What Does It Mean to Have Modeled Forms in Art
Mark Rothko, an American creative person who described himself as an "abstract painter", once said nigh art that he was not the kind of person interested in the relationship of form, color or similars. He didn't ascertain himself as an abstractionist, but rather as a person interested but in expressing basic human emotions such equally doom, tragedy, ecstasy so on. This was one person's vision of art, but what exercise nosotros mean by art today? Why is defining the concept so hard?
This article is an exploration of the pregnant of art and an endeavour to understand the human relationship between art and artists, with some useful insights via interviews with both traditional and digital artists.
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1. About Art - What Is Information technology?
This question pops up often, and with many answers. Many argue that art cannot be defined. We could go nearly this in several means. Fine art is often considered the process or product of deliberately arranging elements in a way that appeals to the senses or emotions. It encompasses a diverse range of human activities, creations and ways of expression, including music, literature, film, sculpture and paintings. The meaning of art is explored in a branch of philosophy known as aesthetics. At least, that'due south what Wikipedia claims.
More subsequently leap! Go along reading beneath ↓
Art is generally understood every bit any activity or production washed by people with a communicative or aesthetic purpose—something that expresses an idea, an emotion or, more by and large, a world view.
It is a component of civilisation, reflecting economic and social substrates in its pattern. Information technology transmits ideas and values inherent in every civilization across space and time. Its part changes through time, acquiring more of an aesthetic component here and a socio-educational office there.
Everything nosotros've said so far has elements of truth but is mainly opinion. According to Wikipedia, "Fine art historians and philosophers of art have long had classificatory disputes about art regarding whether a particular cultural form or piece of piece of work should be classified as art."
The definition of fine art is open, subjective, debatable. There is no agreement amongst historians and artists, which is why we're left with and then many definitions of art. The concept itself has changed over centuries.
The very notion of art continues today to stir controversy, being so open to multiple interpretations. It tin be taken merely to mean any human action, or whatever set of rules needed to develop an activity. This would generalize the concept beyond what is commonly understood as the fine arts, now broadened to encompass bookish areas. The word has many other vernacular uses, besides.
In this article, we mean art equally a form of human expression of a creative nature.
2. The Development Of The Concept Of Art
While the definition of fine art has inverse over the years, the field of art history has developed to allow u.s. to categorize changes in art over time and to amend sympathise how fine art shapes and is shaped by the creative impulses of artists.
Having a solid grasp of fine art history, then, is of import. I spoke with Alexander Daniloff and Jonathan Brawl about the concept of art through history and about whether tracing a line through traditional and contemporary art is possible.
Alexander Daniloff is a Russian artist who lives and works in Italy. His focus is painting, although he has worked in several media. Lately, he has worked on children's illustrations. He has participated in various events and analogy competitions and has illustrated iii books. He has held numerous private and grouping exhibitions in Italy, Russia, The netherlands, Spain, Republic of finland and the US.
Jonathan Ball is the artistic behind Poked Studio, an innovative company committed to developing creative visual solutions. That's not all: among its services, Poked Studio offers illustration; Web, graphic and blog design; iii-D rendering and visualization; motion graphics; children'southward volume illustration; Flash websites; and games.
Question: Can we trace a line from traditional to gimmicky fine art?
Alexander Daniloff: I don't think we can say anything without falling into controversy, fifty-fifty me. I take a traditional view and adopt artwork that speaks for the artist or menses. I can't explain what contemporary art is, or at least what it's meant to be. Yes, you can trace a line from traditional to gimmicky art, simply not a directly ane. Perchance it is a parabola that goes up and and so down, or a spiral. We don't know. All nosotros tin can say is that the art marketplace has developed, which affects the fine art itself. With what we phone call contemporary fine art, words and explanations are always worth more than.
Visual arts have been transformed by articles and critical essays; meanwhile, the works themselves accept become mute. In the theater, the curators and critics accept taken upwardly the front row. This is my view on the difference between contemporary and traditional fine art.
I personally prefer art measured in human dimensions: art that whispers and doesn't shout, art that covers me and makes me fly and does not crush. Simply I must confess, some of these modern things attract me; for case, mural painting (graffiti) and abstract things.
Jonathan Ball: Yes, virtually definitely [nosotros tin can draw a line from traditional to contemporary fine art]. Many of the aforementioned techniques are used, just in slightly different ways and with different tools. The same principles apply, withal you create art.
I run into a line particularly running through the stylized form of Japanese fine art such as Hokusai and contemporary stylized graphic analogy.
Question: Compared to the evolution of traditional art, how would you describe the development of digital (or new media) art?
Jonathan Brawl: Digital art has plainly adult much more than speedily than the thousands of years of hand-crafted techniques. A whole generation has been brought up on "Photoshop" and other tools, whereas earlier generations used pen and pencil.
Yet, I believe that digital art is withal in its infancy. Despite what seems an enormous corporeality of progress in computer hardware, general computing and fifty-fifty the computing bachelor to about design studios is just not fast plenty to hands reproduce art on the calibration and level of detail possible with traditional media. Go to any national gallery, and you will see works on an enormous scale. Effort reproducing a 10-pes canvas with the resolution of a hand-painted work of fine art in a 3-D program, and you'll find it can't cope. In fact, virtually programs will struggle to render a detailed picture at, say, 300 DPI at just A4 size.
While a painting may appear to exist but splotches and blobs, when you go up to it shut, the patterns are beautiful by themselves, total of color, intensity, saturation and texture. Get close to digital art or a Goggle box screen and y'all'll see a mess of distortion and artifacts.
Once screen resolution is on par with printed media, and in one case computer engineering science allows us to easily create large, highly detailed work at speed, so digital will have defenseless up to traditional media.
Most digital fine art of the early-21st century is designed to be viewed on low-resolution devices. Much of this art will be obsolete when higher-resolution screens and devices are developed over the next century. And much that has been stored only on hard drives volition be lost forever as drives fail and websites shut or are redeveloped.
I find information technology a shame that and so much great work is reproduced at such a limited resolution and scale and not stored in a way that keeps information technology safe for future generations.
Question: Tell us virtually art and your favourite art motility.
Jonathan Ball: Hard, considering I like and then many styles. But I find that if I'm in an art gallery, I love contemporary painting because it holds so many surprises and is less predicable than previous eras.
I love quirky contemporary analogy, particularly low-brow art forms and gothic-mythology mixtures.
3. Aesthetics In Digital Art
Moving into the mid-20th century, the conceptual transformations that arose from new approaches to art led to a crisis of aesthetics, as was manifested in new art media.
While borrowing many of the conventions of traditional media, digital art can depict upon aesthetics from many other fields. But various criticisms have been made against it: for example, given the diversity of tools at their disposal, how much endeavor do digital artists actually take to put into their work?
I asked Jan Willem Wennekes, too known as Zeptonn, for his opinion on this. He is a freelancer who specializes in illustrative design and fine art direction, with a focus on eco-friendly and environmental projects.
Jan Willem Wennekes: The question seems a bit ambiguous. On the one hand, at that place seems to exist a question nearly the try required to create digital fine art. That is, some people may think that using digital media to create art is easier than using traditional media. On the other mitt, there seems to be a question of whether digital art is an fine art form in itself (or maybe at all?).
With respect to the beginning question, I retrieve that working with digital media (mostly the figurer, mouse, Wacom, scanner, software, etc.) does non take to differ from creating art in other media. The computer and all the tools generated by the software are still what they are: tools! You have to primary those tools only as you lot have to master any other tools. For example, if you practice not sympathize how light works, you won't exist able to create artwork with correct lighting, and then on. If you don't know how the pen tool works in Illustrator, then you won't be able to create good artwork, just like a traditional creative person who doesn't know how to apply a pencil. You still have to main color theory and all the other things that are essential to creating a skilful or stunning piece of fine art. In that sense, it doesn't matter whether it is a painting or a print. Simply put, yous have to main all the tools and theory, just every bit you had to master them before. And the ameliorate you master them, the better your artwork can be.
Jan Willem Wennekes: Now, ane tin can wonder whether digital art is a singled-out fine art form. This is a difficult question and not piece of cake to answer. I call up the difference here is that "digital art" is more of a group term than but one art form. There are many types of digital art: some look a lot like paintings, some expect like photographs, some look like drawings, while others announced quite new and unique (e.grand. computer generated artwork). Then in a sense, digital art consists of both overlapping and new kinds of art.
Photography was in one case viewed as a competitor to portrait painting, but in the cease information technology became its ain art form, with many directions and fields of involvement. In effect, painting benefitted from the ascent of photography, and each added to the other and renewed interest in art in general. Present, we don't view photography as a competitor to painting; we see them as different media, with unlike benefits and drawbacks. I think the same holds for newer digital fine art forms.
4. Art As We Know It Today
The 20th century was a turning point in our conception of fine art, which is mainly why contemporary artists frequently reach for new concepts, break with tradition and turn down classic notions of beauty. All these factors take given birth to abstruse art. The artist no longer tries to reflect reality, just rather tries to give expression to their inner earth and feelings.
The old definitions of fine art have become obsolete. Today, art is an evolving and global concept, open to new interpretation, too fluid to be pinned downwardly.
I interviewed Nate Williams and Travis Lampe to explore new elements of contemporary art and to answer the question, what new elements and principles are axiomatic in today'south fine art.
Nate Williams, also known equally Alexander Blue, is an artist, illustrator and designer from the US. He has extensive experience in various facets of the illustration manufacture, and he has a wide variety of clients. His illustrations are aimed at both adults and children. He has too worked in the advertising world and in publishing, music, style, textiles, domicile decor, merchandising, posters, press and social expression.
Travis Lampe is an illustrator who currently lives and works in Chicago. He worked as an fine art director in advertisement. Afterwards a ii-year stint in Warsaw, he returned to Chicago and tried his hand in the art and analogy scene. He enjoys making art and toys, and he has shown in fine galleries throughout the U.s.a. and in Europe.
Question: How much influence does new media take on your piece of work? What is your relationship to digital art? Do yous consider yourself a traditional artist?
Jonathan Brawl: It has a lot of influence. I call up because of my noesis of programming, it influences my work. I remember in terms of modular parts and variables.
Travis Lampe: I'chiliad a traditional creative person—I work in acrylic—but I wouldn't be able to operate without computers. When I design toys, for example, I use computers to scan and create vector art from my original paintings. I don't create digital fine art in and of itself, though. Purely digital work tin can exist beautiful, but for me there is value in having a tangible and unique product, as opposed to a set of data.
No dubiousness, though, I've been influenced in my traditional fine art past being exposed to ideas that I've discovered on the Net. It'southward a keen place to discover sometime-timey cartoons, for example.
Question: Travis, if the purpose of fine art was once to create beauty and to imitate nature, today the concept has evolved dynamically and is constantly changing. In your stance, how has the Internet and new ways of communicating influenced the development of visual arts, its conceptual premises and its physical execution?
Travis Lampe: The Internet most influences the development of art just by exposing more than people to more art. Unfortunately, a lot of information technology is really, really crappy, equally you lot would await. Anyone with a ballpoint pen and digital camera tin post their art for the world to see. And that'due south okay. I recall the cream just naturally rises to the top. Ideas are still what'due south important, far more so than technical skill, and the Internet hasn't changed that at all. I've seen a lot of ballpoint pen art that I actually like.
As far as physical execution goes, it's evolved the way it always has: every bit soon equally a new medium arrives, in that location's a scramble to utilise it in new and artistic ways. I don't know that the Internet has affected the concrete execution of art so much as computers themselves have. It'due south only made it easier to disseminate.
More communication is great for PR and in that way is a groovy help to artists. And more than advice should equal more than ideas billowy around, which ideally should result in meliorate conceptual thinking. But nigh of the "communication" is fluff. And I recollect in that location's a threshold beyond which the constant connectedness ceases to be helpful. Artists need some disconnected time for the creative ideas to coalesce. Successful artists are the ones who are disciplined and able to balance all of this, I guess.
Question: Would you say that art and the new, social Web have a connection? Are social media a viable way to amend artistic communities?
Jonathan Ball: Of grade. Art has a connexion to anything in our environment that influences its creators. As far equally social media goes, I call up beingness able to communicate better is always an improvement.
Travis Lampe: Social media is nifty for sharing results; it'south immune me to connect with and see the work of other artists who I admire on a constant basis. And it makes working long hours in a basement a scrap less of a lonely enterprise when you can bear witness the world what you've done the moment you've finished. On the other mitt, social media are a constant distraction. When I desire to get work done, I disconnect. So I love it and detest it equally.
Visual arts comprise many forms of art—painting, cartoon, sculpture, music, literature and performance art being the near widely recognized. However, with the technological revolution, others forms accept emerged.
So, what exactly is the human relationship between these new forms of expression and contemporary artists? Max Kostenko and Pine Lamanna kindly answered my questions, giving the states insight into the topic.
Max Kostenko is a Russian illustrator. He specializes in 3-D digital analogy and character design. He works as a freelancer for many Russian studios and agencies worldwide, such as Kotetkat and Lemonade.
Pino Lamanna, also known every bit SchakalWal, is an illustrator and graphic designer from Germany who specializes in corporate design, character design and typography.
Question: Please introduce yourself and your piece of work. How did you become started in the field?
Max Kostenko: My name is Max Kostenko. I'grand 23 years old, and I am an artist and illustrator from Moscow. I have been doing illustrations for about 1 year. Earlier, I worked for iii years as a Spider web designer in diverse Moscow Web studios.
Pino Lamanna: Hi. My name is Pino Lamanna. I am a 27-yr-old half-Italian, half-German digital artist living and working in the city of Wuppertal, in Germany.
I currently work as a freelance designer, specializing in unique branding, handmade typography and character design. Near of my piece of work is highly influenced by graffiti and street art, quondam-school cartoons and the music I listen to. My aim is to create stylish, unique and useful designs with an urban twist.
I took my start steps as a designer as a little kid, drawing comic strips with my ain superheroes. Later, in my teenage years, I became interested in the graffiti and street art movement.
The start thing that attracted me to digital fine art was photo manipulation. Through that, I was introduced to Adobe Photoshop and several digital fine art communities. Later, I switched my focus to illustration, branding and typography, which I think suits me all-time.
Question: Tell us a flake about your artwork. What software do y'all use? How hard was it for you to learn?
Max Kostenko: In my piece of work, I use only Photoshop. I started studying information technology when I wanted to start working as a Web designer. But as years passed, I understood what I really wanted to work on, considering I found the job of designer irksome, and so I started drawing some light-headed niggling men; that is, I tried to understand many of the principles by cartoon them. In Photoshop, I practise not employ many tools to make my work look creative—I just choose my normal circular brush and start drawing.
Pino Lamanna: Even though for the kind of work I specialize in, working in Illustrator or other vector tools would be mutual, I create most of my piece of work in Photoshop. That might sound strange, but I can't help it. There isn't much of a departure at all, because Photoshop has vector editing capabilities, too.
One time I am happy with my blueprint, I copy and paste to Illustrator to create the final output.
I cannot say that mastering Photoshop was difficult, because working in it has always been fun. The very first steps were kind of hard, though. I remember being overwhelmed by the gazillion options. It was learning by doing. I did a lot of tutorials, which I found online, to become comfortable with different techniques and methods.
Learning Illustrator wasn't hard, either, because I was already used to the Adobe interface and I knew a lot of stuff about vector editing from Photoshop. And of course, there are tutorials for Illustrator everywhere.
Question: What is the main inspiration for your pieces? And how has the digital art customs influenced your piece of work?
Max Kostenko: My inspiration comes in different means: sometimes after watching a film, sometimes from something I run across in the street or on public transport. I ever wait for the work of known artists: information technology stimulates me to abound and improve my skills. I became acquainted with digital art through the Society of Digital Artists, and the first idea that came to mind was, "I could never describe like that." Merely then I gradually drew things like leaves. However, I've simply began to walk the path of the artist and still have much to learn.
Pino Lamanna: Inspiration can come up from anything, whether a deject in the sky, an old movie or a box of sushi. My style has e'er been influenced past urban culture, music, movies, cartoons, etc. As a matter of fact, the digital art community has influenced my work a lot. Thanks to the Cyberspace, I've gotten to know many interesting people and designers from all over the world, and in the end those communities have helped define me as an artist.
Question: How would you lot depict your artistic process? What are some of its nigh important aspects?
Max Kostenko: The almost important affair is a basic thought, I guess—a plan. If you accept i, you can offset cartoon. Sometimes I get in my head a general sense of the result, and and then I brainstorm with the big shapes, placing them in a composition. When I've got the event, I outset to color it, the most difficult thing for me. At the end, I complete the terminal details.
Pino Lamanna: I ever have pen and paper past my side, even in my bedroom. You never know when ideas will popular in your listen, and you lot ameliorate salvage before yous forget.
Brainstorming and sketching are crucial for me. If ideas pop upward while working on my estimator, I'll usually put aside all the stuff I am doing and try to directly realize that thought in a design.
When working for clients, inquiry is very important. Without a detailed brief, finding a design to match the client'south needs and expectations can be catchy. Therefore, I always ask clients to fill out my design questionnaire.
Some other important attribute of my artistic process is patience. Often, I find a good flow and can't terminate working on a particular blueprint until I am happy (and wearied). However, earlier publishing, I always strength myself to wait till the next day. I'll ofttimes find things that need to be changed, tweaked or tuned up, when I am looking at my work with a trivial altitude.
Question: Accept you always gotten into traditional fine art? If so, tell us something nearly that experience.
Max Kostenko: The affair is, I wasn't trained in an fine art school. But since childhood, I have liked drawing and thinking of stories. I've always drawn with a simple pencil. Afterward school, I tried to enter the Automotive Design College but was rejected… even having passed the drawing exams marvellously well.
Pino Lamanna: As mentioned, I was into comic drawing every bit a kid, and I trained hard to create the earth's virtually powerful superheroes and villains. I tin remember only a unmarried character from these days: Super-Frog. (I know that'southward lame, so don't be hateful!)
Later, I got some experience with graffiti and street fine art. Never fabricated information technology to the All City Kings, though.
So, I don't take much experience with traditional art, because my main focus for the last couple of years has been on digital.
Question: How would you define your human relationship to traditional fine art? Who is your favourite creative person?
Max Kostenko: I often visit the Tretyakov Gallery, and I tin can't believe people could draw like that on a canvass centuries ago. I am surprised every fourth dimension by the talent of classical artists.
I like Russian mural artists. Vasily Polenov and Ivan Shishkin are elevation in skills for me.
The artist's life is non as uncomplicated as it may seem. 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 cocky-promotion; on how to spread ideas, concepts and a deeper vision of their work; and on the bear upon of this kind of marketing.
Bob Flynn is a cartoonist who is interested in illustration, comics and blitheness. He currently resides in Boston, where he works equally an animator and game designer for the children'south media company Fablevision. His piece of work has appeared in publications such as Nickelodeon Magazine and Improper Bostonian.
Alex Dukal is an illustrator who was built-in and raised in Patagonia, Argentina. From a very immature historic period, Alex has published comics and illustrations in the legendary Fierro mag.
Back in his home town, he dedicated some years to painting and teaching illustration and comics. After working for some time mostly in Spider web pattern, Alex decided to get back into analogy. At the moment, he'due south working mostly on children's books and creating illustrations for design agencies.
Jayme McGowan is a freelance artist and 3-D illustrator based in Sacramento, California. She works with cut paper.
Question: Do you have a portfolio website? And which social networks are you currently on?
Bob Flynn: I accept a website, only I'thousand very lazy about updating information technology. 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 than of a structured presentation, which is groovy for fine art directors and people looking to brand a professional assessment of your work. Information technology's often static, and it offers footling to no opportunity for two-way communication. You go trivial to no interaction with the art community except for a friendly electronic mail or two a month. A blog is dynamic and opens that dialogue. I now think of my website as a hub to assist direct people where they need to become.
In addition to having a blog (my primary point of communication), I'k currently on Twitter, Facebook, Flickr and, about recently, Google Fizz. Is beingness on all of them worth it? Probably. I've found that you lot actually tin't be in too many places—though in that location is certainly a sanity threshold. A different audience traffics each social infinite (with some overlap), so the way to reach the nigh people is to be everywhere.
Twitter is currently the best place to track people in the manufacture and to communicate with your peers—merely not anybody is there. Facebook is where virtually everyone else is, although juggling friends, family unit and business organisation is admittedly cumbersome. You take to weed through the clutter (I'm less a fan of its increasingly unwieldy interface), just y'all can certainly get traction over there. Flickr is the most straightforward: upload artwork, leave and receive comments. Buzz is new to the game and yet hasn't developed an identity of its own. But it's another place you should probably be.
I can track virtually job leads and connections back to a tweet here or a comment there. Not to mention great friendships. Merely past spending time in these spaces, maxim "Hi" and participating in a positive manner, you really can't get incorrect.
Alex Dukal: Aye, I accept had a portfolio online since 1998, and I currently utilise Facebook a lot, Twitter not so much. I really like Flickr. I used Orkut when it first came out. I tried Google Buzz and did non like it. Every now so I have a wait at Google Wave to see if it'll always plough into something interesting. I take a Netvibes account that I inappreciably use. I have an account on Dribble. Every bit you can meet, I like to examination new tools.
Jayme McGowan: Yes, I have a website for my portfolio, and pages on Facebook, Flickr and Etsy, and I recently caved and am now on Twitter as well.
Question: Do you write manufactures for your own blog or for other blogs and publications? Would you consider either an constructive way to go your name out there?
Bob Flynn: I regularly post artwork to my web log, 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 bask reading about process, so document your methodology as you lot work, and it volition make for more than interesting posts.
I wouldn't be in this simply to get my name out, though. If you're all for evidence and self-promotion, you chance turning people away. Participation is key: I enjoy reading about what everyone else has to say. In that location's more value in that, actually.
Alex Dukal: I started writing little news on my website using Grey Matter, an former tool for blogging. Then I switched to Textpattern, and finally I separated my portfolio and blog (now in Blogger) every bit a matter of convenience. In the blog from time to time, I'll write an commodity or tutorial. Judging from the feedback I become, I'd consider it an effective method of promotion.
Jayme McGowan: I have a web log where I post images of my work in progress and updates on current projects I'1000 involved in. 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 primary portfolio website were directed there either from my own blog or from someone who did a post about my work on their blog. I retrieve if y'all keep your blog up to appointment and post regularly, information technology will be an invaluable tool for getting your name out at that place.
Question: What are the challenges of creating a self-promotion strategy? Have you lot implemented a self-promotion strategy for yourself? Has it worked? If one is starting from scratch, how long does it have for a strategy to start working in their favor?
Bob Flynn: To be honest, I can't say I've ever architected a real strategy. You're talking to a guy who's never even sent out a promo card. My approach has been to put myself out there and come across what happens. Sort of the like old adage, "Simply be yourself"—that's how you stand out from the rest of the pack. I try to update my blog at least in one case a week to keep people coming back. Keeping up with your website's stats is a good style to see what's sticking (i.e. where your traffic'due south coming from and what your about pop posts are).
Alex Dukal: Aye, of course, as a freelance artist, cocky-promotion is admittedly necessary. I think the first claiming is having something to say, something to bear witness, 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 information technology accesible and simple. And then there'southward the blog, which allows me to maintain other kinds of contact with people: social networks, forums, contacts database, etc. It'south a big garden; one must water and take care of it every mean solar day.
I think a strategy of this kind should exist thought of in different phases. And y'all can't wait a miracle before 6 months (though miracles do happen).
Jayme McGowan: My self-promotion strategy is adequately elementary and involves social networks, as I mentioned earlier. When I got started creating a presence online, I came upward 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 on but by posting photos on Flickr and becoming an agile member of the Etsy customs. Many people who commission work from me say they plant me on 1 of those two websites.
At present I use Facebook and Twitter (and my weblog, of course) to keep people posted on what I'thou upward to. But to succeed in promoting yourself on any of these networks, you have to exist truly interested in making friends and business organization contacts. You can't just scream, "Hey, look at me!" all the time without giving anything back. I estimate I take a subtler approach to self-promotion: let people know what you're upward to from time to fourth dimension, and trust that they'll follow you if they like what they see.
Question: Do you regularly submit your piece of work to online galleries? Is that useful for gaining credibility and getting feedback on your piece of work?
Bob Flynn: I created an account on a great website run by Nate Williams chosen Illustration Mundo a few years back, simply I've never put my work in an online gallery (or paid for anything of the sort). I guess I view my web log as having that purpose. Flickr is a kind of gallery, though.
Pino Lamanna, too known as SchakalWal, is an illustrator and graphic designer from Germany who specializes in corporate design, character design and typography.
Question: Delight introduce yourself and your work. How did you lot become started in the field?
Max Kostenko: My name is Max Kostenko. I'm 23 years old, and I am an artist and illustrator from Moscow. I have been doing illustrations for well-nigh one year. Earlier, I worked for three years as a Web designer in various Moscow Spider web studios.
Pine Lamanna: How-do-you-do. My proper name is Pino Lamanna. I am a 27-year-one-time half-Italian, one-half-German digital artist living and working in the city of Wuppertal, in Deutschland.
I currently work every bit a freelance designer, specializing in unique branding, handmade typography and character blueprint. Most of my piece of work is highly influenced by graffiti and street art, erstwhile-school cartoons and the music I listen to. My aim is to create stylish, unique and useful designs with an urban twist.
I took my first steps equally a designer as a niggling kid, drawing comic strips with my own superheroes. Later, in my teenage years, I became interested in the graffiti and street art movement.
The first affair that attracted me to digital art was photo manipulation. Through that, I was introduced to Adobe Photoshop and several digital fine art communities. Later on, I switched my focus to illustration, branding and typography, which I think suits me best.
Question: Tell u.s. a bit almost your artwork. What software do you apply? How hard was information technology for you to larn?
Max Kostenko: In my work, I use only Photoshop. I started studying information technology when I wanted to start working as a Spider web designer. Only every bit years passed, I understood what I really wanted to work on, because I found the job of designer boring, and so I started drawing some giddy little men; that is, I tried to understand many of the principles by drawing them. In Photoshop, I practise non use many tools to make my work look artistic—I just cull my normal round brush and start drawing.
Pino Lamanna: Even though for the kind of work I specialize in, working in Illustrator or other vector tools would exist mutual, I create nigh of my work in Photoshop. That might sound strange, merely I can't help it. In that location isn't much of a difference at all, because Photoshop has vector editing capabilities, too.
Once I am happy with my pattern, I copy and paste to Illustrator to create the final output.
I cannot say that mastering Photoshop was difficult, because working in it has ever been fun. The very beginning steps were kind of hard, though. I remember being overwhelmed past the gazillion options. It was learning by doing. I did a lot of tutorials, which I constitute online, to become comfortable with dissimilar techniques and methods.
Learning Illustrator wasn't hard, either, considering I was already used to the Adobe interface and I knew a lot of stuff about vector editing from Photoshop. And of course, at that place are tutorials for Illustrator everywhere.
Question: What is the primary inspiration for your pieces? And how has the digital art customs influenced your piece of work?
Max Kostenko: My inspiration comes in different ways: sometimes afterwards watching a film, sometimes from something I see in the street or on public send. I e'er await for the work of known artists: it stimulates me to abound and amend my skills. I became acquainted with digital art through the Society of Digital Artists, and the first thought that came to mind was, "I could never draw similar that." But then I gradually drew things like leaves. Still, I've only began to walk the path of the creative person and all the same have much to learn.
Pino Lamanna: Inspiration can come from anything, whether a cloud in the heaven, an onetime pic or a box of sushi. My mode has e'er been influenced by urban culture, music, movies, cartoons, etc. As a matter of fact, the digital art customs has influenced my piece of work a lot. Thanks to the Cyberspace, I've gotten to know many interesting people and designers from all over the world, and in the end those communities have helped define me as an artist.
Question: How would you describe your creative process? What are some of its most important aspects?
Max Kostenko: The most important thing is a bones idea, I estimate—a programme. If you accept one, y'all can outset drawing. Sometimes I arrive my head a general sense of the result, and and then I brainstorm with the big shapes, placing them in a composition. When I've got the result, I start to color information technology, the nearly difficult thing for me. At the cease, I complete the final details.
Pino Lamanna: I ever take pen and paper by my side, even in my bedroom. Y'all never know when ideas will pop in your mind, and you lot better save before you forget.
Brainstorming and sketching are crucial for me. If ideas pop upwardly while working on my calculator, I'll ordinarily put aside all the stuff I am doing and try to directly realize that idea in a pattern.
When working for clients, enquiry is very important. Without a detailed brief, finding a design to friction match the client's needs and expectations can exist catchy. Therefore, I e'er ask clients to make full out my pattern questionnaire.
Some other of import attribute of my artistic process is patience. Often, I find a good flow and can't stop working on a particular design until I am happy (and exhausted). However, before publishing, I always force myself to expect till the side by side day. I'll often discover things that demand to be changed, tweaked or tuned upward, when I am looking at my piece of work with a fiddling altitude.
Question: Have you lot ever gotten into traditional fine art? If so, tell us something almost that experience.
Max Kostenko: The thing is, I wasn't trained in an art school. But since childhood, I have liked drawing and thinking of stories. I've always drawn with a simple pencil. After school, I tried to enter the Automotive Blueprint College but was rejected… even having passed the drawing exams marvellously well.
Pino Lamanna: Every bit mentioned, I was into comic drawing equally a kid, and I trained hard to create the world's most powerful superheroes and villains. I can call back merely a unmarried grapheme from these days: Super-Frog. (I know that'due south lame, so don't be mean!)
Later, I got some experience with graffiti and street art. Never fabricated information technology to the All City Kings, though.
Then, I don't have much experience with traditional fine art, because my main focus for the last couple of years has been on digital.
Question: How would you define your relationship to traditional fine art? Who is your favourite artist?
Max Kostenko: I ofttimes visit the Tretyakov Gallery, and I can't believe people could draw like that on a canvas centuries ago. I am surprised every fourth dimension by the talent of classical artists.
I like Russian mural artists. Vasily Polenov and Ivan Shishkin are top in skills for me.
The creative person's life is non as unproblematic as it may seem. 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 analogy, comics and animation. He currently resides in Boston, where he works as an animator and game designer for the children'south media company Fablevision. His work has appeared in publications such as Nickelodeon Mag and Improper Bostonian.
Alex Dukal is an illustrator who was born and raised in Patagonia, Argentine republic. From a very young age, Alex has published comics and illustrations in the legendary Fierro mag.
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 become back into illustration. At the moment, he's working mostly on children's books and creating illustrations for design agencies.
Jayme McGowan is a freelance creative person and three-D illustrator based in Sacramento, California. She works with cut paper.
Question: Practice you have a portfolio website? And which social networks are you lot currently on?
Bob Flynn: I have a website, but I'thousand very lazy almost updating it. And I discover I become 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. It'southward often static, and it offers little to no opportunity for two-fashion advice. You become petty to no interaction with the art customs except for a friendly electronic mail or two a calendar month. A blog is dynamic and opens that dialogue. I now think of my website every bit a hub to help direct people where they need to go.
In addition to having a weblog (my main bespeak of communication), I'1000 currently on Twitter, Facebook, Flickr and, about recently, Google Buzz. Is beingness on all of them worth it? Probably. I've found that you really can't exist in too many places—though there is certainly a sanity threshold. A dissimilar audience traffics each social space (with some overlap), so the way to attain the virtually people is to be everywhere.
Twitter is currently the best place to track people in the manufacture and to communicate with your peers—but not anybody is at that place. Facebook is where most everyone else is, although juggling friends, family unit and business organization is admittedly cumbersome. You have to weed through the ataxia (I'thousand less a fan of its increasingly unwieldy interface), merely you tin certainly go traction over at that place. Flickr is the most straightforward: upload artwork, leave and receive comments. Buzz is new to the game and yet hasn't developed an identity of its ain. But information technology's another place you lot should probably exist.
I can rails about task leads and connections back to a tweet here or a comment there. Not to mention great friendships. Simply past spending time in these spaces, saying "Hi" and participating in a positive way, y'all really tin't go wrong.
Alex Dukal: Yes, I accept had a portfolio online since 1998, and I currently employ Facebook a lot, Twitter not so much. I really like Flickr. I used Orkut when it first came out. I tried Google Fizz and did non like it. Every at present and then I take a look at Google Moving ridge to see if it'll ever turn into something interesting. I take a Netvibes account that I inappreciably apply. I have an account on Dribble. As you lot can run across, I similar to exam new tools.
Jayme McGowan: Yes, I have a website for my portfolio, and pages on Facebook, Flickr and Etsy, and I recently caved and am at present on Twitter as well.
Question: Do you write articles for your own web log or for other blogs and publications? Would you consider either an constructive way to get your name out at that place?
Bob Flynn: I regularly post artwork to my blog, and I have written a few Wink drawing tutorials. Merely having an online presence is a expert start, just think of the impact you lot could have by sharing information, ideas and helpful tips. People bask reading about procedure, so document your methodology equally you lot work, and information technology will make for more interesting posts.
I wouldn't be in this only to get my name out, though. If you're all for prove and cocky-promotion, you risk turning people away. Participation is primal: I enjoy reading most what everyone else has to say. In that location's more than value in that, really.
Alex Dukal: I started writing little news on my website using Greyness Matter, an onetime tool for blogging. Then I switched to Textpattern, and finally I separated my portfolio and blog (now in Blogger) equally a matter of convenience. In the blog from time to time, I'll write an article or tutorial. Judging from the feedback I get, I'd consider information technology an effective method of promotion.
Jayme McGowan: I have a blog where I postal service images of my work in progress and updates on electric current projects I'm involved in. I use it to give readers some insight into my process. I recall it definitely gets people more involved in my work. Most of the visitors to my chief portfolio website were directed there either from my own blog or from someone who did a post about my work on their weblog. I recollect if you go along your web log upward to date and post regularly, information technology will be an invaluable tool for getting your proper noun out there.
Question: What are the challenges of creating a self-promotion strategy? Accept 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 commencement working in their favor?
Bob Flynn: To be honest, I tin't say I've ever architected a real strategy. You're talking to a guy who'due south never even sent out a promo bill of fare. My approach has been to put myself out there and see what happens. Sort of the like old aphorism, "Just be yourself"—that's how y'all stand out from the residual of the pack. I attempt to update my weblog at to the lowest degree once a calendar week to keep people coming back. Keeping up with your website's stats is a good way to see what's sticking (i.e. where your traffic's coming from and what your nearly pop posts are).
Alex Dukal: Yep, of course, as a freelance artist, cocky-promotion is absolutely necessary. I think the first claiming is having something to say, something to show, a reliable portfolio to back upwardly that promotion.
Personally, I placed my bet on a portfolio that shows my best piece of work, something that showcases the illustrations rather than the website interface and that makes it accesible and elementary. And then at that place'southward the blog, which allows me to maintain other kinds of contact with people: social networks, forums, contacts database, etc. It's a big garden; ane must water and take care of information technology every twenty-four hour period.
I call back a strategy of this kind should be thought of in unlike phases. And yous can't expect a miracle before six months (though miracles do happen).
Jayme McGowan: My self-promotion strategy is fairly elementary and involves social networks, as I mentioned before. When I got started creating a presence online, I came up with a program by looking at the networks that successful artists who I admired were involved in, and I tried to exercise something similar. I was fortunate enough to generate interest in my piece of work early on just by posting photos on Flickr and condign an active member of the Etsy customs. Many people who committee work from me say they found me on i of those 2 websites.
Now I use Facebook and Twitter (and my weblog, of class) to keep people posted on what I'm upward to. But to succeed in promoting yourself on any of these networks, y'all have to be truly interested in making friends and business organization contacts. You lot tin't but scream, "Hey, await at me!" all the time without giving anything back. I guess I have a subtler approach to self-promotion: let people know what you're upwards to from fourth dimension to time, and trust that they'll follow y'all if they like what they see.
Question: Do you regularly submit your work to online galleries? Is that useful for gaining credibility and getting feedback on your work?
Bob Flynn: I created an business relationship on a bully website run by Nate Williams called Illustration Mundo a few years back, but I've never put my piece of work in an online gallery (or paid for anything of the sort). I guess I view my web log as having that purpose. Flickr is a kind of gallery, though.
Alex Dukal: Non at all to both questions. Ten years ago, if someone invited you to prove some of your work in an online gallery, information technology was beautiful, flattering. Today, I recall we have to be careful, considering the selection criteria is often not that slap-up, and one must pay attention to those details equally well. If you display your work in the wrong place, it could accept a negative result. In principle, brownie should come from the work itself.
Jayme McGowan: I have a profile on Illustration Mundo, which is a great website that functions mainly every bit a directory of illustrators, not a gallery per se. Honestly, I don't participate in any online galleries. I'm sure that'south a keen way to get feedback from your peers, only I don't know that it will give yous added credibility as a professional person. I can maintain simply so many Web pages myself, so I try to limit them to the ones I get the most benefit from, those where I believe fine art directors and buyers might find me.
Chris Piascik is a freelance designer and illustrator who is active in the pattern community. With vi years of professional feel 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 piece of work is used in books, magazines, advertisements and online marketing.
Question: Are you an active participant in every social community you lot take joined? How much time exercise you set up aside to interact in social media? Exercise you commit to posting new work and personal updates regularly?
Chris Piascik: I stay active in quite a few social communities. I admit that I have joined some that I couldn't keep upwardly with though! I don't really schedule fourth dimension for social networking, although that's probably a skillful thought. Instead, I scatter information technology throughout the day, whether it'south browsing Twitter on my iPhone while exporting a large file on my computer or procrastinating the start of a new project. It'due south all almost multi-tasking! I call back the biggest thing that has helped me with social networking is my daily drawings. I post a new drawing Monday to Fri on Flickr, and from there I post it to my personal website, and those updates catamenia to my Twitter and Facebook accounts.
Irma Gruenholz: Yes, I take a weblog, and I participate in some social communities, such as Flickr and Behance. Unfortunately, I don't have much time for a very agile presence. I would like to devote more time because information technology is a expert way to go along up with and run into the work of other artists.
Question: At the moment, which community is the nigh valuable for finding task opportunities?
Chris Piascik: I think well-nigh of the networks out at that place have value. I exercise think Flickr works actually well, though. My Flickr page seems to get the most traffic out of all my websites. Flickr is then vast that a lot of people utilize information technology for image enquiry. I recollect my daily updates help my work not get lost.
Irma Gruenholz: Based on personal feel, Behance is a good platform for showing your piece of work to fine art directors and art buyers. I've gotten some work through it.
Question: How important is crafting the messages you send out and keeping your website looking professional?
Chris Piascik: I don't censor myself that oft. I think keeping things honest is a good thing. My work has some personality; much of it has a loose quality—pairing that with a cold or professional Web presence would seem odd. Expanding your social networks requires you lot to be yourself… just equally long as "yourself" is interesting!
Irma Gruenholz: Internet presence is very of import for the creative person. Information technology is the all-time way to exhibit your piece of work to the rest of the world. So, keep your website updated, and brand information technology easy to communicate with people who desire to follow your work.
Question: How do you lot make time for social networks? Are you committed only to websites from which you lot can get some professional benefit?
Chris Piascik: I have completely given up sleep. I really only sprinkle it throughout my twenty-four hour period. It's a nice way to start my day while drinking my java or eating some lunch. I wouldn't say that I limit myself only to websites that I do good from, though my opinion is that all networks help. Visibility is visibility. I use social networking to stay in bear upon with friends too, and then it'southward not strictly business for me.
Irma Gruenholz: I accept little time to devote to social networks, and then I prefer to focus on communities related to my profession.
Featured Artists
To grasp the pregnant of art and how it has evolved over time, I interviewed Alexander Daniloff and Jonathan Brawl. To explore the aesthetics of digital art, I spoke with January Willem Wennekes, who touched on some of import points related to the differences between digital artists and other artists and the nature of digital art itself.
I too characteristic Nate Williams and Travis Lampe, in an effort to larn more nigh their work and their relationship to engineering science, including digital fine art tools and social media, and to explore the fashion the Internet influences the development of fine art.
To ameliorate understand the relationship betwixt contemporary artists and new methods and tools for creating art, I've interviewed Max Kostenko and Pino Lamanna. I focused on their creative process and professional experience, from their entry into the field right upwardly to their electric current sources of inspiration.
Finally, I interviewed Bob Flynn, Alex Dukal, Jayme McGowan, Chris Piascik and Irma Gruenholz, asking their opinion of the challenges that artists face when promoting themselves and their work in the new Web, trying to capture their experience with social media and online art communities.
Each of these artists has a detail style and is an active fellow member of the creative community. Equally such, they could exist a source of inspiration to many. I hope their insights are helpful.
What nigh you? What does art mean to you?
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Source: https://www.smashingmagazine.com/2010/07/what-do-we-really-mean-by-art/
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