Art!

I always wanted to be able to draw well but was rubbish at it so didn't really bother for ages. Recently I decided to try and learn properly as a goal for this year and found a very good book that helped me a lot. I've got quite into urban sketching and although I find it a lot more tricky to draw from life rather than following instructions from a book I'm starting to produce sketches that I'm reasonably pleased with.

Most actual urban sketch groups meet at weekends in London for example but I'm usually busy then, I'm trying to find others who live or work near where I work in London to meet and sketch at lunchtimes. If there is a specific common interest I can normally cope well meeting new people in that situation.

Whether the final result is good or not though I find it incredibly relaxing.

I quite enjoy following artists on deviantart, pixiv and such.

I do a little digital drawing myself but I find myself demotivated very easily so I'm struggling to improve.

I lothe the professional art industry because it becomes more about the name rather than the art.

I've been a glass engraver for about 6 years now

www.glassengravingbyrobhill.com

Facebook/pureglassengraving 

Hi there,

I love both art itself and the history of it.  I'm generally more into abstract art, though there is plenty of figurative art that I like too.  My favourites are the abstract artists of the early 20th century, in particular Wassily Kandinsky and Franz Marc's paintings from the 'Blaue Rieter' period.

Drawing was always a passion as a child (lots of space-ships!), and painting in oils later on in my twenties (mostly abstract).  Haven't done that for many years now though, it's been largely replaced by photography and image manipulation on the PC (plus making music and writing computer code).

I understand totally about the frustration of being a perfectionist.  I have paintings around the house done decades ago that I still look at and think; "If only...".  I also had terrible "completion anxiety" - I don't believe I ever finished a work that I broke off from part way through.  That's partly why I stopped oil painting, as I would work for a couple of days without sleeping so that I could finish a piece!

I'm really interested in art too so it was nice to read everyone's posts.

Butterfly88, I have used Etsy, it is a useful site but I prefer Society6 as you can create products with your work on them. It's a lot of fun. Ryuuza, I hope your art career goes well, your comics look great! JennyRobin, I like Salvador Dali too! Lanqi414, I made a paper plane when I was younger but it came in a kit so it was more like a cardboard plane with little stickers on it. You could make YouTube videos or a blog of yourself making the planes, lots of people are able to create their own jobs through YouTube or blogging. Adage, yes, Titian's work is so beautiful! HappyCat and Laddo, art is definitely a positive way of feeling less stressed, you're right. They have nice colouring books now, I bought one but I don't want to spoil it by colouring it in. I was thinking of photocopying the pages instead. Aimosan, do you like Mark Rothko's work? I got very upset at a Rothko exhibition as I was completely overwhelmed by the blocks of colour. They were exhibited in such a way that there was just an entire room of his black-form paintings and I lost it.

I have a BA (Hons) in Fine Art and have worked as an artist but I was always fascinated by the philosophy of art, so I went on to do an MA (Master of Arts) in Art, Aesthetics and Cultural Institutions (Philosophy) and now I'm doing a PhD (Doctor of Philosophy) where I'm trying to come up with new theories of art. When I was about nineteen years old, I wrote a manifesto about creativity and I wanted to share it with you: 

There are often days we question the authenticity of everything around us, we suffocate under the notion that being anything but true to one’s self and one's work is unthinkable.

It is often hard to choose whether or not to ignore criticism, to take in that which is constructive, to choose whether or not to listen to the ideas of others. It is important to stand up for everything you believe in, it is critical to challenge absolutely everything you disagree with, to reinvent yourself, to reinvent your work whenever you feel like it, if ever you feel like it.

We as creative individuals are not bound to one path controlled by other people’s perceptions, other people’s aesthetic values, principles, beliefs and ideologies, we are entitled to create whatever, wherever, forever.

If anyone is interested in selling art I reccommend trying www.Etsy.com

www.etsy.com/uk I think is the UK version, I'm American.  

I'm another one who was always interested in drawing as a child and I'm now trying to make a career of it. :D

Mostly digital art at the moment since I do instructional design, illustration/comics and animation for my work, but I also like using inks, markers and watercolours. It has always been a form of stress relief to me - odd to think about since art in itself can often be a stressful thing to do (deadlines, mistakes, software being a pain etc.)! A big part of the reason I decided to push myself into freelance work was the stress of dealing with other people and pressure in the work place and not being able to focus on art (I just wanted to rest when I got home). I find it much better to be able to manage my own time and choose who I work with.

It's difficult to pick favourite artists, but my comic work at least has anime, Disney and Jhonen Vasquez (JTHM, Invader Zim). Not all that big on superheroes!

I love art too.  Abstract painting with acrylics is my favorite.  I also enjoy working with pastels and doing papercrats.  

I like to draw still life in my spare time at home as well as making paper boomerangs and planes. The reason I do these is because it gives me a full feeling of focus, attention to detail and a sense of relaxation. I would like to mention that these hobbies are quite recent and I am not talented by any means at what I do, I am not perfect always and I have no art,craft or design background.

I do these things simply because I like to do them. I wish their was a job out there that could be give me the same kind of feelings and processes that I have mentioned above because I keep my drawings and paper arts in a folder so that one day I might be able to show my hobbies to someone. However, their does not seem to be a role like that in the world of work that would easily suit me and that's for me the most depressing really.

I enjoy art, and looking at other artists' work.  The realistic paintings are amazing when an artist has so much skill to make it look like a photograph.  

I like surreal art like Salvador Dali because there's a lot to see that is hidden in his paintings.  

I like to draw with black ink in a more abstract way but often based on things from nature.  

Like other people have said, art seems to be good for stress when I am concentrating on drawing something in detail.

I've been drawing and painting since I was a kid, and I find I can just be myself in my work. And I totally get what you mean, Laddo. It's hard not to over-criticise the pictures we create. Something I found that helps is to look at older works you've created and compare the newer ones with them, and see how much you have improved, rather than looking at how far you're still away from perfection. 

I think the painting aimosan is referring to is one of Titian's works, 'Bacchus and Ariadne', with a deep blue (lapis lazuli) sky that spans half the canvas. It was the most expensive pigment at the time and usually reserved for religious paintings. 

I love art, and it helps me cope when I get stressed with life.  I have found that most people do not see any "so called mistakes" that may be in the work, the artist is usually the only one that can spot them because we did them, if that helps.  I have been doing Art for many years and it took me ages to develope my own style, but looking at other artists work and reading how they create their work helped me understand and learn new tecniques.  I think we never stop learning and changing, and that is reflected in our art.  I try to enjoy the process and worry less about the outcome, each piece is an experiement and will help me move onto the next piece.

I love people who are able to paint realistically.  There is a massive painting in the art gallery in Aberdeen by an artist from Greenock which is just a painting of white silk.  There was an old painting I seen in another gallery where there they used this most vivid blue paint and I found out that at the time of the painting that particular paint was the most expensive available at the time, but the artist used it because he loved it and thought it was the best paint to use.  When I was younger I used to sit and paint A4 pages of white paper just pure black.  Just loved the vividness of it.

I enjoy photography and art, but more the realistic side than abstract.  Anyone can paint a red rectangle up and middle of a canvas and charge £2000 for it, but it takes skill and patience to create some of these pictures and that's what I appreciate and respect.