002: Fountain of Creativity
7 things to boost your Art Journey 🧡⚔️🎨
It must be the First Friday of the month!
Creatives. Let’s roll…
Inspirational Ink: Virgil Finley, one of my favorite Artists. An art tank, he created more than 2600 works of pen & Ink and scratchboard in his career. This doc: The Fantasy Illustration of Virgil Finley is ten minutes of inspiration. Virgil did extensive cross hatching in ink. I’m never 100% sure which direction the hatches should go? Especially around curved surfaces. David Finch’s workshop demystifies the art: How To Cross Hatch For Comics.
On Shapes: What Your Shapes Say About Your Art is a short on powerful shape design. Shapes are a simple way to subconsciously project classic archetypes, or traits, in characters, objects and scenes. Below is another variation on shape play. Fill a page with a handful of random pencil squiggles, then go back and ink them. But this time take them to the next level of completion. Use the shapes to suggest interesting characters. This is a fun way to get going again in a sketchbook.
The goal here is fun, to discover shapes and things you would not normally do. A great way to break your Artist rut, and expand your shape vocabulary. Great or interesting? This interview with fantasy cover Artists, Jesper Ejsing, is inspiring to no end. Look past the bad audio. But trust me it is worth it. His theory is not to work hard to make your art great, but to work hard to making it interesting.
Bonus! Here is a workshop on training to draw from your imagination by Peter Han. Tip of the hat to ProkoTV. Peter Han draws straight from his brain to the pen. It’s amazing to watch as he problem solves in real time – in ink. No pencil as a crutch. It’s fascinating.Time Hack: After a long break due to health reasons, I’m returning to working on forming the Sketchbook habit. I’ve adopted the Seinfeld Strategy. It works. Each month we start by making a calendar in the sketchbook and start drawing. Here is one mine:
January started well. Health issues caused me to fall off the horse. But that is changing. Slowly but surely. Don’t break the chain. Each day we draw for one hour we get to add a red “X” to that day. The key is once you have those days marked - don’t break the chain. Keep it going.
has the 100-day Practice and Suck Less Challenge.
Similarly,Music: Crucial Velocity in 3…2…1…. I’m a huge Clutch fan. Discovered them by accident when I heard Electric Worry from the Left 4 Dead 2 video game soundtrack. Here is lead singer Neil Fallon giving music recommendations: 11 Great Non-Metal Albums for Metalheads. I’ve given most of these a listen, and he speaks truth. PS: The game still holds up. Bang! Bang! Bang!
Gear: Reenergizing my pen game lately. Bought a Noodler’s Flex and took it for a spin. Cleaning pens came up during this week’s Discord Drink & Draw (Located online in Sumrow’s Tavern). We found all you need to know in this gem: cleaning your fountain pens. The bulb syringe for cartridge cleaning is a brilliant idea.
The Dark Side: Halloween is fast approaching. Chet Zar has been doing phenomenally creepy work in the Dark Art space for decades. Here he talks about his journey as an artist. You will find lots of little nuggets here, on being an artist for the long haul. Spoiler: It’s a marathon, not a sprint. His path shows, regardless of genre, we all have the same struggles and triumphs. Goul stuff. Err… Good stuff. His shop has fantastically accurate, articulated, and gruesome human skull replicas. Who knew?
Thanks for reading along. I'm here if you need me. Go crack open that sketchbook!
Godspeed! – Sumrow & Rey
Support Sumrow’s Art Quest
Change how you feel about going to the mailbox
Suggest painting ideas –> vote –> receive Art in the mail monthly
For the cost of a fancy coffee, you can become a Patron of the Arts
Over Four Years of Epic Fantasy Art. 10,000+ Art Postcards shipped worldwide!
This Art happened because of great support from people like you! Membership gets you a voice, a vote, and Art Postcards each month! Everyone wins. <3