Inspiration Folder

Good grief, it's been almost two months since a blog post!  I just want everyone to know that I do intent to continue my blog, I've just been distracted lately and I've done next to nothing when it comes to anything artistic.

That said, I do have a drawing started.  After that I've got a To Do list of drawings and projects.  It's been so long since I've done any drawings (like a year) that now I'm itching to do a bunch of them.  Pencil drawings and colored pencils are the things I always come back to eventually.  I wander off to foreign lands of painting, sculpting, sewing, and the like, but I always come home again to pencil drawings.

To hold you over until I actually have something to show, I will give you a peek inside my Inspiration Folder.



Recently I heard some advice given to novice artists.  I don't quite consider myself a novice anymore, but I do consider myself to be of a novicely inclination, so I usually read this type of advice in case any of it is any good to me.  This person suggested started a folder on the computer, labeling it "Inspiration" and then filling it with art.  This would be the kind of art that makes you take a really good look at it and say, "Man... I wanna draw like that."

I took the advice and quickly realized there was a certain style filling up my folder.  I'll let you take a look.  You'll get the idea.

Nostalgia.  This is an illustration by Brett Helquist for the series A Series of Unfortunate Events.  I really enjoyed those illustrations when I was reading the books.  I was fond of the criss-cross hatch he used to shade things.

Here's an illustration by Mark Zug for a fun little fantasy series called Septimus Heap.  His pictures remind me how awful I am at drawing clothing.   I am so jealous of his drawing style.

This is a drawing by an artist I found on deviantart.com, username Seranatra.  I don't know who this is or what he's writing, but those are some pretty sweet bellbottoms you're stylin' there, dude.  I like Seranatra's art because it's always flowy and graceful looking.

So, seeing any resemblances there?  Like maybe how everything in my Inspiration folder is a pencil drawing of the slightly-sketchy-looking variety.  This surprised me, really, because that's not really the style I go for when I'm drawing.  I usually try for something slightly smoother.  When I first started drawing, my ultimate goal was to be able to draw something photo-realistic.  Since then, I've settled down into aiming for anything better than what I've done before.  (When I see an artist who can draw photo-realistically, my usual reaction is, "How do you do that?!  You make me sick!  Go away!")  I may play around with drawing something a little sketchier looking, or I may just keep doing what I'm doing.  I don't know.

I love having the inspiration folder, though.  All I have to do is flip through those pictures and it makes me want to draw.