4 Online Resources to Practice Figure Drawing

Posted on by Monica

4 Online Resources to Practice Figure Drawing

Drawing the human figure is one of the hardest skills to master. People shirk away from proportions and anatomy. They complain that hands are too difficult. Heads and eyes come out too large. Torsos are truncated. Characters mutilated!

I’m guilty of taking shortcuts to avoid the human figure too. “Stylized” or simplified figures are common in my work. When I stop to think about it, I probably started using these figures because they allowed to me convey my message easily and quickly. Portraying a realistic-looking person takes so much longer.

Then I took my first figure drawing class.

Any traditional art student will go through the experience. The atmosphere of the first class pregnant with awkwardness as the first model de-robes. The body that has taken center stage is nude, not naked, your professor insists. Your more immature classmates suppress giggles – or did that sound just come from you?

Before you can bat another eyelid, the model is in a pose and the timer begins. You’re forced to contemplate the awkwardness of nudity alone and in silence. Well, not complete silence. The frantic scratching of charcoals and pencils is audible because you’ve all been thrown into a series of lightening-fast sessions.

Thoughts of nudity are forced out of your head as you try to capture its form on your paper before- time’s up, next pose!

Figure in Tone

After a while, maybe even just one class later, it isn’t awkward at all. You jump readily into the task of capturing curves and contours, lights and shadows, as accurately and as quickly as time allows. You revel in 30-minute sessions – what an excess of time! – but also find them exhausting. Then you graduate to hour-long sessions, and find 30 minutes wasn’t bad at all.

Does figure drawing seem fun yet?

Figure in contour

In my case, a class like this leads you to develop a love for this art form, so strong that when the class is over you’re at a loss. And when you graduate from college, you’re even more lost. And when you go and live abroad, well, you’d better stop feeling lost and do something about it.

At first, I was determined to find figure drawing classes or open sessions in my area. But being in a country more conservative than my own, I didn’t even know how to go about asking where I could find a place to draw nude models.

I turned to the next best thing – the Internet. And no, I didn’t have to weed through any sketchy (haha) websites.

These are four resources I’ve used over the years to maintain my skill and continue figure drawing without models.

 

Stock Photos from Deviant Art

resource-deviantart

This is the most basic resource. You can find thousands of stock photos online. I’m sure there are a number of other websites you could use. But the site I started with is deviantart.com.

For those not familiar with Deviant Art, it’s a social media-esque platform for posting your artwork. I think I started using it in middle school. I’m sure a lot of kids still use the site, which features a lot of fan art.

Unfortunately, there have been many cases of art theft, with people using, reprinting, and even selling artists’ work without their knowledge. It was a fun community for me, but you won’t see many professional artists there.

Users also post stock photos! You’ll find a range from the extravagantly costumed to simple poses for drawing reference. Don’t expect to find nude models though. Two of the most reliable stock providers I’ve used are senshistock and jademacalla.

Senshistock

I like senshistock for their variety and simplicity. They focus on the human form. There is one primary model – the user – and although other models show up frequently. Most of their models are in leotards or tank tops and tights, so you get plenty of arm and leg muscle.

They have unique poses like a running hug and even a whole category for pregnancy. They have both male and female models.

Jademacalla

Another good user for action poses is jademacalla. This user specializes in action and military-like poses. His stock images are clothed according to the scenario – in suits, camouflage and Kevlar vests.

Groups

It turns out there are a lot of stock photo groups too. Here are a few I haven’t tried, but look okay based on a quick browse:

DA Poses: http://daposes.deviantart.com/

Lady Stock: http://ladystock-archives.deviantart.com/

Man Stock: http://manstock.deviantart.com/

Action Stock: http://action-stock.deviantart.com/gallery/

 

Quick Poses

resource-quick-poses

Quick Poses is a step above stock photos. It’s one of many websites made specifically for artists practicing figure drawing. This is the first one I tried.

Features:

  • Challenges (themed collections; 10 different categories, with examples below)
    • Athletes
    • Female silhouette
    • Lying poses
    • Seated
    • Warriors
  • Timed gestures (my favorite)
  • Random Gestures
  • Library (images you can browse freely)

For each session you can choose:

  • Nude and clothed options
  • Gender
  • Type of images (full poses, hands, feet, or faces)
  • Time intervals: 30sec, 45sec, 60sec, 90sec, 120sec, or custom

At the end of each session, the site displays all the poses you drew. While I like this feature, but I don’t really use or do anything with it. Maybe it just reminds you of how much you’ve accomplished.

You do have the option to create your own custom image sets, either by browsing through the library or from the images shown after a session. Make a Quick Poses account to try this, track your progress, and even earn a certificate.

There are other features that I don’t really find useful, but some might. You have the option to choose a white or black background. You can also work in upside down mode, but this reminds me too much of tedious art class assignments.

Overall Opinion

Quick Poses is a solid figure drawing site, with a lot of different features. It feels a little unorganized to me, and as a result, I mostly stick to what I tried first. I typically use the Timed gestures section, and that’s about it.

The images are good quality but started to repeat for me after a few sessions.

I do like that Quick Poses keeps track of the poses you’ve drawn and shows them all to you at the end.  This feature, combined with the button to skip images actually saying “skip,” makes me feel more pressure to draw each pose.

So in a subtle way, Quick Poses is a little more motivating. They’ve also started hosting competitions, though I’m not sure about the frequency of these, and I tend to see more new features and blog content, which similar sites seem to lack. But the next site might provide some competition.

 

Line of Action

resource-line-of-action

Line of Action (formerly known as artists.pixelovely.com) was just revamped on November 24th, with a new name, domain, and features that I still haven’t fully explored.

Even before the change, Line of Action was quickly becoming my new favorite tool. My first time using it was with a 30 minute class session. It wiped me out and made me hungry enough to eat a second breakfast that day.

Features

  • Four main categories:
    • Figure Studies
    • Animals
    • Hands & Feet
    • Faces & Expressions
  • Lessons and tips section
  • Community forums
    • Critique
    • Practice & Advice

Making an account allows you to post in forums, but no other features require you to log in. The forums allow you to post your work and receive feedback or simply share your successes.

For each session, you can choose:

  • Nude or clothed
  • Gender
  • Timed intervals or class mode
  • Time intervals: 30sec, 60sec, 2min, 5min, 10min, or custom

Overall Opinion

Line of Action has a lot of images to work with – it took me longer to run into repeat images compared with Quick Poses, though I do get repeats with this site too.

I’m a fan of class mode, which starts you off with images shown for 30 seconds each and gradually moves up to longer periods of time. You can choose class modes ranging from 30 minutes to 6 hours! (Is that even possible?!)

Line of Action is still my current favorite. While its functions are similar to the other two figure drawing websites on this list, I prefer the layout, which to me feels cleaner and easier to navigate. The site feels more active now, with a regularly updated blog and forum activity.

 

Sketch Daily

resource-sketch-daily

Sketch Daily specializes in simple. It has the essentials, with no distractions.

Features

  • Categories:
    • Full body (poses)
    • Body parts (hands, head)
    • Animals (bird, fish, reptile/amphibian, bug, mammal)
  • No option to make an account
  • Available in different languages

This site doesn’t start timing immediately after you start a session – you have to press play. This seems insignificant, but I do like that I choose what type of session I want and then get settled with my materials. It’s a little more relaxed. Of course, you can also just prepare everything before you hit start.

Unfortunately, I found this feature the hard way, when I forgot to hit play and kept drawing, wondering while this session felt so long (it must’ve been my skill, right?).

Another nice little detail is that when time is almost up on an image, it begins fading to black, giving you a warning to wrap it up. I really wish other sites did this too.

In each session, you can choose:

  • Nude or clothed
  • Gender
  • Type of pose (action, stationary)
  • View (front, side, back)
  • Time intervals: 30 sec, 1 min, 5 min, or 10 min

Overall Opinion

Sketch Daily is easy to use and customize, and has the most straightforward layout. They have a couple of extra options that the other sites don’t, like choosing the type of pose and the viewpoint.

The site creators are transparent about the number of images available for each category, shown at the bottom of the page. You can see exactly how many images of a certain type are available after you choose your desired settings.

There is no option to put in a custom time and fewer time choices overall.

—
Have you tried any of these resources? If not, I hope this gives you some ideas on where you can start to improve your figure drawing game. If you have, let me know what you thought!

Art Feature: You Piss Me Off

Posted on by Monica

Art Feature: You Piss Me Off

Recently I dug through my old artwork and supplies looking for the dwindling packet of scratchboard that I know I have somewhere. Instead of the scratchboard, I came across the art pieces I’d accumulated while in college. I mean eventually you have to get tired of looking at your own art, right?

Being under a tight budget, I never bought anything too big or fancy, but just enough to decorate the walls of my little studio apartment. Out of these pieces, my favorite has to be “You Piss Me Off” by Louis Recchia:

recchia-you-piss-me-off

Most people laugh when I tell them the title. I did the first time I heard it. And after hem-ing and haw-ing for a bit, I bought it. My art at the time was really serious and angry (see Campus Climate) and so it felt worthwhile to have a piece in my life to that made me smile.

Some people see the piece and immediately interpret the woman as transgender, which I suppose is a perfectly logical interpretation. I just enjoy the punny play on words and brash humor.

The piece is drawn on a transparency, with colored paper in the background. It came with the simple but unique frame – another plus for any poor or lazy college student.

When I search online, I can’t find the exact image I bought, just variations on the same image that all going by the same title. I bought my version at Zip37 Gallery during a First Friday in Denver (on the first Friday of every month, when there are art walks all across the city).

You can find more of Louis Recchia’s work at Zip37 Gallery or on the artist’s website.

Let’s Get Political

Posted on by Monica

Let’s Get Political

In honor of the election, before we find out if America is doomed, how about some candidate art? Shortly after the first presidential debate I saw this post:

debate-drawing

And with that I decided to make full use of the remaining two debates.

Trump was of course, just as entertaining to draw as he was to watch. Hillary paled a bit in comparison and had challenging hair.

The third time around, I dedicated a few seconds to the moderator – the poor man deserved a little recognition for his very effective candidate-wrangling .

Then it was back to the main event.

third-debate

Here’s hoping that we won’t be seeing this in the days to come:

chibi-trump

App Review: Does Canvas Tutor Help Improve Your Art?

Posted on by Monica

App Review: Does Canvas Tutor Help Improve Your Art?

Apps can do anything now. The slogan “there’s an app for that” comes to mind (but it seems so dated now, a sentiment not even worth expressing).

When I got back to the US and bought a fancy new phone, I could download apps without worrying about how much storage space I had left. Naturally I sought art apps.

Some came pre-installed in my flashy-but-ill-fated Note 7, photoshop-esque apps with digital brushes and photo filters. But I wondered if there was an app that would help me practice art skills or help me out of a slump. The answer is, of course!

canvas tutor review note 7
I couldn’t help myself

Ta-Da! An Art App

I’ve actually found surprisingly few of these apps that I like, but one I’ve been using is called Canvas Tutor. It’s touted as an “art trainer” app, was created to help artists practice, and has a fun approach to keeping you motivated.

canvas tutor review app icon

The main component of the app is a virtual girl who grows as you do more art. Completing art “quests” regularly will cause the girl to grow up, while not doing any practice for days will make her revert back to a younger self. Oh no!

 

How It Works

Canvas Tutor incorporates both the carrot and the stick. Continuing to keep up with assignments is like a gradual reveal (you get to see the virtual character grow), while you’re punished for skipping or forgetting  assignments (Canvas Tutor takes away the progress you’ve made).

The creator’s intent was to be true to life. If you don’t exercise a skill you’ll gradually begin to forget it. Not everything is like riding a bike.

The quests are intended to give you practice in 5 areas: anatomy, inking, coloring, backgrounds, and character design.

Quests range from simple practice like doing gesture drawings of five figures or drawing hands and feet, to painting a background or designing your own character.

 

Canvas Tutor’s creator is an illustrator and character designer who draws in an anime/manga style, so the art assignments can reflect that. So some assignments may not be as relevant, depending on the type of art you do. Drawing a chibi or gjinka, for example.

canvas tutor review chibi

One nice feature of the Canvas Tutor app is that you can go back and complete quests that you’ve missed. The point isn’t to be that strict. Well except in one case. One of the repeating quests  is the “chara-slot.” It’s the only Canvas Tutor quest that you can’t go back to complete on another day.

Chara-slot is essentially a character slot machine that gives you three random words – typically two nouns and an adjective.

canvas tutor review chara slot

 

The strangest one I’ve seen is one that my sister got: Holy-Teen-Witch.

 

Review Snapshot

Canvas Tutor Pros:

  • It’s fun to see how the girl grows up, but once she grows to “final form,” there’s no surprise. I wish there was a little more or that she grew all the way to an old woman.
  • It’s fun to see what assignment you’ll get each day.
  • There are “achievements” you can hit for extra motivation.

Canvas Tutor Cons:

  • Recently there have been annoying ads that easy to click on accident (which is no accident I’m sure).
  • The tutorial/instruction images save to your phone automatically, so I regularly have to delete them from my phone.

Overall I like Canvas Tutor, but it’s lost some of the excitement it had for me in the beginning. I’d recommend trying the app with a friend if you can. Completing the Canvas Tutor quests with someone else can keep you motivated longer and add competition. Since each user receives a random quest every day (except Chara-slot Saturdays), it’s also fun to compare quests with an art buddy.

You can check out the Canvas Tutor app on the developer’s website or on Google Play.

Why Scratchboard is My Favorite Type of Art

Posted on by Monica

Why Scratchboard is My Favorite Type of Art

I talked briefly about scratchboard in my last post. But I held back my full enthusiasm for the medium when I realized I had more than enough to talk about for a full post. So if you have no idea what scratchboard is, perfect! This post is for you. But if you already have a good understanding of scratchboard, even better. I’m here to indoctrinate you.

What is Scratchboard?

First scratchboard piece
“Reach Out,” my first scratchboard piece

Scratchboard, other than one of my favorite media, is simply a board (or paper) coated with black ink. Using a blade or other sufficiently sharp tool, you create an image by scraping away the black surface to reveal the white underneath. It’s drawing in reverse, penciling in lights instead of darks.

I started working with scratchboard in high school, thanks to a super brief unit in one drawing class. Since then, I was lucky to have teachers who encouraged me to continue working in this uncommon medium, sneaking me new tools and gifting me a real scratchboard (as opposed to the cheaper paper we used in class).

My first scratchboard piece was overdone, meaning I’d scratched too hard into the surface and cut up the layer underneath. It’s not too obvious unless you know what you’re looking for; the white areas are greyer and more textured than they should be. I also took to the piece as I would a pen illustration, using bold white outlines that don’t make full use of scratchboard’s potential. But even after all this time, I do still appreciate the waves and flames in this piece.

After my first experience with the medium, I began finding ways to incorporate scratchboard into my art assignments and even when I couldn’t, continued to experiment at home. In the process, I spent lots of time practicing values, carefully considering light sources, and discovering how much detail this medium could really capture. Hint: far more than any of the pieces in this post.

But not everyone likes scratchboard and it does have a learning curve. Here’s the best and the worst of scratchboard:

Scratchboard Pros

Scratchboard allows for SO. MUCH. DETAIL. I’ve already linked to Heather Lara‘s art – now twice – because it’s amazing. This artist is pretty swell too, producing realistic work in the same vein, but mostly sticking to black and white. If you want as much detail as possible, this might be the medium for you.

Scratchboard also seems to be particularly conducive to drawing fur, although this is just my opinion. I’ve found that human skin requires smoother and more skillful line work in order to keep a face from looking like a checkerboard. You tell me which looks easier:

Maybe I’m just more confident with fur.

Working in scratchboard requires you to really focus on light, shadow and precision. I find it to be a fun and exciting challenge, something to break up the monotony of only paint or pencil. But describing scratchboard as a “break” from drawing and painting might be deceptive because it certainly isn’t easy.

Scratchboard Cons

Scratchboard is unforgiving and this was the biggest challenge I had to overcome. Any mistake you make is engraved on the page in bright white. Everyone can see it. No erasing. No turning back.

Not being able to erase also makes planning your composition more difficult.You can’t just sketch out your idea and erase the stray lines later. For someone like me, whose drawing style is extremely sketchy (haha?), scratchboard felt completely unnatural at first.

But this doesn’t mean you have to completely wing it. Many artists sketch on a separate piece of paper, place it over their scratchboard, then draw over their sketch again with pen. Doing so creates a slight mark in the scratchboard – enough to give you a very precise guide, though one that’s hard to see. You can also sketch directly onto your scratchboard with pencil, as long as you keep it very light. Unfortunately, if you need to erase those pencil lines later, just know that your eraser can leave faint marks on the black surface.

However if you’ve made a mistake, not all is lost! It is possible to cover up your mistake with black ink (although it won’t look completely untarnished).

scratchboard Cinnamon Window portrait

So not being able to erase or sketch directly onto the surface is a pretty big con. But one more point I’ll mention is that scratchboard is time-consuming, perhaps even more so since mistakes are so costly. Almost all of my scratchboard pieces are very small, with the moon and raven pieces being the largest at 14″ x 11″. But I pick up my X-Acto knife anyway and find that the satisfaction of completing a piece is well worth the effort.

How to Get Started

Despite the challenges that come with scratchboard, I took an immediate liking to it. Maybe this was because of my perfectionist, hyper detail-oriented personality. But no matter your personality, I’d absolutely encourage you to try it once. If you’re interested, here’s what you’ll need:

Sketching Materials

You can use any pencil to very lightly sketch your idea on the scratchboard before sketching – just be careful. You can also use tracing paper, place it over your scratchboard and use a pen of your choice to draw over your lines and leave a light imprint on your scratchboard.

It’s also not a bad idea to get some black construction paper and white colored pencils to practice and flesh out ideas. You likely won’t get the same intensity of white with these practice materials, so in addition to helping you plan, it’ll be all more the exciting to see the difference when you transfer your colored pencil sketch to scratchboard.

Of course, you can always dive in and wing it.

Tools

There are a number of options for scratch tools made specifically for scratchboard. These have a handle and generally a few different options for the tip, providing different textures and shapes.

You can get a school grade scratch art set here (this is actually the same tool I used in high school!). I have a fancier handle now with newer tips, which you’d be able to purchase at any art supplies store.

However my tool of choice now is a simple X-Acto Knife. It’s easy to find, stays sharp longer, and allows me to produce the finest amount of detail I’ll ever need.

You don’t have to limit yourself. I’ve tried paper clips, coins, pins and thumbtacks on scratchboard. A mini scratchboard set I found at Barnes & Noble came with a little wooden stake. Anything that can make a mark is fair game. Once you’ve gotten a feel for how scratchboard works, you can begin to guess what might work as a tool. This part is fun, but of course, you might not get the same control you had with an X-acto knife or scratch tools. Experiment!

Surfaces: Boards and Paper

If you’re just starting out, scratchboard paper is essential. Even if you want to go straight to an actual board, paper is nice to have for practice. Colored pencils on construction paper might be fine for sketching out your idea, but it’ll never give you a feel for the different textures and strokes you’ll be making on scratchboard. This is my go-to paper; it’s a decent quality and isn’t too costly. Most of the time I cut the sheets down to a smaller size, so the pack lasts longer.

As for boards, I use Ampersand, mostly because it’s widely available in the US. There are a good variety of sizes to choose from too. I favor the smaller sizes that come in packs of three. I’ve actually never used any other board, but Dick Blick has a long list of options.

scratchboard Smokey dog portrait

I hope this post has sparked some interest in scratchboard. Contrary to what I’ve shown here, scratchboard isn’t limited to hyper-realism, and I’ve experimented with more abstract compositions as well. So while I doubt I’ll ever stop etching scratchboard miniatures of my dogs, I’m excited to discover where to take my scratchboard next.

scratchboard edge gender
Edge exhibit

5 Ways to Attack Art Block

Posted on by Monica

5 Ways to Attack Art Block

Maybe I’ve already written a lot about art block. But just because I’ve defeated it once doesn’t mean it I won’t struggle with it again. And again. And again. In general though, there are some tricks that have and still do help me get through a slump.

When I’m feeling unmotivated and talentless – because confidence and skill self-esteem are definitely tied to my artistic dry spells – the first thing I try to do is…

1. Draw what’s in front of you.

Yes, this might sound boring. I’ve done more sketches of coffee mugs and pencils than I’d like to admit. But when I’m not feeling creative, I remind myself that drawing from real life is still art. It’s something I can start almost mindlessly, even if internally I’m grumbling about how the subject matter is boring, that there’s nothing interesting in my room or my house or my city. Sometimes though, I’m lucky enough to get caught up in process of creating something. That look of annoyance on my dog’s face. The little Pokemon figurine that brings me nostalgia. The way light and shadow fall on a blanket – how do I best capture that, without worrying that I can’t?

Drawing what’s around me also has the benefit of forcing me to focus on skill. Since there’s nothing compelling about a coffee mug in front of me, I focus on just making it look good. Maybe I try to make it as realistic as possible. Maybe I’m just noticing where the shadows fall today, in this lighting. Maybe I like to imagine that in doing this repetitive exercise, I’m not in a creative block, but just conducting an exploration of light and colors, like Monet and his haystacks.

But if drawing what’s in front of you still seems boring you could…

2. Use new media.

When I’m testing out a new medium, it doesn’t really matter what the subject matter is, I’m just trying to get the feel of for the medium. It can be a good way for me to get lost in art instead of worrying about the quality of what I’m producing. Here’s a quick list of ideas; I’ll go into some of them in more detail.

paint

  • Digital
  • Real pen and ink
  • Scratchboard
  • Paint (watercolor, oil, acrylic, tempura, coffee)
  • Colored pencil
  • Pastels
  • Charcoal
  • Collage

Digital

For me, the apex of trying something new would be going digital. I’m way out of my element with digital painting, but it’s fun and easy to do at any time. No special supplies needed. So one day while fiddling around on my phone, I started to paint – you guessed it – a coffee mug. It held my interest because there were so many brushes and a cool color-mixing tool to try out.

Never mind that the sample paintings in the app were like the one on the left, while mine was the one on the right:

Dip (or Nib) Pen and Ink

Nowadays people use cartridge-filled pens; they’re easier, offer more control, and don’t require constantly having to dip a pen into an ink pot. Dip pens can be fickle, sometimes leave blotches, and don’t always create the line you want. But here’s a secret: in the world of fine art, dip pens are seen as more legitimate. I’m not going to argue for or against that point, but there’s something fun about using an old-fashioned dip pen. So why not try it and feel more legit too?

Well, you may or may not feel more legit on your first attempt, but you still might feel instant gratification from trying something cool and new.

Scratchboard

Most people aren’t familiar with scratchboard, or they think of that cutesy craft they did as a kid where you scratch away the surface of coated paper to reveal a rainbow or some silliness underneath. Yeah yeah. I guess that’s scratchboard. But there are some seriously amazing professional artists using scratchboard too. Heather Lara, for example, whose detailed work contains an incredible level of realism.Or Keely Dolan, who creates riveting fantasy and mythology-inspired illustrations.

Scratchboard does take a long time, and it’s tricky since you have to think about lighting in reverse, but it’s so much fun. At the very least, it’s a great way to focus on detail and value.

It might be a little harder to find scratchboard or scratchboard paper, but you can also make your own by coating some stiff paper with ink. There are scratch tools intended for scratchboard – they look like dip pens and have a variety of different nibs – but you can also use an exacto knife or experiment with other objects, like paper clips or spare change.

Paint

There are so many kinds of paint: watercolor, oil, acrylic, tempera. Even if you’re an artist by trade, I’m willing to bet there’s some type of paint out there that you haven’t mastered. Why not try a new one?

Watercolor is the most accessible, with cheap sets available almost everywhere. The materials are as basic as you can get – just add water. However it’s often been called the most difficult type of paint to master, leaving you plenty of room for improvement.

And what about non-traditional paints?

Coffee seems to be gaining popularity, and for years I’ve been following an artist who creates art O Ka Fee (with coffee).

3. Be messy.

This is where my own biases come into play. My art tends to be very detailed and tightly-controlled. Loose, abstract art is the bane of my existence. Okay not really. I just really struggle creating it. So for me, it helps to try letting loose because it’s so opposite to what I’m usually doing.

Maybe you’re already a loose kind of artist, and in that case, I don’t know if being strict and detailed would be helpful or frustrating…but when you’re stuck, anything’s worth a try.

Another component to being messy though, is to not worry about how your art turns out. Create simply for the purpose of creating (or if you must, practicing). Give yourself space to do art that is private, free from the expectations and judgments of others.

4. Try different times of day.

By accident, I discovered that I really like doing art in the morning. It’s a nice way to start the day before I become sucked into the world of screens and blue light and headaches. But other days, I’ve really gotten sucked into an art piece at night, working for hours without realizing how much time has gone by.

What about you? Maybe you’ve been trying to work in the afternoon, but you find that actually your art brain is really awake in the morning. Or maybe it depends on the day. I’m still experimenting to find that sweet spot.

5. Find other artists.

Human beings are social creatures, and artists, despite popular belief, are the same. Finding other artists around you has a whole host of benefits, from forcing you to feel accountable to providing mutual encouragement and inspiration.

If I were given this tip though, I can easily imagine myself groaning and grumbling. You mean I have to go out and find people? How am I supposed to just find an art community? But the great thing about living in 2016 is that finding a community as simple as logging onto Tumblr. If you engage and put yourself out there, others will respond.

I still think real life interaction is important, but being in touch with other artists from the comfort of your couch is pretty swell too. And at the very least, well, you can browse through plenty of pretty art and get inspired.

Bonus: Don’t be too hard on yourself.

Some of these tips might not work as well for you. I get the feeling that over time what works for me will change and evolve as well. But dry spells will inevitably be part of any creative’s life.

Creating art is an amazing work, but it also involves an amazing amount of hard work. It’s not only about skill. I only heard this idea put into words recently, in a quote from Joan Erikson, quoted in Composing a Life by Mary Catherine Bateson:

“You have to have a certain basic trust that you can do this – you are going to do this. You have to have will, you have to have imagination enough and fancy enough to do it your way, to make it unique. You have to have confidence, identity, and so on.”

Artist, your work takes more than anyone other than you can know. But what I do know is that the world needs your creativity.

Coffee Sleeves: An Art Endeavor

Posted on by Monica

Coffee Sleeves: An Art Endeavor

While it may have taken me some time to get into the routine of doing art while in Korea, I finished my time there with a frantic flurry of art, as I scrambled to finish before yet another self-imposed deadline. This last art piece was my coffee sleeve project.

Coffee Sleeve Project

pieces-of-a-grant-year_close-up

This piece, titled “Pieces of a Grant Year,” was displayed at Fulbright Korea’s Final Dinner, the last time all grantees gather before the grant year ends. I’d been fumbling with how I would display the piece – consisting of 55 cardboard coffee sleeves – but I arrived to find I’d been granted a table all to myself, where I laid out the pieces and displayed an artist statement.

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Artist Statement

“Pieces of a Grant Year” is a collection of moments I experienced in Korea, from the mundane (students sleeping during self-study time) to the touristy (Beomeosa Temple, Busan) to the seemly insignificant but actually very influential (squatty potties).

Why use coffee cup warmers, also known as cup cozies, java jackets or paper zarfs?

Just because? Actually, the materials came before the plan. Thanks to encouragement from our own Hillary Veitch and my frustrated art drive, I began collecting java jackets in January. It wasn’t until many months and paper zarfs later that I decided to draw, paint and paste memories of Korea onto these pieces of cardboard. The concept was broad enough for any number of cup cozies and finding a connection to the material wasn’t too much of stretch.

Cardboard cup warmers are always wrapped snugly around your cafe drink-of-choice, but afterward they’re nothing but trash. Cup warmers are insignificant physical tokens, whereas the memories I wanted to capture were meaningful but intangible. Through “Pieces” I give form to these memories, but only in snippets, the same way one might experience memories.

The final component of this piece is up to you. The memories here are meant to be applicable to the general ETA experience. Our memories of Korea will eventually grow faint, but I’d like to think you could slip a zarf into your jacket pocket, fly back to America, and later look back on that piece of cardboard with some degree of fondness.

So what I’m saying is, if any of these catches your eye, take one because my jacket pockets aren’t big enough for them all.

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This was a strange but fun project that I was excited to have featured on the Infusion website and make a cameo on another Fulbright-affiliated site. But in this post I’ll walk you through my process and highlight a few of my favorites.

 

Inspiration

I might not have done this piece at all if it hadn’t been for a little encouragement from a friend. I was sitting with Hillary at a cafe in Seoul called Zoo Coffee, a cozy second-floor location in Hongdae, cutely decorated with stuffed animals and fairy lights.

I remarked offhandedly that I bet I could do a cool art project with coffee cup sleeves, and Hillary said why not? I took the Zoo Coffee sleeve home after her urging – after all when would I be back at this cafe in Seoul?

Of course I dedicated a coffee cozy to Hillary for her influence, featuring her rapper stage name HillaVanillaThrilla and her brilliant smile.

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Gathering Materials

I don’t know if coffee sleeves in Korea are prettier or there are more cafes, resulting in a greater variety of coffee sleeves. Maybe I just frequented a wider variety of cafes. Regardless, I’d been visually interested in them for a while. Collecting coffee cozies became a lot of fun.

This one was beautiful as is, so I kept my addition small.

I’d see an especially nicely designed sleeve on the street or in the trash and resist the temptation to pick it up. Walking around with my friend Arria, we’d notice people holding cups with standout coffee cozies and we’d squint to see the logo or examine the cafes we passed more carefully in the hopes of adding to my collection. I actually owe Arria credit for many of the coffee cozies I acquired; she’d visit me from Seoul and surprise me with donations, even though I still didn’t know what I’d be doing with these pieces of cardboard.

Some particularly adorable ones from Arria:

I also learned a bit about my cafe beverage consumption habits. I ended up with multiple cozies from GongCha, a bubble tea cafe, who also happened to be doing a collaboration with an artist known as Puuung. I chose to do collage with these pieces:

 

Coming up with Ideas

I collected java jackets for a long time. I started around January or February and was still collecting new cozies in May. But although I had built up an impressive collection, I was still trying to figure out what I was going to do with these coffee sleeves.

I toyed with a lot of ideas. Sculpture isn’t my strong suit, but I was working with a 3D material.  I had to make good use of it. I racked my brain for ways to use the material in a smart and interesting way. I turned down ideas I thought seemed cheesy or like too much a stretch for the material. My sketchbooks accumulated many unhelpful sketches of zarfs. On one page I repeatedly wrote “zarf zarf zarf,” this being my favorite name for them.

Finally I decided on the theme “Pieces of a Grant Year,” with each piece depicting a memory, even a mundane one, that other ETAs could take home – but you’ve already read the artist statement. I aimed to finish in time to display the pieces at Fulbright Korea’s annual Final Dinner in June, the last chance I’d have to catch our entire cohort of ETAs all in one place.

I forced myself to stop collecting and start drawing.

 

The Art-Making Itself

Regretfully, I didn’t use all the zarfs I’d collected. It was more work than I’d anticipated to do a different piece on every single coffee cozy.

This project forced me to both exercise my artist and reflect on my two years in Korea. What were the most significant moments? What would be the most relatable? It required taking a step back from the culture into which I’d been immersed and remembering what was different or had been initially surprising.

And then there was the material. What image would best match a particular coffee sleeve? Which coffee sleeve would be best for a drawing of an octopus in the fish market? Some zarfs were easy to match: my first one was a pen drawing of a cardboard collector’s cart, drawn upon a Starbucks sleeve to juxtapose poverty and a wealthy, international corporation.

starbucks-cardboard

While I’d decided to draw on top of the coffee sleeves, there was still media to consider. I started off with pen and ink, but found the cardboard brown (and some select colors) were perfectly suited for colored pencils. I realized 24 set of colored pencils I’d bought at popcorn was only 5,000 won ($5) for a reason. But the colored pencil zarfs were some of my favorites.

 

Highlights

Colored pencils seemed to lend themselves naturally to food; either that or I simply gravitated toward food as a subject matter. But isn’t food often the thing we remember most about a place?

oyster-in-colored-penciltraditional-feast

Pen and ink was another common medium I used, useful for zarfs with a plastic-like coating. The pieces below feature Korean skincare products (all owned by me incidentally),  Gamcheon village, and students sleeping during their “self study” time.

As for the coffee cozies with black backgrounds, I had to pick up a white pen and marker. Featured are Jungwon University, where our orientation was held, and a roll of kimbap.

 

In Memory…

During this time though, the Orlando shooting at Pulse took place, leaving 49 victims. Horrific details first leaked, then poured in over social media. The event shook me, especially having just attended Seoul’s Pride Fest the previous weekend.

I was stuck with that helplessness felt after a major tragedy, coupled with the desire to create something just to process or give voice to these terrible emotions. But I couldn’t. I stopped creating instead.

I gave up trying to create something beautiful to honor the dead and instead left these, two largely unnoticed coffee sleeves covered with the names of victims. I shook when I realized it took two to fit in 49 names.

Art Abroad 2: Art Block Broken!

Posted on by Monica

Art Abroad 2: Art Block Broken!

So my first year in Korea wasn’t very artistically productive. It was more of an art drought.

But my second year, I resolved, would be different! And generally it was, although my first few months started off not unlike my previous year. I’d recommitted to doing art, but like my first year in Korea, I was at a new school with a new homestay in a new city, and life was distracting.

Mostly, I was concerned about making a good impression on my new coworkers and students. The new city that didn’t cause me any concern though…because I was placed in BUSAN!

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This was actually a dream come true. And yes, I know this is supposed to be about art, but you’ll have to bear with me while I rave about Busan first. So…

Dream. Come. True.

I’d wanted to be placed in Busan from the very beginning. Well, that’s not entirely true. At first I arrived in South Korea with no expectations, knowing that I wouldn’t get to choose my placement and it was pointless to set my heart on any particular place. That mindset didn’t last long. My peers had preferences all right, and were determined to get them. The more we talked about their preferences, the more I thought about mine, and the more appealing Busan became to me.

Why Busan?

I chose to teach English in Korea (not Japan or Malaysia or Taiwan) in part to meet my extended family. All of my mom’s family still lives in Korea, but I’d never been able to see them. And most of them lived in Busan, including my grandparents. Why wouldn’t I want to go to Busan? It was also my mom’s hometown and undoubtedly full of memories.

Plus, Busan was pretty popular. It’s the second largest city in Korea,meaning it has nearly all the conveniences of Seoul (Costco, western style restaurants), without the crowds and pollution (I’m biased – can you tell?). Busan is also a coastal city with seven beaches, multiple famous fish markets and general awesomeness.

So this year I was doing a lot of exploring and not a lot of art. But the thing about living in a beautiful place is that you can’t help but get inspired at some point. Remember when I turned down a coworker‘s suggestion to do landscape art? Well, that was before the ocean happened to me.

 

“I just wanna draw the ocean all day.”

Being from Colorado, I’ve always preferred mountains. This may have been influenced by the fact that I’d only been to the beach once in my life. Busan opened my eyes. Being constantly surrounded by the ocean – really though, my school was on an island – all I wanted to do was sit by the sea. My daily commute took me right along the shore, so I’d rush onto the bus everyday, hoping to get a seat on the right side of the bus, where I’d have a front row view. Sometimes I wished I didn’t have to get off and go to school.

I felt like I could just sit and watch the ocean for hours. I began to think “I just wanna draw the ocean all day.” So much for not doing landscapes.

But it was still hard to find time for art. A new school meant new students, new coworkers and new expectations, both in the office and the classroom. None of it was bad; it just took a lot of energy as I learned what worked and what didn’t. I never felt like going through the effort of pulling out paints and brushes, and then finding a spot where I wouldn’t be disturbed.

No art was created. Yet.

 

Ta-Da! Technology

I took the bus a lot in Busan which, unlike the subway, involves a lot of wait time. One day, during an especially long wait, I started playing around with a memo app on my phone, just as a way to practice color.

And hey, it was actually kind of fun. Even if my first effort was horrendously ugly.

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Lanterns hung for Buddha’s birthday

I did another one of these mini digital paintings of the view from my office, this time not at the mercy of the bus’s arrival. It wasn’t so bad, although when I showed a coworker I made many excuses about how it was rough because I’d been using my finger to draw, but how it still wasn’t too bad right?

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(Hint: Showing your artwork to a non-artist is almost always a confidence booster.)

And from that point on, I was addicted. Bam! Code cracked. Art block busted. Doing art was easy and fun again. I didn’t have to gather any supplies – all I needed was my phone, which never left my side anyway.

I feel silly that it took me this long to start making use of technology in my art.

 

Landscape Takeover

I know what you’re thinking now – or at least, what I was asking myself – didn’t you do any other art? Well yes, yes I did.

Keeping with my anti-landscape theme, I did physical landscape paintings as well. They were really small goodbye gifts to a few people before I left Korea.

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Family

And seeing as my family was a big highlight during my time in Korea, they got a few pages in my sketchbook.

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Avid Reader, pastel, conte, and pen

 

Final Project

Of course I once again had to impose some big project on myself before the year ended. In my first year, I gave myself the task of drawing everyone in the Fulbright Korea program plus our directors – 117 faces in all – and finishing it in time to be published in our literary magazine. In my second year, I hoped to exhibit my final project during Fulbright Korea’s Final Dinner – but if you have no idea what this is, I won’t give it away yet! Here’s spoiler though; it involves lots of these:

coffee-cozies

Art Abroad: The Year of the Art Drought

Posted on by Monica

Art Abroad: The Year of the Art Drought

Okay, so my “I’m back” post was a little premature. I was in still in Korea at the time and once I returned to the US I took my sweet time adjusting. Aka being overwhelmed by grocery store trips, having a crisis about being unemployed, and rereading the Harry Potter series – actually I’m still doing the last two things.

But I’m happy to start blogging regularly again too. Before we delve into my art-during-unemployment adventures, we have a lot of ground to cover. Ground that’s more than 6,000 miles away from here. Ground known as my grant years in SOUTH KOREA!

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Reflecting on the start of my grant gets me all excited and smiley again, because that’s exactly how I felt. I woke up every morning hardly able to believe I was living in South Korea, thrilled and more than ready to go to my job each day.

Ahh, the early stages of culture shock.

But as for my art life, well, my thoughts about it could be summed up as:

Artless in Korea

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Well, not really. But my first year abroad did feel like an art drought. For the first time, I was teaching my own English classes, living in a new country, trying to navigate daily life in a foreign language, and living with a homestay (and trying to get them to like me). (Don’t worry, later on there was mutual liking.) But I really didn’t touch my sketchbook for the first few months.

My artless months came in part from my stubbornness.

 

I Don’t Want to Draw Landscapes!

I’d taken a figure drawing class shortly before graduating college and fallen in love with it. So in Korea I really wanted to find figure drawing classes. Preferably using nude models. But how in the world would I find such a class, let alone ask around in a non-creepy way? A coteacher at my school shared my reservations and recommended I paint Korea’s beautiful landscapes instead. My response was “Oh yeah, maybe!” (Nah.) So for a while the only art I did were lesson-relevant doodles on the board to amuse my students.

But then there were two ways I ended my art drought, one intentional, the other set off by current events.

 

Angry Art

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I am no stranger to angry art. Just take a look at some of my pieces. In times of great distress and helplessness, I turn to express my emotions through art. This time what spurred my bout of angry art was the non-indictment in the case of Michael Brown.

While I knew of the case, I’d hadn’t been following closely until a few days before the trial. Keeping up on social media, I was tense on the edge of my seat…and felt my stomach drop as the decision came out, while I was in the office, just before the school day ended. But I’ve written a whole piece just on that decision and my response – no doubt another form of catharsis for me.

Before the writing, however, came the drawing. Given that I’d been following the case on social media, I sought out a medium suitable to post – memes. I grabbed my favorite pen and produced some blatantly angry pieces.

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Start-Art Strategy

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The other strategy I use to get myself to do art is by seeking out deadlines to impose upon myself. While in college – before I added my art major –  I jumped at opportunities like residence hall art contests and exhibits put on for a cause. In Korea, I found opportunities in the form of Infusion.

Infusion is Fulbright Korea’s literary magazine, where my Michael Brown article was published. If you follow my Korea blog, you’ve probably heard a lot about Infusion, since I wrote about it quite a bit. The magazine also features photos and – somewhat rarely – artwork. So I quenched my art drought by doing art that I hoped to get published. Having a deadline was good for me, but I wasn’t satisfied with most of what I’d done, and it wasn’t accepted either.

But the Gamcheon village drawing to the left was later featured in a “Patterns of Korea” collection online.

 

To finish the year, I imposed another project on myself, which was accepted and published in the spring issue. But let’s be real, it would’ve been pretty sad to go through the effort of drawing 117 faces and not have it be published.

Next time I’ll write about year two in Korea, with an all-new living situation, lots of public transit wait time, using technology wisely, and more art! Read it here!

The Revival of a Blog

Posted on by Monica

The Revival of a Blog

I’m back!

After two years – during which I’ve been teaching English in Korea – I’m back at this blog again. As of this writing, I’m preparing to leave South Korea – finishing up my last few classes, planning a bit more travel around the country, and saying my goodbyes.

I have plenty to say on doing art while abroad, including some pieces I’d like to share too. Those will start trickling in once I’m settled – perhaps it’ll be a good pastime when I find myself up late recovering from jet-lag.

For now I’ll leave with a quote from Chuck Close (partly for you, but mostly for myself):

 

“Sitting around waiting for an idea is the worst thing you can do. All ideas come out of the work itself.”

—The Mysterious Metamorphosis of Chuck Close by Wil S. Hylton