Lessons from Artists

Two weeks ago I had the opportunity to go with the BYU Illustration department to New York. I love New York and was anxious to go back again.
Before we headed to New York we went to Baltimore, New Hampshire, Delaware, and Philadelphia  to visit  different art museums like the National Portrait Gallery in Baltimore, and Brandywine museum in Delaware where N.C Wyeth's artwork is displayed as well as Andrew Wyeth. We also visited the Delaware museum of art where many of Howard Pyle's (father of illustration) work is located.

Me at Brandywine

At the Philadelphia museum of art I got to see Van Gogh's Sunflowers. It was fun to tour the museums with a bunch of other artists. We each contributed our own critiques and observations.

"Sunflower" By VanGogh

While in Connecticut I had the pleasure of meeting Bob McGuiness. He created the old James Bond posters back in the day and helped with the film "The Incredible's." Bob is 86 and works in a small art studio.
 All 16 of us crammed into his small and humble art studio

Bob McGuiness 

and gathered around to hear about his experience as an artist, his advice, and to observe his artwork. Bob said "My art is a reflection of me and no one can take that away from me. It's my best friend."

                 




















Although Bob paints mostly nude/ or partially nude women, he does it in a way that makes them look intelligent-especially when the woman is holding a gun. He respects women.                                         

As we viewed many of his nude figure paintings he asked the girls if we thought he was "weird." We all replied, "No!" and continued to praise him on his artwork. To me Bob is a legend and he can get away with any subject matter.

Other advice Bob gave was...

• If working from photos interpret it and make it your own
• Good artists are intelligent
• Put yourself in your own artwork and have other artists as your company 

The last piece of advice wasn't one he said aloud--it was one he lived. Be humble. Bob has had an extremely successful career and still continues to do what he loves. He continues to look up to other artists such as Andrew Wyeth as someone he still strives to become. As we complemented him on his artwork he honestly believed he wasn't as good as we believed him to be. Often times he said he would turn in a piece of art and didn't feel good about it but looking back he said "it wasn't so bad."

While on my trip I had the privilege of meeting other artists such as:

 Paul Zelinsky who created the beautiful art of "Repunzel" that won the Caldecott award in 1998. The images were even better in real life!

Brett Helquist. The creator of the book covers "A Series of Unfortunate Events."

He advised that we should continue to go to our teachers for help and strive to improve and to push ourselves. His artwork was beautifully rendered.

Sam Weber. A freelance and editorial artist as well as a scifi/fantasy book cover artist. 

One thing I really liked about visiting Sam was his studio; he shares a studio with four other artists in an old pencil factory in Brooklyn. I swear there was still a smell of lingering pencils. 

Sam creates the most amazing watercolors and his detail, creativity and craftsmanship are incredible.

                             

Sam's Advice was:

• Show your work to as many people as possible
• Promote yourself online
• Set a schedule when starting off as a freelance artist so you do not waste time
• Find people you want to work with
• Uncertainty is a good thing
• (and my favorite) you don't need an agent

 Peter De Seve. The man who created the character "scrat" from ice age and continues to create character designs for animation studios.

 Peter's artwork is witty, clever and whimsical; similar to his personality.  I enjoy how each of his pieces narrates a story without any words. 

  

Peter's advice was

• Be willing to try new things and take risks
• Observe
• Use good references (his studio is surrounded by a library of books)

As I visited each artist I noticed their was a common answer when they were asked the question, "how they got started with their career." Most, if not all, said they had a period when they struggled. It's hard to believe that these accomplished artists had a period in their life where they struggled to find work. But because they were willing to take risks and work hard through their struggles they were able to  enjoy the pay off of their hard work. 

There will be times of struggle. I realize this. But at least I know that the ones who work through it end up succeeding in what they love most.

Thanks for reading!

Paper Plane

In one of my illustration classes I was required to create a extremely detailed and well rendered painting of a paper airplane using acrylic. After many painstaking hours I completed it and I am proud to say I have developed the patience and the technique of painting paper. I feel as though I can create anything after tackling this painting. 

Ink Heads

For a warm up for an ink assignment my teacher had us create about 20 heads using different ink techniques. Some turned out better than others but I enjoyed the process of exploring ink and I like the fact that each is unique. Enjoy!

Birdland

In my Illustration class we were required to create a poster based on a song. I chose the song "Birdland" which is named after a jazz club in New York called "Birdland" which was also named after Charlie Parker "the bird" who was a saxophone player.

(picture of Birdland in New York with  a random guy)

I chose this song because Andrew and I went to Birdland while we were in New York and I thought it would be fun to create a piece inspired by jazz music. I was influenced by Jim Flora's art work. He created many jazz album covers in the 1950's so I thought it would be fun to mimic his style. I used acrylic paint and I wanted the colors to be bright and up-beat, just like the song. The color scheme is funky but I think it works.

Want to listen to the song? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=68-6O2mJhMw

Thoughts on creativity and other things...

   I watched a talk by Ken Robinson on “Schools Kill Creativity” and I completely agree with him. Instead of posting artwork this time I thought I’d share what I learned.

Here's a link if you want to watch it as well: http://www.ted.com/talks/ken_robinson_says_schools_kill_creativity.html

 The Process of Struggle and Creativity

 Kids have tremendous talents and we as adults tend to squander them. Kids take chances and are not frightened of being wrong. However, as kids grow up they start to become afraid of being wrong and therefore they kill their creativity and hurt their process of learning. In our education system we have taught kids that mistakes are the worst things you can make.    

 This morning I listened to an NPR report about the learning system in schools. They did an interview on a school in China. The reporter said that he watched as a teacher taught her students how to draw a cube. Many of the students understood it and were doing it correctly, however there was one little boy who was struggling. Instead of picking the best student’s work to show the class as an example, the teacher took the student who was struggling and had him rework the cube in front of the class. The teacher would ask the class if the student did it right and if he didn’t he had to continue to rework it until it was correct. Eventually after much struggle the boy drew the cube correctly and the class broke into cheers and congratulated their fellow student. Now you would think that the boy would be embarrassed, brake into tears and give up (which is probably what I would have done). Instead it made him feel great that he accomplished a difficult task.

  So what is the difference between the Eastern and Western school systems? The Eastern school system uses struggle and mistakes as a tool of learning and they accept and welcome struggle. They understand that struggle and mistakes are part of achieving goals and accomplishments in the end. In our society we become impatient and embarrass those who tend to struggle and make mistakes and then glorify those who accomplish the task perfectly. I know this because I was that kid especially when it came to math.  

 We all must struggle through the learning process in order to learn and accomplish the task at hand. If you haven’t experienced this try creating something.

  In art you must be willing to make many, many mistakes and be critiqued before your piece of art can be successful and completed. In my Illustration class I was working on a portrait of Audrey Hepburn and for whatever reason no matter how many times I reworked it the painting didn’t look right. I even woke up at 1:30am one morning and reworked the painting about 4 times and it still didn’t turn out. Today I am still in the process of fixing and perfecting it. So I am I wasting my time making mistakes? No. In fact that’s where I learn. My mistakes build my technique and help me become a better artist. After Thomas Edison failed 2,000 times to make the first light bulb he said, "I didn't fail; I found out 2,000 ways how not to make a light bulb.” Mistakes make us into better people once we learn and grow from them.

 Art in our Education System and in Society

 According to Ken Robinson there is a hierarchy in our education system. Math and science seem to be at the top of the list and the arts and humanities tend to be towards the bottom. School systems tend to focus on one side of the brain and don’t encourage creativity this way. In fact it kills creativity and as a result the arts in public schools are depreciating.

 As an art major I completely see this. Often time’s people who are majoring in business, the medical or science fields are more admired and considered accomplished. These majors tend to be more popular and respected due to the security of their future job and paycheck. This may be, but what about those who are majoring in the arts? Why is it that some think that those who are majoring in the arts do not have a secure nor successful future? It’s because many believe that jobs in the art field are either hard to come by or are not paid well.

  Often times when people find out what I am majoring in they will ask, “what are you going to do with that?” It’s a logical question due to the fact that the arts don’t have a specific job field, unlike other majors, such as accounting, who do have a specific job field. But when asked the question “what are you going to do with that?” sometimes it sounds like, “How are you going to make a living doing that?” It seems as though some people doubt your ability to find work and make a living in a competitive field.

 We as a society have developed this mindset that if you are not making a certain amount with your job then you are not successful. We have made our paycheck and image as a sign of how successful we are. This mindset has existed since the colonial era. If you don’t believe me look at early American art.

" Americans were completely focused on class, wealth and reputation. In paintings people were represented in their finest clothing and even had custom made furniture just for their portrait sittings. People used objects in their portraits to represent their class, reputation, wealth and the things they have accomplished. The successful American image was important to them. Today this American mindset of wealth and class still hasn’t changed in some ways.

 In conclusion I am not trying to disrespect people who want a large paycheck, who are majoring in business or the medical field, or who just want security for their future. I am only pointing out the facts about our society and how money has become our priority, and as a result the arts and jobs in the art field are becoming less admired.

Thanks for taking the time to read.
-Tessa

 

  

 

                                                                         

                                     

 

(art works: top- "General George Washington before Princeton" by Charles Peals. Bottom-"Mrs. Thomas Boylston" by John Singelton Copley)

 

Little Bo Peep Has Lost Her Sheep....

It's been a while since I've updated the blog, but it's due to the many midterms and art projects I've had. For this project we were required to create a nursery rhyme set in a different time period using only ink. I did Little Bo Peep and it's set in the Middle East. I really enjoyed the style of flat, silhouette shapes. I thought it turned out really well and it inspired me to continue to explore the medium of ink. Enjoy!

(sorry if it's a little crooked, my crop wasn't working very well)

B is for...

For my illustration class we were required to pick a letter from the alphabet and create a graphite drawing using at least three objects that started with the letter. I did the letter B. If you couldn't tell I used bubbles, bath, beard, and beer. It was fun creating this piece and it made me think how I can incorporate this fun stye into more of my art. We decided to name the old guy Gump.