Bringing Imagination to Life.

Step (1) of a great work of art: the Concept. Imagery comes to life!

One of my favorite pieces of art is not one that I created. Rather, it is a small piece drawn in pen and ink by my late grandad. It holds a picture of a mother goose protecting her little gosling. I am drawn to this piece because it demonstrates unusual detail from his artwork. Grandad was the advertising artist of the family, and loved expressing his views of people, vacations, and town happenings through caricature. In my mid-thirties, I have chosen to develop my own artistic talent. I enjoy drawing people’s faces, not because I am particularly good at it, but because it reminds me of a moment in time and teaches me to keep dreaming. My favorite pieces capture unique expressions, those that grab a reaction that might happen only once. For me this differs from a photo because I can incorporate my own perspective from a face. In personality, I am a think-outside-the-box type person. If there is something that I have not done before, I want to try it. This is more difficult for me when it comes to art. There are moments when I follow inspiration and try new things, but mostly I incorporate black and white pencil sketches, with some color thrown in occasionally for good measure.

Step (2): Jot Down the Shapes. Squares. Circles. Triangles. Give yourself a good way to measure each section of your picture.

My illustration goal is to combine my love for writing with my art. Some of this can be seen through my posts on Vocal. In order to become more comfortable with art, I practice a lot and encourage my imagination. This involves going back to basics. Sometimes I enjoy using classes to improve my technique because I get to see other artist’s renderings of illustrations or understand new perspectives. Most of the time I prefer to sit with an audiobook in my headphones and my Apple pencil in my hand.

Step (3): Add Shading. Make the shapes and contours realistic.

I favor digital art because I only have to carry one pad and one pencil, which combines all technology, colors and brushes to create a project. One of my favorites is a thirty-day challenge for faces. This is when I am sent a new face every day for a month and I recreate it. I have recently completed what I call a face comparison challenge because I re-created photos originally drawn over a year ago using slightly different techniques. This challenge shows me areas of improvement and points out which styles I like best.

Step (4): Add Details. Decide what is the most important to emphasize.

Some days I play around with lines and shapes or recreate a character from a favorite story. These doodles remind me that I have learned a lot and still have a long way to go. Illustrations of this sort might be a skateboarding dude or an atomically correct figure, usually from something I’ve seen recently. Sometimes it's taken from a character in a movie. Recreating stories or pictures that have inspired me solidifies my imagination. Positive memories can be easy to forget in my day-to-day hustle when work and other activities crowd my mind, so I use art as a way to decompress and count my blessings.

Step (5): Make it Your Own. Share your imagination with the world!

Another technique I am attempting is to create graphic novels and stories. This might be the area of art that most intimidates me because there are so many ways to express a story. The more I read great graphic novels and play around with my own styles, I realize this is an art form where I can create unique styles and learn the most! At all times a story is swimming around inside my head, and I surprise myself when in can copy these images on paper. Sometimes though, I am my own worst enemy. My strong desire to follow a dream battles with the fear of making mistakes...by copying another author's work...by not being able to put on paper what I've envisioned...or by not being as good as my grandad. Then I remind myself. My art will not be like Grandad's. I will make mistakes. My work might not be as great as another artist’s. And—

I might just create something surprising!