#art school
Another project for school. I really enjoyed this one. It’s me playing video games with my dogs!
Click for better quality.
Pls enjoy my latest vid on my experience thru art school!!
AN Interior Design, Reception office of BaiTaling art school, Hangzhou, China, 2016
Photo by: Yujie Liu
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I’m continuing to learn Zbrush- it’s…. hard. But I’m improving from my previous horrors. I had the option to use my appalling and scary first head for this project but I opted to start from scratch so that my progress wasn’t haunted.
So I did some single features as practice and we’re doing a celebrity head sculpt. Curious to see if people know who I’m going for at this stage.
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I’m continuing to learn Zbrush- it’s…. hard. But I’m improving from my previous horrors. I had the option to use my appalling and scary first head for this project but I opted to start from scratch so that my progress wasn’t haunted.
So I did some single features as practice and we’re doing a celebrity head sculpt. Curious to see if people know who I’m going for at this stage.
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Sooo my amazing brother is a freelance artist & he created this masterpiece yesterday.
He turned this old busted 60 in flatscreen with acrylic & oil paint BY HAND.
Help him pay for art school by sharing this, his next customer could be on your timeline!
Message me if interested! (SERIOUS INQUIRES)
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creación de personajes a partir de aglomeraciones de formas geométricas /// trabajo en clase
-aglomeración de distintas formas geométricas
-aglomeración de una sola forma geométrica (triángulos)
-aglomeración de una sola forma geométrica (elipses)
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segunda intención – ejercicios rápidos de creación de personajes a partir de formas aleatorias
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ejercicios rápidos de creación de personajes a partir de formas aleatorias
-interpretación
-formas detonantes
-variaciones de una misma forma
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diseño de personaje a partir de la exploración de rostros
-silueta del personaje
-versión final
-clarificación de la pose
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I’m happy to announce that I’ll be doing 1-on-1 online mentorships this summer! More details to come in the next few days but if you’ve ever been interested in learning directly with me, this would be a great chance. Stay tuned and thanks for reading!
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If you want to know the #1 thing you could do to get the most out of your time at art school, here’s my advice:
Observe your classmates, and make friends with the artists who are going places. Here’s how to identify them: they submit more homework than the teacher requires. They draw in their free time. They talk about studios, publishers, working artists, awards, industry publications. They spend their money on conventions, ateliers and workshops. They get excited about printing processes, business cards and paper types.
Those students are going to land studio jobs, book deals, agents and gallery shows. Make friends with them, and as much as possible, stay in touch after you graduate. Not only are they going to be valuable professional contacts, but they will also lend you the emotional and creative energy to get through the post-graduation slump. They’ll invite you to join projects, meet up with you at events, introduce you to opportunities, cheer you on social media, give you advice on your portfolio and critiques on your newest pieces. They will encourage you to keep going.
These friendships are one of the most valuable benefits art school has to offer. Don’t squander this opportunity.
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SKETCHY BEHAVIORS WITH KIM SIELBECK
With a background in fashion, textile, illustration and printmaking, Honolulu based artist and designer Kim Sielbeck creates colorful, bold, and fun paintings and patterns inspired by lush landscapes in Hawaii. From murals to digital canvases, Kim recently created some our favorite customs as a Vans Custom Culture ambassador, using her signature color palette and designs! Find out more about Kim, what inspires her, and what she has coming up for the rest of the year. Take the leap!
Photography courtesy of the artist.
Could you introduce yourself to everybody?
Hello! My name is Kim Sielbeck. I’m an illustrator living in Honolulu, Hawaii and have been here for about two years. Before that, I was in New York City for almost twelve years. I went to school at the School of Visual Arts. I grew up in a Coast Guard family and lived in Hawai'i as a child- it’s much different being here as a grown up! Fun tidbits: I am a dog person, I was born in Alaska, I once broke my toe in mid-air taking a jumping photo.
How would you describe the art you create? How would you describe your particular technique?
My work is colorful, bold, and fun. Mixing colors and choosing them before I start on a piece is something I love. I limit myself to flat colors–this evolved from focusing on printmaking in school and working as a textile designer for several years. Pattern is important in my work, which also carried over from the textile world.
What are your favorite things to paint? What are your favorite things to paint on?
I’m very inspired by the verdant, lush landscape in Hawai'i- the plants here are unlike any other in the world. I also love painting people relaxing and having fun. A lot of what I paint is a reaction to current events today. I paint the world I want to live in. As far as surfaces- murals are my current favorite! Painting on a giant wall, getting covered in paint, and working in a public space beats working in my usual set-up, which is an iPad or computer.
What’s a typical day in the studio for you like? And what are you currently working on in the studio?
Every day is different. It usually involves a couple hours of combing through emails, finding the right balance of podcasts and music (with some dance breaks), and zoning out while I’m drawing. Currently I’m working on some new personal pieces- I just painted a portrait of my friends Sarah and Danny and their puppy. I’m also working on a few editorial pieces for some magazines!
My studio is very unique- it’s located in the Old Blaisdell Hotel, which was one of the first hotels built in Honolulu. There are lots of other creatives in the building, and it’s nice to take breaks and talk story with them during the day. We all support each other and it’s a great community.
When you’re working developing a new painting or piece, how does it begin - take us from sketchbook, to color choices, to finished painting?
A new painting starts as a tiny thumbnail to get the composition right. Then I’ll start sketching right on the surface (normally wood panel) with a light underpainting. Picking color is something I do very early on- sometimes it informs the composition and the subject matter. I try to limit my palette to 5 or 6 colors per piece. Sometimes, I’ll be ¾ done with a piece and have another color idea- so I’ll have to go back in and repaint entire sections of the painting. It’s all trial and error, and you can always repaint something.
We love the colors and compositions of your works and designs. Can you tell us how you arrived at your color palette and how composition comes into play when you’re creating a piece?
Years of working in the fashion and textile industry has given me a keen sense of color and color combinations. So much of my job as a textile artist was using colors that were popular for each season- we always had trend forecasting books laying around, and would often color or recolor a piece until it was right. We also limited our palettes to what commercial printers could print- usually no more than 8-15 colors per design.
Additionally, color palettes were always the first thing we came up with when starting a design. I still have that approach today and often pick my colors before anything else is completely set in stone.
What tools will someone always find you using at your studio?
I’ve got plenty of tubes of acrylic gouache laying around, lots of different brushes, and lately a lot of leftover house paint from murals. My go-to tools for commercial work include my iPad, desktop, and Wacom tablet. I’m able to leap from painting to digital work- most people can’t tell a difference between the two!
How do you unplug yourself so to speak? What do you do to center or re-focus yourself if you find yourself stressed out about deadlines, art shows, and the sort?
One of the reasons I moved to Hawai'i was to be able to unplug more. Prioritizing things like going outside and being in nature are great ways to step back and put things in perspective. I also make sure to keep a planner so deadlines don’t creep up on me, and hit the gym to work out any lingering stress.
You recently worked as one of our Vans Custom ambassadors! We absolutely love the Vans you created for it. Can you tell us a little bit about the process, your concept, and the response you got?
Thank you! I loved painting the Custom Vans… people always ask me where they can get a pair! My concept was to create one shoe with a tropical print and one with a desert print. They could be used to walk everywhere and anywhere across the globe. The colors I wanted to really pop- you would notice these shoes on someone’s feet!
What do you enjoy about collaborations like this? If you could pick anyone in the world, who would you collaborate with?
I’ve been a fan of Vans since I was a kid and tried to sneak into to the Warped Tour. I had big ambitions of skateboarding and surfing as a kid (I am finally learning how to surf!). The lifestyle, attitude, music, artistic improvisation, and boldness of skate/surf culture has always been magnetic, so working with Vans has been a dream job.
I love collaborating on all sorts of projects–I don’t think I have one specific dream client. I love seeing my work adapted in new ways, like animation. I’d love to paint more murals, and also work on some big-impact projects that can reach more people and bring some color and joy into their lives.
What advice would you give someone who wants to follow in your footsteps?
A career is not something that happens right away- you have to constantly work for it and adapt. I was hoping right out of school I would instantly become a world-famous illustrator… not the case. It took a few years to find my style and voice, and that’s ok. More advice is to always pursue outside interests, and grow as a person. I was in a punk/pop band for several years in NYC (shout out Puppies!), learned how to sail, and traveled a lot. All these things, while not necessarily being art-related, helped influence my work and life.
How did start becoming interested in art and design? When did you find yourself doing it as a career?
Moving around so much as a kid, art was something that was a constant. I could express how I felt, what I was going through, and could make friends doing it. Early in high school, I realized I could maybe do it for a living. My parents sat me down and asked me to come up with a plan for college and beyond, so I had realistic expectations and saw the hard work it would take. A good work ethic, some luck, and many hours of practice helped me push through. When I graduated college in 2009, there weren’t many jobs. I lucked out and got a full-time job at the textile studio, while freelancing on the side. Eventually, 8 years later, the freelancing became stable enough to do illustration full-time.
When you’re not busy creating art, how do you unwind and chill out?
When I’m not in the studio I’m trying to explore new places, go on hikes, go to different beaches, or learn how to surf. At the studio, my brain is on New York speed, but walking outside I switch back to Island Time immediately.
If you weren’t an artist, what do you think you’d be doing instead?
I’d be a guitarist and lead singer, traveling the world in my amazing punk rock girl group.
So we gotta ask what are your FAVORITE Vans?
I have some surf-green high tops I’ve worn for YEARS. I got them in Pasadena one night at an art opening when my sandals snapped in half. The Vans store was miraculously still open, and I ran in and grabbed them in the five minutes I had to spare. They saved my outfit and my night, and they’ve since traveled to London, Italy, Hawai'i, Japan, and beyond.
What’s coming up next for you?
I’m going to Europe in September, for some work and some fun. I’m looking forward to a few bigger projects I can’t talk about yet. I’m also working on some local Hawai'i projects, including working with the Humane Society. A beach towel collaboration with Surfer Towel’s Christie Shinn (who you just interviewed!) just came out, too.
FOLLOW KIM | WEBSITE|INSTAGRAM|TWITTER | BEHANCE
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ART SCHOOL | Q&A with JEREMY SHOCKLEY
Like snapshots of memories morphed into vivid dreamscapes, LA based artist Jeremy Shockley creates narrative works featuring rainbows, clouds and creatures. In his landscapes, curtains reveal a cast of strange and dreamy characters on stage–that like clouds drifting through the sky, momentarily meet and interact on canvas. Find out more about his art, his inspiration and what he has coming up the rest of the year by taking the leap below!
Photographs courtesy of the artist.
Introduce yourself?
My name is Jeremy Shockley. I live in LA, specifically my studio is in El Sereno and I live in KTown. I’m a painter and also work in artland, typically helping figure out large scale works and exhibitions. I have a wonderful girlfriend named Nikki, a half blind angel dog named Willie, and five chickens: Debbie, Hairdo, Edna, Billy Jo, and Dink.
When did you begin having an interest in art and painting as a career? How or why do you think you gravitated towards painting?
I’ve pretty much always wanted to paint and draw for as long as I could remember. It all started drawing Ninja Turtles and Predator on my grandma’s floor when I was around 4. My parents let me paint my entire room. My family was always supportive about making art…so I just always assumed it was a normal life path or something like that.
How do you describe your work to people who maybe unfamiliar with it? What are your paintings about?
It’s hard for me to admit it, but I guess they are kind of Surrealist. I always hated surrealism, and then bam…I kind of just started doing it. I like my paintings to convey some type of narrative or snapshot of a memory. I like story telling, but prefer pictures over words.
In your works, you often have beautiful landscapes intertwined with the surreal–from melting rainbows to ghosts the landscape literally being curtain. When did you begin to discover the subjects for your paintings? How did that evolve and come-about?
The landscapes came about because I wanted a pretty backdrop for this cast of characters to live in. It evolved into landscape curtains when I went into full acceptance of it essentially being a stage. The characters are all some sort of amalgamation of my constant reading/listening to books on mythology and sci-fi. I keep a running story in my head of these characters and landscapes, so I really just pick a scene and paint that. It’s a pretty fun way of working.
How has the places you’ve lived and its landscape influenced the work you create?
I’m from Travelers Rest, South Carolina and it is as pretty as the name suggests. It’s in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains and a lot of my source imagery still comes from there. I also love Los Angeles and its beaches. Nothing is more calming that just painting an ocean. In the last few years I’ve been traveling a ton, so I carry a travel studio wherever I go. Keeps me sane and there’s always something pretty or just the right kind of ugly to paint.
What was your last adventure or walk through your neighborhood that showed up in one of your work, thematically or just visually?
I go outside of my studio and just stare at the sky a lot. I’m a big fan of clouds and El Sereno skies are incredible in the afternoon. I just did a painting about waking up right after a shipwreck. It’s painted like your looking out from behind eyelids. Had a great stormy day outside the studio for reference.
What IS your favorite thing to draw or paint? Do you have an UNfavorite thing to draw or paint?
I like clouds and creatures mostly. Softer and less structured things. I hate painting hard lines and rigid things. Metallic finishes are also tricky, but I’m working on those.
When did you start picking up the paint brush and taking your works to the canvas? What do you enjoy about painting as a process?
I probably started around 6th grade. Up until then I think it was all notebook paper drawings. I love drawing, but it’s so much more fun just covering a surface with paint. I love a toothy surface that’s really unpredictable to drag paint across.
What’s a typical day like for you when you’re in the studio?
I usually drive to Carl Jr’s and get a bucket sized unsweet tea around 8:30am. I start working as soon as I walk into my studio, so I don’t get distracted by my sweet VHS collection (thanks Richard Colman for that). I put on an audiobook and work straight through until around 7 or 8 pm. It always just goes by so fast.
What are your go-to art tools?
Oil Paint, Linseed, Lavender Spike, a bunch of brushes. 3 palletes, an old piece of bamboo to lean my arm on, so I don’t drag in the wet paint, and some bent up old palette knives.
What are you constantly inspired by? And who are some of your early and current art influences?
I spend a lot of my time just looking at stuff and trying to figure out what colors it’s made up of. Also, I love looking at old paintings, even like old ones at thrift stores. I’ve always loved Constable, Guston, and Ansel Adams. Recently: Forrest Bess, Albert York, Picasso, Bacon, Magritte, Monet, and more Constable.
What do you do when you are not painting or creating new work? How do you find yourself unwinding?
I hang out with our chickens and dog in our backyard. All of Nikki’s fingers are green, and she made a lil nature paradise back there. Also, on Sundays I go to Applebees in Alhambra and have a Bloody Mary followed by whatever terrible action movie is playing at the movie theater next door.
What advice would you offer to an aspiring artist who might wanna follow in your footsteps?
I’ve worked with a lot of successful artists, and they all seem to have one thing in common: they are always working. I try to do the same. I love painting, so I do it every second I get.
What’s your best Art School tip that you want to share with folks? Some random wisdom you learned through your personal journey or just while making art?
I went to a cheap in state school, after seeing they had big free studios. The professors were also great. It was in a small town, so pretty much everyone was always working distraction free in their studios. It was amazing, and I didn’t have any debt afterwards. It didn’t have a big name, but we all came knowing how to make stuff. Thanks Winthrop University.
What do you think you’d be doing if you weren’t an artist? In an alternate universe, what would you have been career-wise?
I also have a degree in Psychology. I meant to be a Psychologist and even moved to NY to pursue research opportunities, but I got a job working for Tom Sachs and have been artbound ever since.
What’s a question you never get asked in an interview that you wanna ask yourself and answer?
What’s your favorite Tom Hanks movie? Joe Versus the Volcano, obviously. I watch it on VHS at least once a month. There’s this scene where the luggage all pops up out of the water and the moon is crazy looking. I honestly think it strongly influenced my art.
What are your favorite style of VANS?
Vans Authentic Chilli Pepper Red with Gumsoles. Favorite shoes of all time.
What’s coming up for you the rest of the year or into the next?
I have a couple of works going out into group shows and still in the works for a show abroad in September.
FOLLOW JEREMY | INSTAGRAM
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ART SCHOOL | INTERVIEW WITH STEINER
LA based muralist and artist Steiner explores the relationships between humans and the environment through his vibrant and bold colored murals of wild psychedelic multi-eyed beasts and skulls emanating from toxic sludge. We’re excited to chat with Steiner about his art, his process and what he has coming up for the rest of the year. Take the Leap!
Photographs courtesy of the artist.
Introduce yourself?
Steiner here, I grew up in Arizona eating burritos and drinking beers. I have lived in SF, NYC and now LA.
How did you first become interested in drawing and art? Who were some of your early artistic influences?
I was always drawing and painting from a young age, but I became more seriously interested in art at around 15. My family spent part of year living in Rome Italy, and it really blew my mind. There was graffiti everywhere and of course, a shit ton of mind blowing classical art. Growing up in Arizona, which has a beautiful natural environment and a less than inspiring bland stucco sprawl city environment, Italy was quite the experience. Other than that, I always loved comic books and watching freight trains roll by with all the graffiti on them.
When did you finally go from drawing and muraling to it becoming your profession and what you do?
When i was younger, I held down all kinds of jobs from cooking to bartending, then slowly but surely all the years spent plugging away at drawing and painting murals started becoming more serious. A friend of mine and I started doing design and screen printing company together in New York, which was so rad. We worked for all sorts of companies big and small. Now I still make art for a living, but I also have a graphic design job, sort of like Jekyll and Hyde because my design work is quite different than my murals and art.
How would you describe your artwork someone unfamiliar with it?
Wild psychedelic beasts, with friendly colorful souls. I would also say that my work is about humans impact on the environment. I like to illustrate that with mutated multiple eyed animals painted in vibrant colors. Humans are represented by demons or skulls to denote the negative impact we have, and I often use smoke clouds in my backgrounds to represent pollution.
What is it about muraling and creating art outside in the city that you are so drawn too?
I love seeing mundane spaces brought to life in big colorful ways. I love to work on large scales. Sometimes, painting on a small canvas is just a bit boring, but if you make your canvas the side a building, then it becomes way more fun. Also there are always weird challenges with murals – like the texture of the walls or roll down gates, the architecture of the building and the interaction with the street.
When you’re working on a mural, what’s the process like?
In an ideal situation, you have plenty of time to prepare. In this case, I would take pictures, get the dimensions, then make a bunch of thumbnail sketches that fit the space. Sometimes I have a sketch or something that will already fit perfectly, but other times, depending on where or who the mural is for, you work with a theme that can help dictate the end result.
When you’re not working outside on a mural, what’s a typical day in the studio like?
Sketching as much as I can. Sometimes ideas come pouring out, and some days it’s a struggle.
What are your essential materials and tools for inside and outside the studio?
Moleskin sketchbooks are my favorite–mechanical pencils, all sizes of Sharpies and Micron pens, nicotine gum.
For murals: spray paint, rollers, gloves, fat and skinny caps ect..Always need a boom box , some cold ones and more nicotine gum.
What’s your best Art School tip that you want to share with folks?
Man that’s a tough one, I always think about how a professor of mine made us mix 300 shades of green oil paint, without using black or white, then we painted an all green still life. It was frustrating at the time, but it really makes you think about color differently, and it really made a lasting impact on me. Other than that I try as many mediums as possible. You never know what might stick.
What’s been your biggest challenge you’ve faced as an artist? And what did you do to overcome that obstacle?
The biggest challenge is the constant one of never giving up and always trying to improve upon what you are doing.
Whose an up and coming artist you are excited about?
Jason Pulgarin, Keya tama, David Leitner, Revost. All of which are a bit more than up and coming, but I like what they are doing.
What are your favorite style of VANS?
Summertime has always been about the Authentic for me, but I do love old Skools and SK8-His as well. Vans Vault has been a staple of mine for years.
When you’re not making art, how do you like to chill out and unplug?
Riding bicycles has always been a hobbie of mine–from fixed gear to road bikes or big old beach cruisers. Also there is a great little par 3 golf course I love to play by my house. It’s a good place to zone out.
What’s coming up for you the rest of the year?
I just want to paint as many walls as possible, hopefully a truck or two also haha. Hopefully I’ll do some more collaboration walls; I really love to do those! It’s so fun to blend styles.
FOLLOW STEINER | INSTAGRAM|WEBSITE
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ART SCHOOL | INTERVIEW WITH BRIAN SMITH
Filled up sketchbooks of distorted portraits of passer-bys, mundane objects, personal notes, weird thoughts and meanderings are just a couple things in artist Brian Smith’s sketchbook and works. Textured with black and gray tones, Brian’s drawings are often personal, humorous, and observational. We’re excited to chat with Brian to find out more about his background, drawings, and what he has coming up for the rest of the year. Take the Leap!
Photographs courtesy of the artist.
Introduce yourself?
My name is Brian Smith, I’m from a town called Hicksville, New York. Now, recently living in Los Angeles, California. I’m currently the sole employee of a warehouse and I like to draw.
What was your introduction to drawing and/or art in general? What were your early influences?
I’d had a babysitter who showed me how to draw actual hands and not just the turkey ones you make when you’re little. That was pretty big for me. It got me interested in figuring out how to draw other things just by looking at them for a bit. I always had sketchbooks as a kid, and in turn would forget them somewhere. My Nana who was kind of a closet artist would find them and leave little watercolor drawings of shore birds, ladybugs on tall grass, pond habitats etc. That seeded some notion I wouldn’t come to until much later about the intimacy of sketchbooks and how good it feels to give and receive drawings. Early influences would definitely be those two women. There was also a lot of adolescent suburban troublemaking, the inevitable introduction to skateboarding and cartoons like Rocko’s Modern Life and Ren and Stimpy.
How would you describe your work now to someone who is just coming across it?
I generally stumble through an explanation if I’m ever asked. I recently looked back at like two years of drawings for a show. Seeing a good chunk of what you’ve drawn over a period of time all at once is wild. I still don’t think I’ve got my answer. It’s all kind of vague, sad, funny and personal. I like it to be just so, where people can attach their own meaning to it or ask questions about it.
How did you find yourself going from maybe keeping a journal to actually getting work creating art or selling artwork?
I’m still getting there. I think so far those things for me have a mutually beneficial relationship. Drawing in sketchbooks is where I’m most productive. Everything after that is selected and isolated into its own drawing. That isolated sketchbook drawing might become a print or an image someone wants to buy or use for something which is always great.
How do your ideas take shape? How do you get from start to finish? What’s your process?
It’s a total crap shoot haha. Sometimes I’ll blast through something in a night and others, a half inked drawing will sit in a drawer for months before I’m ready to get back into it. I get my ideas from a lot of things and in a lot of different ways though. I have a very distracting internal dialogue from time to time, I don’t know what it is. Sometimes I’ll just hang on a phrase, words that sound funny strung together in a sentence and put it down on paper and save it, maybe draw what it makes me think of later on. This croucher character I started drawing came from a thought I had of how dumb I must’ve looked a few days earlier, scrunched down taking a photo in the city while a wall of people moved around me.
When are you most inspired? And what is your favorite subjects or things to draw and why?
Inspiration strikes at random. I mostly like to draw at night or very early in the morning. I like drawing dogs and people, they’re emotional critters.
What artists inspire you these days?
The artists in my immediate circle at Bill’s Bar (@billsbarla). Those people are constantly creating and progressing. It’s insane.
You moved to LA not too long ago, how has living here influenced your artwork if at all? What do you think about the art community in LA?
I got out here in November. Lots of sketching and a few finished drawings in the bag since then. I’ve got a few ideas that’ll have to cook a bit longer before I figure out what to do with them. It’s definitely been a receptive town for me, showed a bunch of drawings I’d been sitting on and got a nice response. I’ve been to a few art shows and they got me pretty excited on what’s going on and what can be achieved with some elbow grease.
Tell us about a favorite project or collaboration you’ve done. What kind of challenges do collaborations pose and what do you love about them?
My favorite collaboration has been with Austin England (@mochelife). We started sharing drawings through the mail over a decade ago. We did that for years before we actually met in person 6 or 7 years ago. Now we share a studio space with some other great artists and I’m currently babysitting his dog Lola. Collaborations for me can tend to lead to overthinking. Not always, but sometimes.. and when it gets to that point it’s tricky to dig yourself out and just relax and work with what the other person is doing. I love the whole process of it though, it’s fun and you never know where it’s going to go. You usually learn something new and wind up with something cool. That’s the best.
What was your last adventure that showed up in one of your illustrations, thematically or just visually?
Driving through the midwest. Indescribable. I drew a bunch of roadkill from memory that was pretty fun and weird.
Every artist has a different way of making his or her artist career work. How do you make it work for you? Do you spend time maintaining an online store or just draw when you want when you have free time?
I pretty much draw when I can. Sometimes I just don’t feel like it, which is always tough. I just draw in my sketchbooks, turn those pages into zines or actual finished pieces and let people know they’re for sale on instagram. I haven’t quite dialed in the online store thing just yet, but I’ll get there. Every now and again a drawing job or commission will pop up.
What advice would you give someone who wants to follow in your footsteps and pursue art?
Don’t follow in my footsteps. Go to lots of museums and art shows. Keep a pen in your pocket. Take the extra time to get an image to look the way you want it to.
What’s your best Art School tip that you want to share with folks?
Don’t write your artist statement in the 3rd person.
When you aren’t drawing or hustling, what do you do to relax or just stay fresh in life?
Beers, talks, books and walks to relax. Going to a museum, taking a trip and or getting out of the old comfort zone to stay fresh.
What are your favorite style of VANS?
I like the white Vans Authentic, especially all worn in and pretty raggedy looking.
Anything you can share that is coming up?
I don’t have anything coming up which is nice. Everything’s pretty wide open creatively, so I’m just gonna keep my antennas tuned and try and get productive.
FOLLOW BRIAN | WEBSITE|INSTAGRAM
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Backgrounds Part 01 I did for my graduation film “The HUNT”
Here is the link to watch THE MAKING OF
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Assignment: make a bookcover for a dystopian novel with the prompt Planet B.
I realize this might look very messed up (and it is), but my book idea was a world years from now, where humans destroyed the planet so much, that animals took over and keep the remaining humans in enclosures or as pets, like this particular rich Cheetah Prince. Later I incorporated him in my comic book, look out for that!
Forgot to post this! We had to imitate an artist for class, so I chose J.C. Leyendecker, of course :)
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It’s humorously ironic how art professors give us projects to try new things and develop our own personal style, yet backhandedly enforce certain parameters for you to follow under the pretense that they will not accept that you don’t have the same exact art making process as they do. ((This is not to be confused with practicing how to manage your workflow for deadlines and specific client specifications)).
In my experience, I’ve observed the following behavior and responses from professors, and some of my tips:
- If you don’t sketch like the majority of artists, then your process isn’t valid. (Ex. keeping a sketchbook, experimenting in a sketchbook, filling sketchbooks. Can you see my personal complaint here is sketchbooks).
- If you typically develop your ideas as you paint or draw, and you don’t have three or four refined sketches prior, then you aren’t prepared enough.
- Often, professors assign large pieces ((11x14 or larger)) and if you aren’t capable of working in large sizes then you aren’t successful. Literally in a span of 5 years, I only just now had a professor tell me I can do what ever size fits my composition the best. This resulted in so much trust in myself, the professor, and freedom with said project.
- Under the assumption you understand the basic foundations of drawing, the hypocrisy of telling students to “be loose and think out of the box,” and then complain that “this [body part / object] isn’t accurate” is demeaning, confusing, and hurts self-esteem.
- You are in your 400-500 level portfolio building class…where you are told you can focus on your own style and process. But guess what, you’re not allowed to, because how you do art is not the standard—it’s not how they want you to do it. Good luck!
- Use cheaper or off-brand products. Don’t buy the expensive shit they put on your syllabus. Learn the materials you work best with, whilst being open to experimenting with new ones in time. Just understand how to control your material. You don’t need a $45 dollar ruler that’s thinner than skin.
- You don’t need $40-$70 art textbooks. They are great references but I also think textbooks in general are a complete scam. College is a scam actually. But who am I to say that.
- Depressed? Have (disability)? Tough luck! You have to force your creative process to meet the deadlines or else you get a bad grade. “But, I thought they only care if you ‘experimented and tried new things’?” That my friend is what they all say. Forcing yourself to go with an idea tends to develop a distaste for the creative-process, which results in art blocks, lack of motivation, and self-confidence concerns. Not to mention anxiety. But I guess you already had that, huh.
I wish I could take my own advice. To not care as much. To not let my years of installed anxiety of having every mark be accurate and perfect just to please my teachers. It’s terribly disappointing to see so many motivated artists, here on Tumblr and otherwise, fall to the inevitable “but they’re so much better than I am.” I wish I could tell you you’re wrong, but there will always be someone “better.” It’s about unlearning that you have to be “the best” to be successful or to enjoy art.
"Better” is such a lucid term though. Take it with a grain of salt. Just like many things, society has just formulated a certain way of studying and creating art, giving you the impression that you have to do it a certain way. It’s total bullshit. I’m quite certain I will break this ‘need to preform at this level’ mindset when I’m finished with the degree. Similarly, I wish I can tell myself if it was worth it.
These are all really general observations I’ve had. I could also argue why enforcing discipline to handle deadlines is important for your process, but in the long run, it has been detrimental when you have professors who are constantly giving you mixed signals.
This isn’t a sign to tell you whether you should or shouldn’t go to school to study art. That really isn’t up to me, my one individual experience. There’s nothing wrong with going to school to study art, and I can just as well give many reasons as to how I’ve benefited from it. I’m just saying, you need to be aware of how you feel and what you want. Not what others want. You’re never gonna escape criticism and challenges, but that’s also just life. It’s about learning how to accept these things and use them to improve. Or to simply: not care and be yourself.
Feel free to add more to the list.
TLDR: Professors’ biases and the normalization of specific art flow processes are just brainwashing you to not enjoy making art. Quit caring what others think before it becomes a bad habit.
One of the things I really had about how art is taught in school (high school and college) is this overwhelming need to get everything right in the foundation stages. In high school, experimentation is encouraged because usually kids don’t even want to be in art class. Overall, your teachers are giving you an overview of what is possible with art and its tools.
I will always tell people that if they want to actively study art and get better, you need to learn basic things like how to draw what you see, body proportions, basic perspective with boxes and other shapes, shadows and color theory. This is our basic classes in college, sure.
But like…looking back at how my art education has been, I feel like professors give two tones and it’s hard to distinguish what you’re supposed to do: “This should be better, fix this, this looks wrong,” vs. “explore and do your own style!” This is not to say we shouldn’t improve our art based upon critiques.
As a result, it’s hard to just do art for fun. It feels like it always has to be perfect. Like…the curve of a nose or an eyeball can’t be off or else your art is horrible. “Wait, I thought art was supposed to be therapeutic!” Welp. I always argue pompous critics like…why can’t this splash of color be there because it’s fun? Because it looks cool? But there I am, also ignoring my own advice because of 8-10 years of rigorous art foundation. Say hello to art anxiety!
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TDLR: Make your art wonky and fun and wrong as hell. Learn the foundations and understand its structure, but then take it and do what ever the fuck you want at your speed. Screw everyone else. Do you enjoy the process of making art and not just its outcome?
A discussion video based on the art school discourse messing up twitter at this point in time.
Lol when your new “art school” art teacher is a fuckin idiot who thinks all art is ‘good’ and that critique should *not* be abt ‘criticizing technical aspects’ but instead ‘celebrating each other,’ and as a result of her complete lack of teaching, the art room is a mess, hundreds of dollars of supplies have been depleted/stolen, and the art that’s coming out of the underclassmen is. Aggressively bad
My former sculpture teacher could talk for hours about what IS NOT art. For him the concept was so close minded, we couldn’t get him to agree on any projects. And he constantly bragged about visiting exhibitions on the other side of the globe, and asked have we recently been in Venice and Tokyo. We’re poor students. Guess.
SICKO**
Character sculpted and edited by me.
Studying in the city of Renassaince.
by Nora Gibbons.
After semesters in Costa Rica and Spain, theLIU Globalclass of 2020 all have
experience in the art of essay writing and crafting a written argument. But how many of us have had the chance to express our ideas in a visual or fine art form, through video or printmaking or drawing or photography? These are the opportunities we have had over the last couple of months at the Florence School of Fine Arts. Now, not only do we have the skills to write a research paper on our favorite global issue, we also have experience creating documentary videos about climate change or using augmented reality technology to comment on the visibility of women in a variety of realms.
Located in the Santa Croce neighborhood in central Florence, the Florence School of Fine Arts, according to cofounder Melania Lanzini, “is an innovative arts program bringing forth new ideas and different approaches to teaching.” The school itself is actually located in the former home of Giorgio Vasari, a notable writer, architect, and artist in the Renaissance. And this is not the only brush with history that we get to experience throughout our days in Florence.
Some of us wake up to a view of frescos on our bedroom ceilings in our apartments or walk past Brunelleschi’s famous Duomo on our way to school. We spend each Friday morning some of the most renowned museums and historical sites in Florence, learning about Renaissance art from our professor Frederica, a talented art historian.
In addition to the Renaissance art class, the Florence School offers us courses in Italian language, interactive design, filmmaking, and world cinema. For those of us Global students able to take an overloaded schedule there are also opportunities for drawing, photography, printmaking, letterpress, and bookbinding classes.
For many of us, our only wish is that we could have taken advantage of more of the courses offered at the Florence School.
Since we are each taking different electives based on our interests, each of our days looks different. Some of us may head to the studio early to work on interactive design projects, using technology on smartphones to turn photos, drawings, and paintings into an interactive sight and sound experience or to work on hand binding books of our artworks. Others may have a slower
morning in our apartments drinking a cappuccino and preparing for a world cinema presentation later in the day.
The main constant throughout our diverse days though is the opportunity to express ourselves creatively, surrounded by a city filled with inspiration.
For many of us though, the best part of this experience is the people.
We have been so grateful for the support of theFlorence Schoolfounders, Charles Loverme and Melania Lanzini, and all the staff of the Florence School. From advice and guidance on our creative projects to fixing a
leaking washing machine late at night, we can always count on them to support us and advocate for us and cannot thank them enough.
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When you’re so art school it’s scary.
White tee, black jeans, an espresso & the sadness of 1000 men. Yikes.
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