Well, finally getting to posting here again. The last two weeks have be hectic and I had been unable to post here with trying to keep up with my challenge. Hence doing a mass post of the second half of my 30 Day Sketchbook Challenge. Also starting back up my daily doodle, though will be posting them here in a weekly update which will start this Friday.
Day 15-Favorite Video Game Character
Day 16-Something to represent favorite song
Day 17-Favorite Holiday
Day 18-A couple
Day 19-Something you fear
Day 20-A comic
Day 21-Something You Hate
Day 22-Favorite Season
Day 23-Something you love
Day 24-Something to represent favorite country
Day 25-Something from folklore
Day 26-Favorite Sweet
Day 27-Favorite Scene from a Movie
Day 28-Draw a room
Day 29-Favorite Weather
Day 30-Tell your readers something, which for me is "Thank you!"
Howdy! Did not get onto Blogger yesterday, so slight catch up. Day 13 was doing a group picture which I did of some slimes from an RPG. Day 14 was to do your favorite book character, so did Shiroe from the light novel series Log Horizon... But, I have also started Inktober and doing a bit of a project with my images. The first one if the characters of the first project, which the project is called Witch.
Howdy! Day 11 of the challenge. Prompt is favorite food, which I did of the Pizza Sub from Subway. Which is no longer on the menu there. Thankfully now it is easy to get the big slices of pepperoni, so I can revive it from the dead.
Howdy! Ten days in a row and 1/3 the way done for the challenge. But, still got a ways to go and going to be taking it up a notch in 3 days with also adding Inktober drawings to my posting schedule here. Today's prompt is to draw something you cannot live without. For me, it's my work in progress Artist/writer's Survival Bag. Has all my supplies for me to write and draw on the go so I can work anywhere. Zombie apocalypse rations are optional.
Howdy! Prompt for today is draw your favorite cartoon character... And this took me a while to figure out who to draw. So I settled on Sora and Shiro from No Game No Life. I also did a time lapse video of this sketch. Still working out a proper set up to record my drawings. Partly because it is helpful to see mistakes. You can see the video through this link.
Howdy! Due to a combination of internet issues and such, I ended up not able to post my last two doodles here on my blog, so rolling them into the post for Day 8. Also, setting something up soon which I will announce in a separate post.
Day 6-Draw Something You Never Drew... Which I drew a hermit shell. Never drew a shell before, oddly enough.
Day 7- Draw a family member or family... Did my two Angora bunnies as my father left before I could draw him and could not find a photo of him to draw from(where did his pictures go?).
Day 8-Favorite Color... I combined with a shape challenge, where you include the determined shape into the image you make. It was pumpkin and orange is one of my three favorite colors.
Howdy! Now on day 5 of the challenge. Draw your favorite attire. So, drew my favorite ninja T-shirt, cargo pants, sandals, and my messenger bag full of drawing and writing goodies. Wish I had the Shiroe glasses like the ones I drew. I would be in heaven.
Howdy! Now onto day, which is to draw a friend. I chose to draw one of my cat, Cowboy. I have weird names for my cats, though need to work on drawing cats. Next prompt will be an fun one.
Howdy! It's day 2 of my attempt of the challenge. The prompt was draw someone you love. So, I drew my twin sister. She is working to be a nurse, though loves role playing games including D&D. Well, next one will be fun. Let's see if two of my friends are photogenic today.
Howdy! I am going to try working on post on my blog more often. Hence, I decided with starting the 30 Day Sketchbook Challenge and trying to get a daily doodle habit, I will try to post a doodle on my blog everyday. Might also post other things like works in progress and finished pieces here as well. So, here's the drawing for the first challenge: drawing yourself or your persona.
Howdy, everyone. Man, I haven't done a post in a while here, but it was a rough period I needed to get through and it seems now things are calming down a bit(and hope I did not just jinx that). So, what have I been doing the past two months? Writing a lot, but due to the last few weeks of a small panic attack, I been forced to focus on my fanfiction while moving it from the site I usually post on to another site. However, it is helping me realize what I should be focusing on my personal project once I get it off the back burner once my writing area calms down a bit... And I really, REALLY need to avoid Wattpad contests as the writing promps are a breeding ground for plot bunnies. At least for me. I have also some of my daily doodle(okay, not so much daily) project I been trying to keep up in this post for you all to enjoy.
However, the biggest thing in the last two months is I been trying to get part-time or full time work to help cover my student loans and invest back into the career I want. Finally...Well, sort of gotten work as I am working with a temp agency. Not steady income, but it works for me as my expenses are quite low for the time and give me the time I need to also focus on my work as an artist and writer. But, due to finally getting money of my own, I did a little spending spree with my first paycheck I gotten in a long time... No, I did not forget my expenses and in fact, have enough in my back account to cover it for this month.
So, what did I buy? One thing I bought is actually a package of anatomy resources and drawing anatomy ebook from Jazza of the Draw with Jazza Youtube channel. Now, I am good with anatomy, but my issue comes from I have issues drawing humans from references, hence this will help me out as I also work on drawing humans stylized as well. I can draw humans realistically or very cartoony, but have issues getting that middle you see with caricatures. Hence I would love to improve on that issue. Here's the link to Jazza's video where he explains his book and package with links to his products. Draw With Jazza -Easy Anatomy
The other thing and what I am really excited about is I have finally applied for Chris Oatley's Magic Box. It's an online academy for digital painting taught by Chris Oatley, a Disney artist who quit his job to teach others. The course also is helpful with learning to paint with using computer programs, but can also be applied to traditional painting and drawing. I just managed to get on, so will be seeing how the helps me out. It will at least help me build up my portfolio up at the very least.
However, these two purchases is not the only thing I am doing to try and improve on my art skills. Even though I graduated from college, the drawing professor from the college I went to invited me back to draw in his figure drawing classes. I am taking up that offer and, when I have a free Monday or Wednesday, I will be joining his class to draw and keep my drawing skills up. That and get see if I can get some good drawings for my portfolio with now going into illustration. I will be showing my progress with Magic Box and other drawings here with blog posts. Also, I am restarting my illolifeRPG,but starting back out at level 1 since I now that I got an idea where I am going with my career and will be posting updates on my blog for level updates. Well, hope you enjoy this post and Auto out... Dammit, sorry, wrong blog(have one for my fanfiction now). Meant to say, see ya all later.
After that lovely post last month, I need to put something a little more light-hearted. I have a bit of a negative attitude, hence why I try to see things with both a good and bad side to help me deal with it. Net Neutrality issue... No good, hence the negative rant last post.
So, I decided to do a light post this time. Mainly because... The last month has been a bit rough. My studio has been uprooted, two family members ending up in the hospital, and so on. Sigh. It's only half way through the year and I am starting to think I should put it as one of my rougher years. However, not going to go on about it. There's enough gloom in the world as is.
However, due to my current issues, I have been forced to focus on my writings instead of illustration. Mainly due to losing my art programs on my laptop and having to use my desktop for my illustration work... And it's next door due to issues where I sleep and work at next door. So, instead, I started some watercolor experiments which I will be trying to work on later this week and a daily doodle/sketch to keep me in practice while not working on any big illustrations. Here's one of them below.
You can follow my daily doodle/sketch deal on Instagram. I am autonin13 there, though my Instagram on my computer is acting up, hence no link. I am also back on the hunt for a job. Even though trying to work on a webfiction novel and my fanfiction. However, I am starting to get a habit down and hope to make a loose routine of writing and drawing everyday to make sure once I get a job(not expecting it with how things are), I can keep it going. Because, once you get past the bad part of a path, there is always something good to look forward to.
Over the last few months, there has been a lot of buzz about Net Neutrality and the telecom companies trying to get rid of it. I am not going to go into my views and such, mainly due to it would become a full on rant and would not help the situation. Instead, here's a post that Chris Oatley has done that explains it plain and simple way better than I could even do: Our Creative Future is At Risk.
What I am going to say is the possible BIG issues that will come out of losing Net Neutrality for the USA. I am not an expert on business and such. However, I understand how "systems" works from businesses to agriculture to history and many more through what I often research for stories and my own curiosity. This is my opnion, but you could say it's what I have a feeling is USA's worse cast scenrio with how things are right now. It is up for you to decide if you agree with me or not, but I think we all can agree losing Net Neutrality is a very bad thing for the whole world. I know this will effect the rest of the world, but I don't have enough information of what is going on fully with every countries' business models, economic freedom, internet status, and so on and I also want to keep this post short. Hence this mainly focuses on the USA, but with what I give, people in other countries can probably get an idea of what implications they will feel from it like mass immigration and such since this could be the trigger than sends the world back into economic depression, not just the USA as I know for sure we will need to change the Great Depression in later history to the "1st Great Depression" with how the USA is going to begin without this whole mess through personal and research views.
Right now, many job fields are shifting how they do work for the internet we have now which allows even small players to make a living. However, telecom companies have noticed this and want a piece of the pie. Hence wanting to make it possible to do a toll which it forced Netflixs to do hencehow this whole mess got started. They will repeat slowing the internet down for everyone who chooses not to pay the toll and allow people the same current access for those who do now. Television companies do the same thing now for a lot of content and this is why a lot of people are forgot not just cable, but satellite television as well with deciding to either buy the stuff they love in physical form or pay for the streaming or digital versions. Anime and such fans already go for this route with how hard it is to even see our stuff on television here in the US. However, this is where the internet providers and such will end up doing one big mistake.
The main street economic models are and have changed out of what the internet providers still think it is. Instead of focusing on growth like big companies, many small and medium companies are realizing you can't have a healthy system(not just economy) to live in with just growth. Hence they are focusing on sustainably with focusing on great service, staying within their niches, and helping out others in and out of their niches which provides a better, over all ecosystem of business than what's going on in big business. This will survive without the internet since many small towns and more "sustainable focused" mind places all over the world has began setting this up. These guys will be the ones who will probably get us out of this economic mess once the full storm is gone if this happens, but I am not crossing my fingers with my knowledge of history on hand.
The BIG problem comes with losing the internet playing field. This is what is allowing this new economic model to spread across the globe and allowing international collaboration in entrepreneurship and innovation the world currently needs for a whole mess of issues on all levels have made. For artists level, any fans are able to reach to their favorite artists and other content creators through the internet and this allowed fans to also support them where as before this was impossible and often big business and agents took most of the money that would never reach the content creators. With this new system, Patreon.com would probably not as well if the telecom companies slow it down to where it can't be used and this is one of the areas where they really want to slow the internet down for: make it so small, but powerful players unable to compete.
However, this is where it will come back and bit them in the bottom. Many people who are becoming content creators and entrepreneur are those who have lost jobs or are not even being able to get into even the part-time job field due to the "Jobless Recovery" in not just the USA. Other countries has seen this, too, hence the term "NEET" for Not in Education, Employment, or Training. Though some don't share it or try to hide it like the USA does. Many of the still "young" generation are in a high unemployment of 15% in the government reported numbers. Shadowstats.com and Explistats.com show that overall unemployment for all ages is a lot higher than reported and my generation is feeling the bit worse along with the generation below mine. Hence why a lot of us have given up on the traditional route of getting a part-time job or entry level job. We are, instead, focusing on working hard building up our creative career from the ground up with no support or little support compared to past artists who were able to work part-time or get a smaller job to help them keep paying the bills while getting better. Hence, we are launching right into personal projects and other such things like opening our own businesses. We have to MAKE our own jobs and learn the hard ways in doing so instead of just getting the chance to learn from our elders by getting into studios and such where it is easier to make mistake and get back up again. In order to do this, we moved to small towns and states or even back to our home towns where the cost of living is much lower or to get to states where opening a business is possible. This means also internet providers in such areas aren't that good to begin with to open up shop and create a job. Places like California and some Northern states as an example are way too high in cost in living just live as a rich person, let allow artist in my opinion. I seriously don't get an apartment smaller than a normal house going for 1 million in dollars for just rent in some of these cities, and the view for them some of those aren't worth it either.
The instant that internet freedom is taken away, the price of the internet will go up pretty quickly on both tiers. Not just the high speed tier as I know all to well from studying history what monopolies will do. Without that advantage to run businesses, many of us will be hit being forced to pay a lot for bad internet or pay a lot for our current internet(there is now high speed lane in my opinion as it depends on your cables and bandwidth mostly when you are in the country side). The places with the best internet will likely be cities and such which even now are too high for artists to just vacation in, let alone live in. This will force the one thing the USA managed to avoid that the European Union has been seeing quite badly: Brain Drain.
Brain Drain is what the European Union calls that many college educated(both young and old) people are leaving their country for places with more economic freedom and better cost of living. The only reason the USA hasn't seen it as badly is due to its internet freedom and it's widely vast economic system across the country allowed people to keep in the country, yet still move to better locations where they can live. Yet, once the internet is gone, only those areas that have established good areas for business and allow even wealth poor entrepreneurs a means to work will be able to keep thriving and the amount of areas where conditions are too bad for even rich to live will rise across the board. It's not my own theory. This is a cycle that his been repeated time and time again throughout history all over the world even before the internet was born. However, this time around, the USA is not prepared to be able to keep all the young ones close to home like in the past. Many other countries have realized the USA's past advantages and have made their countries more suited for entrepreneurs along with trying to improve their internet at the cost of losing a bit of their control over it to do so(though censorship is still a big issue in other countries). Hence why the USA has been dropping in the economic freedom ratings while some areas like Hong Kong have gone up.
The younger generations will move to there from the USA if possible. If not, find where they will best be able to survive in the USA and work with it as we always do in such a situation. Mainly because there is no entry level jobs left in the USA unless you know someone to help you get in. Even studios have began wanting more of artists than just having great drawing skills, though it's easier to get into those studios than some job fields. Many younger people have to make their own jobs to just get into entry level jobs and hence once the internet is no longer an even playing field, they will have to move where that field is better for them to play in. With that, even the telecom companies won't be able to keep up their toll road model as no one but the rich will be able to pay for it and even they would probably not want it with how bad the service is with how some of these companies are like. Innovation will be pushed to offshore or underground(some business are already going underground in the USA due to over-legislation making it impossible to do business legally) and it will take a lot of fixing the economy to bring it back later on. The world, not just the USA, would go into another Depression as it would hit everyone, though those areas already ahead business freedom wise would come out of it better even with feeling the pain. We, in the USA, are still suffering the recession that our government has say is gone. I don't think the world would be very happy for us to bring them down with us with one big Depression which we are already heading for just USA and European Union wise.
So, support Net Neutrality by emailing Tom Wheeler and telling him how you feel about this issue of getting rid of Net Neutrality. Also, sorry if I scare you with this post, but this is actually something actually happening now in the USA as many areas have already collapsed economic wise and people are trying to just survive with stagnate wages and job created and prices ever increasing in this country. I seen it with my own eyes and moved due to the Recession taking out my parent's jobs right when I was about to go to college. We lived a poorly for a time as my dad worked union jobs through the union he stayed with till retirement last year and my mother took a year or two to finally get a job again while my sister and work hard to try and keep our tuition bills low through scholarships and marching and concert band. We had to take out loans starting our junior year in college as our hard work soon became barely able to keep up with rising tuition costs. I know other countries like the European Union and the rest of the world are already paying higher prices compared to the USA. I am not being a whiner about the USA's prices going up as I know quite well others have it worse around the world and it is coming be it we like it or not. I am prepared for that reality. That is because the USA are becoming like everyone else in the world, both in rights and economy, so it's better to ensure Net Neutrality for when that comes so that we can keep on top of things and keep most of our freedoms we have yet to give away. Because, it might be what also ensures the rights of those elsewhere in the world to the Internet and help them with their own struggles for their rights or ensure we and the rest of the world lose that right all together.
Last week was pretty stressful for me. I am not going to go into what cause the stress and all that. However, it had made me realized I hardly done much art and writing as I want and need to do. But, upside, it began to push me more into a clearer direction of where I want to be. That and the job market the politicians see is clearly not what Main Street is seeing. However, when I am stressed or nervous, I find just doing something mindless helps me out. Though, my doodle from yesterday is quite nice, especially now that I am getting used to these red correction pencils. I don't know yet if I will go ahead and ink these two or take advantage of the picture now on my computer to do a digital piece with them. This is actually one of my thoughtless sketching and I somehow got to manga-ish elves. Even though a drew them at different times, they oddly fit each other.
But, the biggest thing that happened to me last week(or should I say weekend) is went to a local writing and illustration guild meeting. I was very nervous, not knowing if I would be accepted or not. I was even working on my laptop and a draft of a fan comic I am working on for an experiment, just trying to calm down. However, as the meeting began, I found myself feeling a lot better. It was a very loose meeting, much like I was at the spinning and weaving guild I go to. When they looked at my portfolio(both my graphic design one and the few illustrations I had)... I was instantly relieved with finding they liked my work. I mean, really liked it. As we went on, I found myself talking with the other illustrators and it felt like I was always there to begin with, not just someone who was there for the first time. Next month, I will be joining this guild officially and I am seeing I am more geared towards being possibly an illustrator and writer than graphic designer. Sure, I can make good logos, but outside that, the only things I like to make graphic design wise is vector images and layout books. Though, I never knew at least if I had some talent in illustration since I never got much feedback online.
Real interactions with people is always better than what you get on social media and art websites. When you can see their faces as well as words... You can realize better what they are really saying than just the words they said. I am a very shy person. And it does not help I get nervous very easily when I am alone. That why I been trying to find friends and such, both online and real life, to have support and find out how other artists work. Sure, family can support you, but they only go so far in able to help you. Hence networking with other artists and such are so important... Though, over the last few weeks, I have discovered the term "networking" is not as scary as it seemed when I got out of college. In fact, Will Terrell's latest people sketching video, Episode #15 explains it so well. Networking, though some relationships you build in this network will be professional, most of them are actually friendships and allies with other artists. In fact, I find calling networking more like making friends than making business contacts much easier on me. When you have friends who are more experienced and less experienced than you in what you do, then you find yourself able to learn from those friends and also pass on what you know to them. So, why not find some people, both online and offline, and befriend them. Even if they are not of your job field, you never know what kind of inspiration you will get from even non-artist friends. And, when you have at least a few artist friends on your social media, you find a good bit of humor that will always brighten your day mixed in with some wise advice and great pieces to look at.
This post is a late response to the video above. It's Will Terry's video, "Are You Frustrated With Your Art?" that is on his YouTube channel. I agree and disagree on several things, but the reason this is a late post is I had to decide if I wanted to rant a post or write something people could learn from. Latter took over. However, anyone reading this should watch that video as Will Terry does hit some major points. To simply summarize my rant with both agreeing and disagreeing to the video: schools(all levels) are rushing through the
process of teaching and mainly just skimming instead of teaching a subject in depth, schools are throwing away important skills and job
training to just keep putting the same stuff(just harder and harder
levels) into kids and adults', and last schools believe in the "Random
Character" method for preparing us which is great for beginning in
school, but it results in us being worst off once getting into high
school, college, or jumping into the pool that is life. That's sums up
what my opinions are that are resulting in not just artists becoming
frustrated as they try to get to their dream, but also people of all job
fields.
Oh, and to summarize what a Random Character is, instead of going in the gaming term, I'll tell you what broad sense I am using it for. It's referring to someone who is learning to know everything, like a Jack of All Trades, but do not have the actually experience in any of it enough to be helpful. Basically, for the artist version, that guy who keeps collecting all sorts of drawing books and looking up tutorials, but never doing any of the practice and such to get that knowledge into skills. Hence, it's better to be a Jack of All Trades where you at least got the experience and defined enough skills to possibly go from a Master of None to a Master of Something. Though, sometimes it's not the person's fault for this to happen, but either way it does cause a lot of frustration when you do try to become good at something.
I can do complex figures again!
Now, everyone has had rough spots in their lives. It can be just something simple like the coffee maker dying. Or it can be something big like that painting you been working on for so long being destroyed right when you are almost done or you lose your day job. However, there is no way to really escape the frustration that comes after it. I dealt with a lot of frustrations through my life and I think everyone can agree they at least been mad at something before. However, a lot more people are finding themselves dealing with this now than ever for many reasons. We'll just stick around what artists starting out deal with for this post.
Doing Line Art Is Much Easier, too!
One of this does relate back to the video at the start of this post. This is also common for not just artists, but a lot of job fields. It's the Catch 22 people find themselves in either with getting out of school and trying to find a job or switching careers. You want to get that job, earn money, and such, but you lack work experience or the experience and skills for the job? So, what do you do? Apply all over the place or go back to school? Well, the apply all over the place(for both your degree type job and others), you might get you a lousy job, but hey, we got to start somewhere. You can at least begin to earn some money to get supplies and such to practice and get your artistic talent off the ground. Though, this in itself can become a frustration as that lousy job wears you out or it's an okay job that eats up a lot of your time. The other choice of going back to school is like stepping into political cartoon area and I rather also not rant. So, I will just say that college degrees are becoming too much of a cost just to get a job. Also, for artists, there are now alternatives that are affordable like School of Visual Storytelling and Chris Oatley's Magic Box that you can also do while working either a part-time or full-time job easier makes more sense than college. In fact, Noah Bradley has started up his Art Camp again with this time two Art Camps to choose from or do both for a good rate for a 12-week online course. Not saying college is bad, but it's system is bleeding students dry while making the teachers who really love doing their job and doing it right suffer as well.
Coloring was annoying at first, but got better.
Hence, you can already see some frustrations in that last paragraph many people could be thinking. "Why did I get this job?" "Why can't I get work?" "Why did I go to college for this?" Why did I spend all that money for college?" There are plenty more, but I rather keep this post from turning into an essay. However, this is to point out you cannot escape being frustrated. It will and always will happen even when your are prepared for it. It will range in size and complexity, but it will always. However, there is one thing that I see and realize I almost fell into after work dried for me after my first big freelance gig(and still have not got any since). That problem which also leads to many quitting their dreams and future careers too early and putting them in regret is the fact they will not face what is bothering them. Which is actually an important process that a lot of people learn from without knowing till later on in life.
Now, what do I mean by not facing the frustrations? What I mean is basically figuring out the problem. I do not mean going straight to solving the "problem." There are plenty of artists who have rushed into trying to solve what they think is the problem, only to get into an even worse position. If you do not know roughly what the problem is, then that right there is a frustration on its own, but if you do not figure it out and keep pushing along. It will just haunt you and bother you till A: you work hard to figure it out(making mistakes and all) and improve, B: you quit and give up what you were doing to never come back again, or C: same as B but, like me sometimes, you come back and try again and keep a cycle till you get it. All of them are hard, but the one that will hurt the most will be B as often people will regret it and make themselves more miserable.
Almost Done, Needing Some More Details
However, when you begin to try to figure out the problem first and then solve the problem, you will find yourself often times snowballing into a whole new way of doing things. A great example is someone I follow who is not an artist. His name is Paul Wheaton and he is known as the Duke of Permaculture. His Youtube Channel is his name and here's to it: Paul Wheaton. He also runs the forums known as Permies.com that also leads to articles Paul Wheaton has done. Now, before moving on, Permaculture is "permanent agriculture" which focuses on using what we have and using basic science and ecology to live within one's means. Basically, it's a hod podge of many different ideas and concepts for living, food, and so on. Now, Paul Wheaton was originally an engineer and his buddies and he would always complained about their biggest frustration: pollution. Well, after it nagged him for a while, Paul Wheaton decided to do something about it and began researching about pollution and so on. This lead him looking at energy usage being the cause of pollution and went to those energy efficient light bulbs, so he did an experiment on them. He found the CFLs were a joke, the now illegal in the USA incandescent lightbulbs were not just better, but helped with the bigger issues of energy, and that light was just a TINY fraction of energy usage. Most of the energy we used came from heating, which the incandescent happened to give off freely in the winter. I am going to summarize the rest, but Paul Wheaton basically kept figuring out the problem, but as he solved it he discovered more problems, but also more solutions. It's kind of a never ending process, but its a good one to be in! It means your on the right track!
And My Finished Piece For The Concept Cookie Mother Earth contest.
Now, you are probably wondering why this Paul Wheaton and permaculture has to do with being frustrated, art or not wise? Here's the deal. A lot of people become frustrated, but the keep staying frustrated and do nothing about this. They just live with it and push on with what nags them dragging them back like a ball and chain. However, when someone goes and actually does something they are
frustrated about and try to solve the problem, we are either called
weirdos, geniuses, and a whole hod podge of other things like Paul Wheaton, mainly other artists, and more people beginning to blaze new trails for fixing problems and trying to help others figure it out as well. Even later he gained the title Duke of
Permaculture and the Bad Boy of Permaculture, but back onto the point. If you stay mad at the "bad guys" as Paul Wheaton puts it, nothing will happen and you'll either stagnate, change course and maybe regret it, or so on.
I can do a real life example with images you are seeing on this post. Each process has it's own little problems, but if you do not learn how to deal with each problem, you can really see it in the finished piece. But, sometimes, learning of and fixing the problem is fun. . So, instead of throwing your pencil or brush away with tired of messing up... Look at work and begin to dissect it down and try to figure out the problem. Sure, you may have to ask for help and even be embarrassed to ask for it, but it's better than becoming so frustrated that you go nuts! As you become a great problem solver, who knows what path it will lead you on. You might become a great artist, a permacultist, or even finally make your dream reality or find your dream without knowing it. Me? At this moment, I am still figuring it out, but I am enjoying every minute of it, even the frustration that comes with it as you can at least laugh at such events once you gotten pass them.
I maybe an artist, but I am also in
the Spinners and Weavers of Imperial Calcasieu guild. I love doing
fiber arts, though it is more of a hobby than what I do with drawing
and other art medias. Mainly due to I use knitting, my main fiber
art, to take a break from my current work to chill out... Or cuss out
and fuss at a piece of knit I am working on to get all that anger
out. Esecially with the shawl I am currently working on... How do I
keep twisting my stitches?.. Oh, back on topic. Though I joined the
guild roughly a year ago, the last few months of college and early
this year had me so busy, I was missing meetings. However, I got back
into the monthly meeting schedule last month. This month's meeting
was at a guild member's house where before the meeting, to most of
the day, we had a Dye Day.
Spoiler: She did end up multicolor by the end of the day because she forgot to wear gloves.
It is basically a loose workshop on
how to dye wool and cotton, either as fleece, roving, yarn, or, in my
case, the finish product of what is made. Two members of our guild
who were more experienced at using dyes showed the rest of us how to
properly set up for dying, get the dye to temperature, and then dye
the yarn. Then, we were let lose to experiment. I was mainly trying
to finish a short scarf which I did finish and dyed it in my crock
pot(or now dye pot).We figured out that for me, it was best to boil
the water up to temperature in another pot and then use my crock pot
to keep the water that is poured it at the right temperature to do
the dying.
How to make a rainbow fleece! Put wool and dye in pot! Bonus, cleans the fleece as well!
Everyone had a fun time either dyeing or working on other
projects they brought. We all learned different methods like dipping
yarns, making rainbow fleece dies through just a pot or in a cooler.
We also went over other methods like natural dyes and the cheap
alternatives like Kool-Aid dying and raiding supermarkets after
Easter for Easter egg dye kits. Seriously, one member had a whole bag
of the stuff there and I might do the same so I can do some dyeing
through the year. All our dyed products came out great, even my scarf
which I was a little worried with how dark it was originally that the
dye I chose would darken it too much. Some pretty yarns below from some of the guild members attempts.
Now, even though this is an
traditional craft art form, the making of yarn and such, you might be
wondering "Why is this on an artist's blog? It's not important
to making a painting or drawing." Well, actually it is. Artists
can get inspiration anywhere, be it drawing people in the park or
just going out and having fun and just taking notes of ideas they
come up with to deal with later. People are always saying
"Specialize! Specialize! Be good at only one thing and your set
for life!"... Yet, that's not true. Would you be happy if you only
planted the same flowers over and over again? Or eating the same meal over and over day in and out? Being an artist 24/7 in
one super special niche can hurt the artist if that is all he or she does. If they are focused on the same stuff
without allowing for the chance of change even in that field, it becomes tiring, stressful, and
their creativity slowly begins to ebb away. Even when they are not focused
on the same stuff, working yourself all the time will only lead to
burn out.
Another rainbow fleece, though the cooler dyeing method.
Hence having a hobby or even other
forms of art you like to play around in is a great way to mix things
up without adding too much onto your workload. It gives you a break
and even some extra joys like being able to make your own clothes,
which buying clothes is getting expensive nowadays. Sure, it might
take me a year to make a set of clothes, but I will be happy with the
end result like the good old days decades ago! It doesn't have to be
a traditional craft or even art to be your hobby or even just fun time. Maybe
you like to fish or go out hiking. Or even, you like to just relax in
a hammock after working so many hours, possibly doing super lazy
thumbnails or reading a book. Anything that gets you out of your art
for just a little bit and gives you a view of the outside world is a
good thing. A good example of this is I have started a container
garden and every evening I got out and water my garden and my aunt
and uncle's tomato garden. It is like a meditation that helps me calm
down and enjoy the moment every evening. In this fast pace world
where artists compete and clients are demanding so much from not just
artists and graphic designers, but so many other professions that
many people are being made miserable...
You don't want to be the one going around in circles like this yarn winder does.
Sometimes slowing down even
just a little bit is better than just going faster and faster, breaking apart in the process. When
you slow down, you begin to find life and the things you do both for
work and play are enjoyable again... Not a choir and stressful annoyance as
you begin to see things you missed with moving super fast and realize
faster is not always better. So, why not find one day, be it every
week or once a month, to just find something you enjoy and do it that
is not your main job. You'll be amazed how recharged you be when you
jump right back in the saddle to get back to work. Heck, you might
even find yourself brimming with new ideas that cannot be contained the minute you return from either reading that book or dying yourself up a skein of pretty hand spun yarn you done all by yourself.
