Norma - Art School Journey (New: I'm stuck with my landscape study - Norwegian fjord)

[olashamala]

We have a lot of writers in the house! That's awesome My love of drawing comes from my love of stories so it's interesting to see how you'll try to combine the two for the same end result.. a good story

[Norma]

Making art or writing books is sometimes like walking through a maze with all the dead ends and wrong turns. It also has gatekeepers that prevent you from easily going through the normally open doors. Sometimes the keeper is a doubting part of yourself, other times it's a hater or a jealous friend. Family members also manage to spray poison into the artist's head. They form an image of the daughter, son or sister/brother in their memory, that this person is no longer. These relatives are keen to stick to the earlier version of the artist's persona. Some don't have a single strand of artistic love in them and they sow doubt in the artist’ head.

What should the artist do?

I don't have a general answer to this question.

There's a reason Mother Nature was kind enough to give the artist enough brainwaves to dream up many stories. In this I personally see what is called talent, namely the ability to imagine. We artists are dreamers of alternate realities trying to find a way out of our heads. (No, I'm not crazy. It's an effigy.)

We artists have set ourselves the task of training our skills in order to release these stories and images into the world. We're clumsy at first and what's in our heads seems to come out ugly. We look at the art of others who are much better at it than we are and despair.

At first they were just as unable to make good looking art. They just started earlier and have been doing this for a long time. They where maybe lucky enough to have art-loving parents.

Long story short, if you don't tell your stories, nobody will tell them. Don't lock them up in your head. And if you don't think they are good enough yet, lock them in your desk. They feel comfortable and cuddly there. You've got them out of your system and with every word you write, with every picture you sketch or draw, you get better.

(Oh my goodness. This has gotten long. )

Edit:
@olashamala You can find a list of my books on my homepage: www.banzini.de

[olashamala]

Thanks @Norma I can tell you're a writer, this was a beautiful depiction of an artist, and creativity in general And thank you for sharing your homepage!

[Norma]

Last week I worked on the apricot dress some time longer. Unfortunately my time quota for this exercise has expired. So I have to leave the sketch unfinished. But in contrast to my first attempt a few months ago, I learned something and saw progress.

My quote of the week for my calligraphy exercises comes from myself. Surely the statement is not really completely reinvented.

I've also put together a playlist of the YouTube videos I watched this week. Links to other platforms are restricted here. That's why I copied the address to the image.

I recommend Klaus Scherwinski's videos to anyone who is interested in comics or storyboarding. His insight into comic drawing is worth its weight in gold.

I've been using Photoshop for many years and I'm still learning. This beginner's course by Unmesh Dinda (PiXimperfect) is also fun for experienced users and brings new knowledge.

Feel free to suggest me a quote I can use in calligraphy next week (art or book related).

Have a good next week, fellow students.

[Norma]

Laugh! I also juggle many charas and their "worlds". I mostly write contemporary and yet I feel the home environment of my main charas as a world of its own. It's hard to explain in a nutshell.

I'll keep an eye out for your charas and worlds on your profile.

Oh, I am not a plotter or a pantser. I walk in the middle, I think.

At the beginning of a new book, I create a fairly detailed exposé (I don't know the english word for exposé - excerpt?). It's just for me and that's why I occasionally write dialogue in there too.

After that I scribble some sketches for the first chapters. They are really bad because my drawing skills are not very good (yet). The drawings start my imagination engine.

I'd love to sketch storyboards, but that's beyond my capabilities. I just don't have the time and energy. My main focus is on writing the book.

I always need an ending, as the goal of my writing. So I think of one beforehand, even if I end up changing it often.

Have a nice week and good luck with the world building, @mitsuki-youko

[Norma]

Folds in love with the man wearing the linen shirt:

I have nothing more to give ... this man this week.

I have finished my drawing folds exercises for the moment. After all, I worked with an eye candy as a reference. The folds nestled so nicely on this man's body. I also gave the model a longer beard.

I put a lot more work into the shading than you can see in the end. Still, I like to color with the gradient maps, but sometimes they don't react as expected. I need to research this further.

(Note to my lazy me: Better work those ears out!
Answer to my reasonable me: Don't bug me!)

I wish you all a great weekend.

[mitsuki-youko]

Still, I like to color with the gradient maps, but sometimes they don't react as expected. I need to research this further.

haha yea i can't get used to gradient maps so i like to color "manually" XD

dis be lookin good

[Norma]

Engage:

I have to work on my homepage and it is so boring. So I'm going to procrastinate with a post about social media.

The problem with social media is that most of the users have to work hard to get a good amount of followers. There are various reasons for this. One of them is that Instagram, YouTube, TikTok and all the others see most users as the target audience for their advertising. They don't really want you to produce content yourself. They want content consumers.

So how do you convince the algorithm that you're not one sheep of the livestock, but a great content creator – worthy to get more visibility?

If you don't want to present yourself in a mini bikini on social media (or you don't have the body type for it), then ask yourself what content you can present for the amusement of the other users and not what they can do for you.

TikTok, Instagram and YouTube are currently pushing short videos. So I recommend thinking in this direction. However, it is not very helpful to make boring videos like: Showing a picture and begging for likes. (Sigh!)
I personally love time-lapse videos. The artist shows his working process. (You can record your screen with OBS-Studio). I advise against tutorials if you don't want to be an art teacher. This will attract people looking for help, but not potential customers.

Another important factor is to regularly interact with other social media users with similar interests. This is sometimes frustrating because you don't always get a like or a reply to comments. But keep doing it. Occasionally good conversations develop between the commentators. (This engagement is helpful for your own visibility.)

A few words about my own Instagram profile normas_sketchbook. It seems that I do not implement my own recommendations. But I originally started this profile as a private one and then later switched it around. This profile is an example of what not to do. If you want to present yourself as an artist, start a new profile and don't use the old one.

I have other profiles around books that are a bit more successful.

And if you think, that one viral video (or picture) will help you and resolve all your problems then you will experience disappointment. Viral videos are often a dead end. One of my Sims 4 videos went viral (776.1K) and it was not helpful one the long run. The problem was that I did it just for fun and never planned to continue with this kind of content. I did it for a couple of weeks and in the end I was exhausted. Since then I prefer the small social media steps.

(Why I not show the links: It’s against the forum rules.)

[Norma]

I thought about your comment while watching this video. In fact, the thought of working with colors intimidates me. So at this stage of my learning I'm glad to have gradient maps. I can understand the joy that Marco Bucci shows in the video when he works with colors.

[mitsuki-youko]

(Why I not show the links: It’s against the forum rules.)

it is? ive shared links of my ig before and no one said anything about it

[Norma]

Don't panic! Art related links are allowed so far.

Art School Forum Guidelines

Share and grow together This section will be all about the ART School project! Share your progress, share feedback and help each other grow as artists. Create a topic for your entire journey and keep updating it to track your progress over time! Remember, have fun!! Please take a second to read these guidelines: When creating a new topic in the Art School category, please follow this naming convention to make things easier for everyone Student Name - Topic Name Remember, the more…

(I'm wondering, where I read the rule, that we better upload our content we want to show in the forum and not link to a source outside.)

(Some of my links would not really 100 percent art related. )

[mitsuki-youko]

haha ive shared a lot of different links tho i think most of them are art related

[Norma]

My quote of the week is from Bob Ross. I liked this statement since I first heard it a couple years ago. I'm german and Bob is unknown here. But I saw some Bob Ross comedy, performed by the YouTuber Jazza.
(By the way: With calligraphy I practice pen pressure and line work.)

[Norma]

How I hate gesture drawing less.

This Saturday I have not much to present. I started with a new drawing, but I'm not ready to show the wip yet. Otherwise I thought about how to hate gesture drawing less. I grabbed a big, ruff brush in Photoshop, turned off the inner critic and played with the brush rather than trying to master the gesture. It was fun - in a way. My love for this brush helps me a little.

Also I gave practicing head construction another try. I do head construction with my pictures all the time, but I do not practice it methodical.

On YouTube I discovered the series "10 Minutes to better Painting" by Marco Bucci and found the information very valuable for my artistic development in the field of color and shading.

Nice weekend!

[olashamala]

Thanks for sharing the YouTube videos! and yeah I know what you mean about gesture drawing

[Norma]

Thanks for sharing the YouTube videos

My pleasure! I've been thinking about sharing some of my learning sources here for a while as a reminder for me and an inspiration for our fellow students.

[Norma]

The three second center:

Inspired by a classmate here (@patrycja.lerch), I watched "The last Mohican" on Sunday (the 1992 version). I did it not for pleasure but to observe how the production constructed the visual (camera work, setting and so on).

You can pause this movie at practically any point and the freeze frame would show an almost perfectly constructed image. I thought, this is a film after all, people move in it. So not every scene can be perfect.

In any case, I didn't catch the film delivering a moment that didn't conform to the artistic rules of image composition.

This film avoided the middle like the devil avoids holy water. Sometimes I saw a flagpole in it or a plane house wall, intended to distract from the center.

Of course, there are occasions in a movie where a character moves from side to side and then they sort of cross the middle. In The last Mohican this usually happened in a blink of an eye. No person or anything else of importance ever stayed in the center for more than three seconds.

The center was used very sparingly as a dramaturgical device. When Nathaniel shoots from the fort to give the messenger a free corridor, he is exceptionally allowed to do it from the center. This scene was of course accompanied by appropriately dramatic music.

That was my experience with film observing. Are there any of you who occasionally watch a film for educational reasons and not just as a consumer?

[patrycja.lerch]

I am glad I inspired someone

I literally have to watch movies twice. One time so I can consume production stuff and second time just for fun. But observartion can be pleasure itself

I like to observe choice colors and lights how it affects everything. How it emphasizes emotions

Composition which tells you that character has power as in every scene is shown above everyone else

Sometimes I forget about plot because I focus a lot on these details

[Norma]

Oh yes! I did not focus on choices of colors and light this time. I was curious about the image construction. I have to watch the movie to look out for the colors and light again.
(To take screenshots I have to buy the movie now to put in the cloud. So far I have only a DVD.)

Did you watched The Goodfather to analyze this classic movie? There is an extra on my DVD where the director explains a lot of cinematic decisions. Unfortunately I haven't looked at it yet. My husband always wants to see the film and not the director's babble.

Do you watch any classics at all or just modern productions? Would you like to recommend a film that excites you from an artist's point of view?

[patrycja.lerch]

Well you can always pause and take a photo with your phone and some movies have lots of screenshots out there

I listened to some artists (don't remember who) talked how well executed Godfather is. I am planning to watch it (I just checked how long it is huh I can't even watch 1 hour movie in one sit.)

I am on my way to watch classics. I focused lately on older animations from disney and ghibli.

Some modern productions lost its magic and focus mostly on action nand a tone of flashy effects. I binged Star Wars movies and I appreciate how the first ones were made.

I watched John Wick (my brother wanted to see the newest one so I had to catch up) there is more action than actual plot but I love lights and colors used in them. They have good composition too. Whenever we see John walking somewhere he will be shown in the centre alone in a huge empty environment where everyone could take him down. Soundtrack is probably my favourite part.

Arcane is great from artistic point of view. But it is series and It is only on netflix. Apart from unique art style it has great composition which shows how characters change overtime. There is a lot more to say about it but I have to rewatch this with my current knowledge. And it is not only for League of legend fans

Do you have any reccomendations? I will gladly add more classics or other films to my list. I will try to think about other films I suddenly forgot everything