What's an IMP?

IMP (I Make Pretty) is more or a less blog. This is where Justin will post various news & announcements, thoughts and whatever else he wants.

Follow Justin

Twitter Posts

Recent Posts

• Launched
• Sprites away!
• Wii Fit
• Refresh
• 2weeker
• Artist Spotlight: Jason R. Talley
• Passion
• BRAWL
• 2weeker Screen Shot
• 2weeker Logo

Monthly Archive

• June 2007
  
• July 2007
  
• August 2007
  
• September 2007
  
• October 2007
  
• December 2007
  
• February 2008
  
• March 2008
  
• June 2008
  
• August 2008
  

Passion

The transition from tablet to mouse feels... unnatural. But whatever, at least I'm drawing! I've been working on a drawing for my friend Jon that I've promised him... 2 years ago? I am awesome. This will be my first official completed... anything by using a tablet. The learning curve wasn't as bad as expected. After using it for a good day or so I'm able to move around without hesitation which is neat.

I had always been put off by tablets, mostly because of the disconnect from the actual work. I always thought that the experience with paper/canvas/whatever was essential, interesting and helpful to any work. I still think that way you can't ignore the power of erasing with degrading your surface, and the history window. Oh my God, the history window. I love you.

I've mentioned this before but I always feel like I lose the passion for drawing and art in general when I'm not doing it. I always have a hard time getting over that initial bump to start working on something, but once I do I can't stop. Passion is the most important thing anyone can have for, well, anything. Without passion for what you do what's the point of doing it? What's the point of looking at something that had no passion going into it? There is none.

Passion is something I need to work on. I know it's there, but it's just hard to bring out for some reason. I feel like something holds me back. Maybe it's the pressure to create something great? Maybe it's the intimidation of letting myself down? Maybe it's the fear and frustration of having the inability to create what I imagine?

Working on this drawing for Jon was fairly emotional. This was the first drawing I've worked on extensively in... a long time, and I'm using a tablet really for the first time too. There were learning curves everywhere. I eventually fell into a frustrated funk last night and went to bed. I ended up waking up this morning and starting the drawing over. Again, I ended up frustrated. I ended up taking a step back and thinking about what I was trying to do.

Art should be fun, not a chore. I let go of hesitation and fear and just started drawing again. I got excited. I was happy. I was actually making something that was turning out, dare I say, well thus far?

I'm on an emotional art high (What the hell does that mean...?) but unfortunately I have to stop and take a shower and eat some breakfast and get out and do some stuff today. I'm looking forward to working on it later tonight.

Once again I am excited about art... AND actually following through with making it!

---

2weeker status: 35%

Labels: 2weeker, art

Fear of Art

Art can be a scary thing. When you're young you just pick up a crayon or whatever you can find laying around and just have at it. Nearly everyone does this when they're younger (Ok, that may be a bit of a generalization but bear with me for a sec). Most people stop making art when they get older as expectations and the overbearing expectation to create something "good" intimidate them so they move onto something. People become scared of creating something embarassing and rightfully so, people are cruel when it comes to critiquing art. This is what happens to general population, they abandon art out of fear.

Then there are those who never develop this fear and they are what we typically refer to as "great artists". They continue working and either ignore fear because they love art, it's what they were meant to do. They make art because they want to and that's all that matters. As a result they create more work and grow as artists.

This is where I come in. I am somewhere in between those two camps. I am an artist in a constant state of fear. I don't want to disappoint anyone who will look at my work and I don't want to disappoint myself. I know I have some talent as I've created some really good pieces of work, and yet, I don't seem to find that talent to stay "constant". I have too many ups and downs. As a result I rarely make anything. The biggest hurdle is just getting started working on something because of this hesitation.

I hate people looking over my shoulder watching me do something. I don't want to make something totally craptastic and embarass anyone. How does one get over this fear? The obvious answer is quite simply to draw more. I really don't draw as much as I want to (or as much as I should) and it's a shame. Like most artists say, you gotta draw something at least once a day, and that's what I plan to start doing. I really do to start drawing something everyday, and that's where this blog will come in handy. Hopefully I'll have gathered a dedicated group of readers that will tear me to shreds should I miss a day or two.

A second course of action I plan to take in addition to my little drawing crusade is to produce comics with my "business partner" of the past, present, and future, Michael C. Chen. I've always wanted to make comics and have worked on many small ones throughout my artistic life. Our debut project is called The Rain Thief and it is a short story that will truly challenge me as an artist. I am really excited about this project and can't wait to get started, but in order to that I have to just stop worrying so much about creating something "good" and just go for it and see where it takes me. The biggest question I have now is I want to dive into this new generation of Justin Art with traditional materials or simply go all digital, and I believe I will end up going digital. Anyone want to buy 100 Copic markers?

Drawing is a true art. Not take anything away from artists of other mediums, but I do feel drawing takes the most discipline and is the hardest to "master". Most other mediums can be forgiving, but drawing is all about the artist and their skill, the medium itself has very little to do with what is produced. It's easy to make great art with other mediums by cheating or through just dumb luck (Film, sculpture, etc.). Ok yeah, I'll most likely get stabbed for saying such blasphemous things but one must admit there is much more leeway in other mediums when compared with drawing.

So that's the end of my first meaty blog post. BWISH and JustinBEvans.com will reflect this evolution of artistic progress with a departure from other mediums and focus solely on comics and illustration.

Labels: art