Art Thread

[RVA21]

Nice work @Lumos!

Thanks @Rose White

 

[spinningmytires]

I'm learning to silence my inner critic. I have always been too hard on myself about my drawings and realised it has prevented me from doing this hobby that I used to absolutely love.

I totally agree ... it's a learning experience. And loving it is so important!

This silencing of the inner critic has been a huge challenge for me and other artists - I still struggle with it and likely always will. Because my artwork has been mostly imaginary, with no right nor wrong way of doing it, one might think I’ve been able to escape my inner critic, yet not. At times, I’ll left my artwork unfinished due to my indecisiveness and self-doubt.

I actually need to maintain a supportive working dialog with my inner critic when creating artwork - though at times, the artwork will simply flow out of me quite effortlessly and silently.

One benefit of art therapy might be that it helps one to become consciously aware of how negative and oppressive the inner critic can be. And then, it’s not only present when creating artwork - it’s realizing that it’s there much of the time. Perhaps, my artwork has provided me with an opportunity to confront my self-defeating inner critic head-on. During my early 20’s, I had suffered extreme anxiety every time I tried to paint. Was I then so extremely fearful of my inner critic that I couldn’t paint.

These days, I’m more likely to say to myself, ‘try a different color’ than to say ‘this is wrong’ or ’not good enough’ or ‘no one will like it.’ This ‘no one will like it’ is a devastating assumption, if, an entirely different issue.

My bradycardia depletes my mental energy so quickly. This little 3 inch doodle, I drew yesterday from my imagination in about 2 minutes. Nothing was corrected nor was it considers finished. Here the end product isn’t always what’s so important - rather it’s in the process of ‘doing it’ that’s significant.

 

[Teasel]

Doodle faces, using simple sketch app on android. Love doing these.

 

[Midnightmoon]

Trying to calm a busy busy brain

 

[Dynamic]

Lovely @Midnightmoon !

 

[Dark.Green.Feathers]

I want to start with charcoal, does anyone know about using charcoal and have tips to share? I like it but I never knew how to use it properly

 

[OceanSpray]

I want to start with charcoal, does anyone know about using charcoal and have tips to share? I like it but I never knew how to use it properly

Charcoal is soooo calming to work with. I don’t have tips per se other than just being okay with getting messy, use your fingers to smudge, and get lost in it. Forget perfection, you can worry about that later. The erasers they have for charcoal work extremely well so don’t be afraid of mistakes.

 

[Friday]

I want to start with charcoal, does anyone know about using charcoal and have tips to share? I like it but I never knew how to use it properly

1. Only draw the shadows, dark parts, NOT the feature or shape or image. Those magically appear AFTER the shadows are darked in.

It can take a minute to STOP seeing the shape itself, and only see the pieces that make the shape. Some people find drawing upside down to assist with that. I found it made things worse. But I've got a weird brain. It's easier for me to dissociate the familiar than the unfamiliar.

2. My life became MUCH happier once someone handed me chalk.

3. Don't use white paper. White paper is great for ink, but charcoal & chalk get sooooo much more depth from mid toned paper. Grey. Sienna. Rose. Sky. For the "obvious" reason that the paper BECOMES the bridge. Highlight. Mid tone. Lowlight.

 

[spinningmytires]

I would start with soft vine charcoal sticks. These sticks are easy to erase with a soft cotton rag or kneaded eraser. A soft wooden 2B charcoal pencil will provide fine lines, if desired. Yet, fine details are difficult to achieve with charcoal so, don’t frustrate yourself. This media has its own limitations.

Compressed charcoal pencils are very black and good for small dark details, yet, difficult to use for blending, shading and erasing.

White charcoal pencil isn’t charcoal at all but rather white chalk. White chalk must be applied very carefully. It’s far better to simply use the white of the paper to represent the white areas in the drawing.

Almost any drawing paper will work. However, do avoid applying charcoal over top of a graphite drawing, as charcoal simply won’t adhere to graphite.

You might want to spray your finished drawings with a spray fixative to minimize smudging. For decades I’ve been sprayed some of my charcoal sketches with hair spray without any problems. You might experiment with combining mixed-media and color. And most importantly, allow yourself to have fun!

 

[Teasel]

It's a heck of a lot easier to draw on paper than a slick phone.

More fun with faces, some copied or inspired by Margo in Margate

 

[Midnightmoon]

I've been playing with the idea of anti perfection watercolour, found via an artist online whose style I love and shes started doing online tutorials. First go today, I like the 'sod it' attitude to all the normal rules.

 

[OceanSpray]

I've been playing with the idea of anti perfection watercolour, found via an artist online whose style I love and shes started doing online tutorials. First go today, I like the 'sod it' attitude to all the normal rules. View attachment 64663

This is incredibly gorgeous!