What are some of its most important aspects? Max Kostenko: The most important thing is a basic idea, I guess—a plan. If you have one, you can start drawing. Sometimes I get in my head a general sense of the result, and so I begin with the big shapes, placing them in a composition. At the end, I complete the final details. Pino Lamanna: I always have pen and paper by my side, even in my bedroom. You never know when ideas will pop in your mind, and you better save before you forget.
Brainstorming and sketching are crucial for me. When working for clients, research is very important. Therefore, I always ask clients to fill out my design questionnaire.
Another important aspect of my creative process is patience. However, before publishing, I always force myself to wait till the next day. Question: Have you ever gotten into traditional art? If so, tell us something about that experience. But since childhood, I have liked drawing and thinking of stories. After school, I tried to enter the Automotive Design College but was rejected… even having passed the drawing exams marvellously well. I can remember only a single character from these days: Super-Frog.
Later, I got some experience with graffiti and street art. Never made it to the All City Kings, though. Question: How would you define your relationship to traditional art? Who is your favourite artist? I am surprised every time by the talent of classical artists. Standing out from the crowd is not easy, which is why self-promotion is essential. I queried Bob Flynn , Alex Dukal , Jayme McGowan , Chris Piascik and Irma Gruenholz for their thoughts on the art of self-promotion; on how to spread ideas, concepts and a deeper vision of their work; and on the impact of this kind of marketing.
Bob Flynn is a cartoonist who is interested in illustration, comics and animation. His work has appeared in publications such as Nickelodeon Magazine and Improper Bostonian. Alex Dukal is an illustrator who was born and raised in Patagonia, Argentina.
From a very young age, Alex has published comics and illustrations in the legendary Fierro magazine. Back in his home town, he dedicated some years to painting and teaching illustration and comics.
After working for some time mostly in Web design, Alex decided to get back into illustration. She works with cut paper. Question: Do you have a portfolio website? And which social networks are you currently on? And I find I get less traffic there compared to, say, my blog , which is infinitely easier to add to.
A portfolio website is more of a structured presentation, which is great for art directors and people looking to make a professional assessment of your work. You get little to no interaction with the art community except for a friendly email or two a month.
A blog is dynamic and opens that dialogue. I now think of my website as a hub to help direct people where they need to go. Is being on all of them worth it? A different audience traffics each social space with some overlap , so the way to reach the most people is to be everywhere. Twitter is currently the best place to track people in the industry and to communicate with your peers—but not everyone is there. Facebook is where most everyone else is, although juggling friends, family and business is admittedly cumbersome.
Flickr is the most straightforward: upload artwork, leave and receive comments. I can track most job leads and connections back to a tweet here or a comment there. Not to mention great friendships. I really like Flickr. I used Orkut when it first came out. I tried Google Buzz and did not like it. I have a Netvibes account that I hardly use. I have an account on Dribble. As you can see, I like to test new tools.
Question: Do you write articles for your own blog or for other blogs and publications? Would you consider either an effective way to get your name out there? Bob Flynn: I regularly post artwork to my blog, and I have written a few Flash drawing tutorials. Simply having an online presence is a good start, but think of the impact you could have by sharing information, ideas and helpful tips. People enjoy reading about process, so document your methodology as you work, and it will make for more interesting posts.
Participation is key: I enjoy reading about what everyone else has to say. Alex Dukal: I started writing little news on my website using Grey Matter, an old tool for blogging.
Then I switched to Textpattern, and finally I separated my portfolio and blog now in Blogger as a matter of convenience. I use it to give readers some insight into my process. I think it definitely gets people more involved in my work. Most of the visitors to my main portfolio website were directed there either from my own blog or from someone who did a post about my work on their blog. I think if you keep your blog up to date and post regularly, it will be an invaluable tool for getting your name out there.
Question: What are the challenges of creating a self-promotion strategy? Have you implemented a self-promotion strategy for yourself? Has it worked? If one is starting from scratch, how long does it take for a strategy to start working in their favor? My approach has been to put myself out there and see what happens. I try to update my blog at least once a week to keep people coming back.
Alex Dukal: Yes, of course, as a freelance artist, self-promotion is absolutely necessary. I think the first challenge is having something to say, something to show, a reliable portfolio to back up that promotion. Personally, I placed my bet on a portfolio that shows my best work, something that showcases the illustrations rather than the website interface and that makes it accesible and simple.
I think a strategy of this kind should be thought of in different phases. Jayme McGowan: My self-promotion strategy is fairly simple and involves social networks, as I mentioned earlier. When I got started creating a presence online, I came up with a plan by looking at the networks that successful artists who I admired were involved in, and I tried to do something similar.
I was fortunate enough to generate interest in my work early on just by posting photos on Flickr and becoming an active member of the Etsy community. Many people who commission work from me say they found me on one of those two websites. But to succeed in promoting yourself on any of these networks, you have to be truly interested in making friends and business contacts.
Question: Do you regularly submit your work to online galleries? Is that useful for gaining credibility and getting feedback on your work? I guess I view my blog as having that purpose. Flickr is a kind of gallery, though.
Alex Dukal: Not at all to both questions. Ten years ago, if someone invited you to show some of your work in an online gallery, it was cute, flattering. Today, I think we have to be careful, because the selection criteria is often not that great, and one must pay attention to those details as well.
If you display your work in the wrong place, it could have a negative result. In principle, credibility should come from the work itself.
Jayme McGowan: I have a profile on Illustration Mundo, which is a great website that functions mainly as a directory of illustrators, not a gallery per se. I can maintain only so many Web pages myself, so I try to limit them to the ones I get the most benefit from, those where I believe art directors and buyers might find me. Chris Piascik is a freelance designer and illustrator who is active in the design community.
With six years of professional experience at award-winning firms in New England, he has had work published in numerous books and publications, including the Logo Lounge series, Typography Essentials and Lettering: Beyond Computer Graphics. He currently posts drawings on his website daily. Irma Gruenholz is a Spanish illustrator who specializes in clay and other materials, allowing her to work in volume.
Her work is used in books, magazines, advertisements and online marketing. Question: Are you an active participant in every social community you have joined? How much time do you set aside to interact in social media? Do you commit to posting new work and personal updates regularly? Chris Piascik: I stay active in quite a few social communities. I think the biggest thing that has helped me with social networking is my daily drawings.
In its creation and reception, as a form of self expression, imaginative engagement, cognitive as well as affective experience, source of individual and social reflection and contemplation, art has always been central to human life. If it is true that the arts capture and express something unique, and aesthetic experience is intrinsically valuable, then we should consider the place for the arts in society and support and value artists for the important contribution they make.
By signing up you agree to our privacy policy. Article Being Human. Art is the purposeful intentions, put into motion to create ones own version of a master piece or what they would consider art. If everything is art and nothing is off limits then rape, infanticide, murder, genocide, torture, slavery…etc are fair game. Aesthetics is the philosophical study of art. If you think about what is enjoyable, or valuable about artworks, and why art is important, then you are considering issues to do with aesthetics.
Art defined. Is it the creation or the reception of the artwork that matters the most? View this post on Instagram. Ethics in your inbox. And further, we simply must be able to say that something is art and another is not.
Just as we must be able to say one thing is simply better than another. Skill certainly helps us differentiate. Did Bach compose with more skill than Madonna? He sure did and is his music better? It sure is. I may be creative as a writer and artist. Nor can I sing like my other sister. How do we honor the man who heals animals in his veterinary clinic? Hooray for the different creativity sparks in all of us! Pingback: The Simple Art of Cooking woodenspoonsandginger.
Is a component of art that it must be shared? It makes me think of Emily Dickinson, who of course famously hid all her poetry away in a box in her room, and never intended to share it. Did it only become art when it was found and shared? I know a lot of other authors write only for themselves too, and never share it with anyone else. However, I can see a good argument either way. What do you think? And the other girl would usually show off her work, on her phone.
It was often very colourful, smooth, and almost looked unrealisticly clean. No spots or crooked lines in the paper, anywhere and the shading looked sharp and neat. That day, the girl presented her work again and I passive-agressively asked her to draw me something, right there. She refused and I asked again. No paintbrushes or pencils involved.
Now, I felt quite bad about this afterwards, because she looked very upset after this. And at the same time, I felt great. Not a drawing-artist, but still an artist. You are commenting using your WordPress. You are commenting using your Google account. You are commenting using your Twitter account. You are commenting using your Facebook account. Notify me of new comments via email. Notify me of new posts via email. Search for:.
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