?
159- Wow. I can’t do hands, which makes those even more impressive. And the peach really is convincing.
159- how long did one of them take you? an hour a piece?
165 – Thanks! This is really my first attempt at hands for years (and my first successful attempt ever, really), so just seeing that people, well, see that they’re hands is an accomplishment to me.
166 – I don’t look at the clock when I draw them, and I lose track of time when I’m in the state of mind-type thing so I don’t know exactly how long they each took, but I’ll do my best.
The only one I know is #1 – since I was using the stupid plexiglass plane, it took me about an hour and a half. #2 took about 20 minutes to frame and pose and draw the outline and everything, and then the next day it took probably 30 minutes or so. #3 took only 15 minutes or so – it was really sketchy, I was just doing a quick experiment. #4 took at least an hour, probably more.
160-I am ashamed of myself………..i JUST realized who on this blog I can believe as a good artist………
GAPAs, I sent my pictures. Did you get them?
(168) We got the pictures. They have to be resized to fit the blog, but I have to be elsewhere for the next few hours and won’t be able to post them before tonight at best.
169-Ok.
Okay……now what, Lady B?
(171) I’m working on them now. Believe me, I would rather have been doing that than what I was doing. By the way, does your last name appear in any of the signatures?
172-no.
(173) Some artwork by AthenianPsycho. The first two are charcoal, the others are watercolors. Click on the images to see larger versions.
Those are great! I especially like #4 – I think the colors and even the sort of portrayal of textures are really nice.
Forgot to mention, I won some ribbons for pics in the fair ^^ 4 blue, four red, and some others I don’t remember. I’ll pick some of my favourites and send them in, perhaps…
Ooh, I agree with THF! They’re all very good, but the fourth one is gorgeous. The runner-ups are the first and fifth.
175, 177-Unlike most scanned stuff, that picture was actually IMPROVED by it being scanned – Before, the flowers were all weirdishly darkish, and and blended with the purple.
AthenianPsycho, I got your message and fixed the signature.
I like the 4th and 5th!
179-Thanks.
180- You’re a flower person?
These are all awesome!
181- What do you mean by that?
183 – I think she means that you like flowers.
184-Exactly.
185- They are all great. I like the fourth one best, though.
GAPAS, I have a few drawings I’d like to have placed here. Have you recieved them?
Out of mine, my favorite is the first one. Out of the hand pictures, my favorite is the peach one. And I loved the other pictures. Axa’s especially impresses me, since I epically FAIL at graphics.
Sketches by Agrrrfishi, a tree and a self-portrait:
189-interesting.
agrrrfishi, what medium did you use for the last one?
I have a lot of stuff I should send in. I have a couple muse related drwings. (like my MB signature that won’t scan!!!!) I am angry at my scanner. At least I have new sketchbooks.
We finally contacted this guy. And he’s going to help me figure out how to do visual arts. Basically.
And I’m really excited.
191- The first one was a pencil sketch, and the last one was a computer sketch I made with a cool paint tool.
I’ll try sending in some photos I took…
193-What paint tool?
195- It’s called InkArt. It’s only for the Microsoft tablet PC’s, the ones that use a stylus. That’s what I have for school. It’s SO MUCH FUN.
196- Tablet! *insert much envy here.*
I want a tablet. Then I could (digitally) draw naturally, and not have to zoom into 2000% and draw practically pixel for pixel, bleh. And “paths” annoy me quite muchly, at least on GIMP.
My trial for Flash ran out of time, ugh. No more making silly drawings of pierates,
196 – How’d you get it for school? Was it required? *hopes that her school will require art students to get tablets too*
I’ve hinted to my dad that I’d like a tablet, so it’s possible that I’ll get one for Christmas or something. Does anybody know which kinds are good to get, or anything like that?
199- The biggest brand I know is Wacom, but I don’t know any specific types. All I have to say is, don’t get an upright one, get a horizontal one. Meaning, wider than it is tall. At school we had taller ones, and they warped everything we drew so they would come out weirdly fat. Eugh.
Rebecca, would you get CS3 or wait for CS4 to come out in october/november if you a medium user (Not a “Pro”, but not a basic user. Prosumer, I guess?)?
198- I’m happy to say that it was, and I’m completely in love with mine-sticky keys and all.
I made this awesome poster of what the Muses would look like if they were in a band, but the file is a smidge too big to send. Does anyone know how to remedy this inconvenience?
(201) TMFA, if you have a choice, you may as well wait for CS4. I haven’t researched it, though, since I’m stuck with CS2 for the time being.
(202) Agrrrfishi, do you mean it’s too big to be an email attachment? If not, you can send it as is, and I can resize it.
Otherwise, from what I can tell, InkArt is a slimmed down version of ArtRage2, which I happen to have (that’s how I was able to open your files). I don’t know if the interfaces are similar, but in ArtRage, to change the size of a picture, you go to the Edit menu and select “Rescale the Painting…”
203- Thanks for ze tips. Unfortunately, the file is too big to send via email because of gpeg size (I think), and because it’s on Paint and not InkArt, if I try to shorten it, some of the picture dissappears. I can try again and see what happens, but I doubt it will attach properly. Thank you anyway, though!
(204) Agrrrfishi, for Paint, select Image from the menu, then Attributes from the drop-down list. In the pop-up window you can enter width and height in pixels, centimeters, or inches. Unfortunately, Paint doesn’t automatically adjust the sizes proportionately, so you’ll have to do the math yourself. (I have Windows XP, other versions may differ.)
I have finally picked some pictures I would like to send… but first a question: Since all the pictures I take end up in a very high resolution, and downloading them would take time/effort I would like to save you, could I just send an email with links to my pictures in a safari window or something? Not to a specific site, and not on MB becuase I know we don’t like that, but there’s a lot of pictures I like and I just want the GAPAs (Rebecca, really, since she seems to inhabit this thread the most) to pick a few to post… I I can’t decide myself, heh.
It seems it’d be easier, just click the link then drag it to the desktop instead of having to download.
At least that’s how you do it on a mac, idk about windows, I can just send them if that’s easier too.
Hello.
Well, I was going to send you some doodles from the other day (done in sharpie), but my printer hates me. When I tried to get the picture to scan in, my stupid (talking) computer, informs me Error, Error, HP phtoscan has an error. Yeah, the bloody thing tells me in cannot find the scanner. So, I tried several times turning the printer off, disconnecting, and reconnecting it to my laptop. However, still no luck. So, I tested to see if the computer and printer were communicatng at all (ie, I printed something) and it worked. So, for whatever reason, it is now refusing to scan, both when initiated from the computer (in which case it gives me an error), and when initiate form the printer (in which case it just sits there saying scanning, with the little activity bar spinning, kiinda like web pages do as you’re waiting for them to load). So, I dunno. Apparently its scanning function no longer works, and I’ve only had the damn thing about a month–and I’ve scanned things in before, no problem (well, no real problem, the blasted thing has always been horribly persnickety). Any suggestions??????
ok, never mind–restarting the blasted computer seems to have cured the problem (for now). So, the doodles are winging their way to you on the wings of a cyberowl. You should be getting them anytime now!
My teacher guy just taught me how to put the whole face together! And I’ve drawn a bunch of oversized heads that, for the most part, I’m proud of.
I have a totally new approach at drawing now, and I’ll send some stuff in whenever I find some things that represent it well.
I can’t scan in the pictures I just talked about, though, because I’m pretty sure they’re too big. Maybe I’ll take a photo and upload it… hm… Then, I’m not sure I want to share any of the faces until I’m a little more stable… I don’t know.
Whoah, where’d the pictures go? I can only see the landscape and the graphics! EEP!
Oh, there they are!
204, 205- Not sure if you still need this, your posts seem to be from a while ago, but on Paint, you can hit Ctrl+W and change the proportions that way. It works on my version, at least, Windows XP
Maybe I shall send in my gourd painting(s). *ponders*
I just drew a self portrait — that looks surprisingly like me — last weekend. Perhaps I’ll send a scan or a photograph of it in eventually.
Oops, GAPAs, I accidentally (not thinking) sent in a self portrait for LGP. Can you post it here, instead?
Wow, these are awesome. I love how everyone has such a personal style.
Maybe I’ll send in one I just finished recently…took me about a month, drawing on and off. It’s my favorite of anything I’ve drawn so far. *Skips off to AOL*
I want to get a Tablet..it sounds so cool, and I can’t draw with a mouse. It ends up all zig-zag..y..
I’ll probably send in some of my drawings.. I just need to remember to scan them.
I have a tablet, but it’s really cheap and I’m not very good with it. My brother’s better than me, but I prefer just using the mouse.
I got Inkscape! It’s really cool, I’ve used it to make my signatures and a few other things. I’m disappointed with my art class. We move at the speed of the slowest students, but they don’t care! Hurgh. Frustrating. But atleast it’s gotten me into the habit of sketching regularly, and I just started using ink.
217- I can draw with a mouse, either. I just want a mini Smartboard I can draw with in my lap. That’d be very helpful.
I would love to do a bunch of graphic arts and stuff, but my biggest obstacle is that we don’t have any good programs, and the only free ones for Macs aren’t very good — or at least, they don’t do what I want them to do. And there’s no way my parents are going to pay for a $700 art program.
(220) THF, both Adobe Photoshop Elements and Corel Painter Essentials come in Mac versions. Each costs about $90. Their capabilities can be extended through plug-in filters, some of which can be found free on the Internet.
From what I’ve seen among online tutorials and magazine articles, both programs allow you to make pretty sophisticated graphics. Plus, many of the skills you learn from them can be applied later on when you’re ready for the upgrade.
Also, if you’re mainly interested in “painting,” ArtRage has quite a bit of capability for a $25 program.
we are about to stat a n advertizing thing in art at school and we will be doing it on the computer. it sounds fun.
GAPAs, did you recieve my pics a couple of days ago? AOL was waaaay slow and I’m not sure it sent. Thanks!
220- I’m going to be annoying and say that I think you should look into GIMP and Inkscape, because they are for Mac, and they are opensource, and free, and not bad. Then you would know if you want to spend money on better programs. But Rebecca probably knows much more than me on this. The downside is that your skills wouldn’t translate directly into the next program if you upgrade, but they’re pretty close.
(224) You’re not being annoying. GIMP and Inkscape came on the scene long after I’d been using other software, and I’ve never found the time to look into them. I’ve used many programs over the years and they all helped me better understand other software.
I do believe that for most people Photoshop is overkill — and not worth the $700 price tag, unless you’re very serious about graphics.
Nthanda the Laugher sent these pictures with the following description:
The first was inspired by an Iron Man poster, and is in pencil; the second is an idea I had of Hades, in watercolor.
whoa, you are a good artist, Nthanda!
I’d love to see more of your work. you really captured the feel of the metal in the iron man drawing. I love it! ♥
The first stage- Astonishment.
*jaw hits chest* Wow.
The second stage- Envy.
You people are LUCKY. I wish I could draw like that.
The third stage- Boredness.
Hm, I wonder if anyone’s posted anything…
The fourth stage- Leaving.
Nice job. *leaves*
*blushes* thanks all…
SOOO, I went to a audition in Tampa today, and scribbled on the floor with my nails…
Help Museblogggers~plz help the bunnies are here~they are eating my free will~HEL
And with the bunnies:
BUNNIES RULE~HOT PINK BUNNIES~BUNNIES
With any luck, someone will find those messages and know what happened to the kids in there-they became really weird, one followed me around for like 10 minutes…I think they got hypnotized! But I am going to EVENTUALLY send in my flag. A HPB flag. That says ‘all your nations are belonging to us.’
225- Ok, I guess I just feel kinda pushy and confusing, telling people to switch to the software I suggest, especially after you helped THF sort things out. But that’s true, a variety will help with gaining experience.
Great job, Nthanda!
231 – Come on now. The end of that post is sorta kinda relevant, but the rest is dangerously close to inappropriate for this thread — spam. Please watch what you post, and more importantly where you post it.
Thanks for the graphic design program suggestions. For some reason, GIMP didn’t work when I tried to download it a while ago, and Inkskape isn’t really what I’m looking for. But I’ll try to get them to work now, and meanwhile beg my parents for Elements for Christmas. Tee hee.
231–That’s hilarious. I really hope someone finds it.
I’m about to send in a few images of two pieces to gapa@musefanpage.com.
I’ve made a video with windows movie maker…can you receive tha and put it on this blog, or does the format not fit?
I’m going to try and send it now. It’s for the Bunny Apocalypse thread. I just need some help formatting it, if you please great media-loving GAPAS.
THF- Yes, get GIMP! I don’t know about inkscape at all, but GIMP is really very nice, especially for beginner/intermediate graphics creators. It’s a bit confusing at first, but once you get used to it, you can really make some pretty awesome stuff.
In fact, I get confused when I use photoshop on the school computers or something, their keyboard shortcuts are all different. Quite irking.
*actually reads post 233*
Oh. Well, hope that works out too!
I’m drawing a portrait of my darling fishy with the pen tool on GIMP! Maybe I’ll send it in when finished?…
Two artworks by THF.
“The first one is an acrylic-on-canvas-board painting of a taxidermy coyote head.”
This is a drawing and detail of “a sculpture which I believe is called Discobolos (a cast of a Greek original), unfinished but I think it looks cool that way. ”
Super cool, THF!!!!!!
Thanks Luna!
Sorry the quality is so bad, they’re just webcam snapshots because that was fast and I needed them in the computer—they’re both too big to scan.
Oh you know I should probably tell you how big these are… The coyote canvas is 16″x 20″, the Discobolos (pencil on sketch paper, by the way) is approximately 18″x 24″, but I don’t have the pad to know the exact measurements.
Thanks for posting them Rebecca!
Oh and I forgot to say—Sweet artworks, Nthanda! I agree with everyone, the metal on the Iron Man looks perfect. I love the value and composition of the Hades one—my favorite part might be how he has a very precise, erm, front silhouette, but the robes on his back side just sort of fade out. Nice work!
Wow, those are awesome THF! Especially the statue one, the proportions are perfect. I agree, it does look cool unfinished, sort of Michelangleo-style.
Beautifully drawn, THF. You’re a real artist.
Discobolos! I just studied him in Art History! Nice drawing, btw.
243 – The Discobolos statue I drew is different from the classic, though–he looks away from the discus, rather than to it (his whole body is faced a bit more to the “front”) and his hair is… different. His ribcage isn’t as visible, and I think his feet are different somehow, too.
To quote Nthanda: “*blushes* thanks all…”
Thanks you guys, you are boosting my self-confidence. In a good way. I hope.
I’ll send in better-quality images when I get the chance. These ones are horrible.
Ooh, those are really awesome. I like the coyote! And you’ll have to take a picture if/when you finish the Discobolos one.
The only forms of visual arts I’m actually good at are cross stitch embroidery and making paper snowflakes. My cross stitch keeps on getting tangled, and I have to spend an hour fixing it, so I’m never going to finish the one I’m working on…
244: Don’t go around bragging that some nerds like your art. That will destroy whatever is left of your public image (just kidding!).
Oh yes, I do like them. I think I might go do something artsy now…
246–I love paper snowflakes! Mount them on some black paper and send ’em in.
247 – *hides* sorry!
I’m really scared that I’m not going to get a portfolio done in time…
Well, I scanned my bit of artsy stuff and now I’m coloring it…
I draw in a very cartoony style. I like drawing magic people.
[Continued in Visual Arts, 2008.2.]