(Photo Courtesy of the Australian Council For The Arts/David Congram)

What You Need Vs. What You Want

     You are an artist! Yes, you, the person who looks at hundreds of how-to videos and artists' work with a secret longing, vigorously clicking that 'like' or 'subscribe' button. The very first rebuttal I get from most people when I tell them they are an artist is this:  " Who me? I can't draw a straight line!"  Well guess what, neither can I or anyone else for that matter. No really, it's scientifically impossible to draw a straight line. Let me explain, if I may, a little bit of physics about the earth that you may not have known. The Earth is always moving on it's axis in such a way that causes a line to naturally slant. If you were to start drawing a line and continue to draw that line for 24 hours, it would eventually and very gradually descend towards the center of gravity within the Earth or (south)  No matter where you are or who you are, if you live on Earth your straight line defense is a myth. Now that we have that little bit of truth out of the way and I've shattered your veil of self deception, let's move on.

STEP ONE: Before we start discussing supplies and all of that jargon, we need to dive into your psyche a little bit and get real. Who are you? What are you about? Who or what inspires you? Do you have artistic goals or is this just a fun hobby? In order to establish how to be a better artist, you need to establish  what kind of artist you are. Confused? Allow me to explain. Some photographers prefer to work in strictly neutral (black &white) or monochrome (one color) because they have a very minimalist view of the world. Some people prefer to sing and dance how they feel emotionally. There are many famous examples of artists. Certainly, you have heard of Vincent Van Gogh, with his brilliant swirls of bright textured landscapes, still lifes, and self portraits. Maybe you have heard of Georges-Pierre Seurat  and his famous pointilism paintings done completely in dots? There are so many different artists and so many fundamentally different genres and subgenres that seperate all of these artists. That being said, they all have one single commonality; they see and portray the world around them in such a way that creates empathy with their audience. Start thinking about who your favorite artist and why? Also, what is your favorite art form? I would like you to take a moment and really think about what draws you to a painting, drawing, sculpture, performance, photograph, song, dance, building, movie, design, or whatever.  If you don't know any artists and you have no clue what or who you like, start scouring the internet and find something that you find relatable to you. Whoever and whatever it is, it should stimulate your senses and make you feel something (good or bad).

EXERCISE:  I encourage you to find one artist and artistic genre that resonates with you. Print off the art or save it on your desktop. We will be referencing your choices later on when we begin our drawing exercises. Since we are covering visual arts in this tutorial, we want to shy away from song, dance, and performance art. However, if there is a photograph or poster of the artist's musical, choreography, or performance, we can work with that. Make sure to note the artist and research the style. We'll discuss the different types of art and artistic styles through out this blog. Fear not, we will leave absolutely no stone unturned here! This will be part of your first exercise on your path to artistic self discovery, so take your time with it and enjoy yourself. I'm going to do this exercise with you and I'll even have a video tutorial set up where we can go over this exercise together. I will be showing you some of my favorite artists on the video and discussing them with you as well. I'll be adding a link to my YouTube channel, in addition to all of my blog content, just in case you find yourself lost or you are more of a visual/audio learner (such as myself).