Moving to a new home is EXHAUSTING but the living area of the house is nearly finished. We still have boxes to unpack in the office and we don't want to talk about the basement which is piled up with boxes waiting to be unpacked in my studio! The majority of the living space is comfortable and we almost remember where we put things, which is great! Yay!
Due to the move and how much longer it's taking to get things finished than expected, I'm going to cancel plans for an April workshop. I'm not sure I'll be ready that soon, but I expect I will be ready for workshops and regular students by summer, so stay tuned! Only you'll want to "stay tuned" via the blog on my website, www.TheSculptedHorse.com/blog.html. I already have a post there catching you up on all my news.
I will leave this blog up for reference sake, but future posts will be on my website's blog, so please follow me there!
Showing posts with label artists. Show all posts
Showing posts with label artists. Show all posts
Wednesday, January 09, 2013
Thursday, September 27, 2012
Date Change and a Sculpting Rant
Date Change: Real life has gotten in the way and messed up my schedule, so my sculpting workshop is going to be in late April 2013, still at Dancing Horse Farm, Lebanon OH. I'll post the exact dates soon, but it will be the 3rd or 4th week in April.
Now the rant! Someone posted in the Sculpture forum on Wetcanvas that when he bought some Super Sculpey in a local art supply store so he could start learning to sculpt, the clerks there told him he was going about learning sculpting the wrong way - that he had to learn to draw and he needed to learn anatomy first. Here's my reply:
Sculpting does not require drawing skills - I'm a prime example of that. For those of us whose minds work in the 3-D realm, sculpting is far easier than 2-D work. People who don't think 3-D (which is the majority of artists) don't understand the way 3-D thinkers think, the way we see things, the way we relate to things - seriously. And they believe you have to draw before you can do anything else in art. They'll point to famous artists who were/are both painters and sculptors (Michelangelo, for instance). Michelangelo considered himself a sculptor and claimed he couldn't paint (despite the evidence of the Sistine Chapel ceiling). I'm the same way - I learned to draw *after* becoming a proficient sculptor and it is HARD HARD HARD for me to do 2-D work, but I can if I have to. Don't let a 2-D artist's lack of understanding make you the least bit hesitant about sculpting. Sculpting is in your hands and your heart and your mind and you'll be amazed at what you can create once you understand the materials you're working with.
Now that I'm done ranting (for now, LOL!), I will say it's always good to learn anatomy any way you can. However, learning it by DRAWING isn't necessarily going to help you with learning how to sculpt it. You'll need to run your hand over the muscles of a horse or a smooth-coated dog (you don't want the muscles hidden by fur as they would be in a cat or long-haired dog) while its leg is being held in a flexed position, then study photographs done in excellent light of a leg in a similar position to see how muscles move under skin (for instance). Studying anatomical drawings and even copying them if you can draw decently can be quite useful. I use anatomy books with drawings all the time, but I mostly study anatomy in real life to do my art.
You need to pay attention to how the body moves - for instance, have you noticed that when someone is walking, the leg bearing weight makes that hip actually higher than the other one? (That's what makes women's rumps sashay prettily.) If a group of muscles bulge, the same ones on the other side will be shaped differently. I'm a horse artist, so I'll use horses as an illustration. Muscles bulge the most when they're contracted, so when a horse is LIFTING (not standing on) his left hind leg, for instance, his rump muscles (and abdominals, etc.) will be bulging while the muscles on his right hind leg, the one he's standing on, will look flatter because they're engaged in supporting the body, not contracting to shorten or move that leg. The more effort being expended, the more bulge you'll see in the muscles. Muscles at rest are flatter and more relaxed looking than those being used to lift a limb. If you haven't studied anatomy, you may not have consciously noticed such things, but they're also true in humans. Most people don't have the muscular development or else they have too much body fat for the muscles to be defined the way I'm used to seeing them in horses, so I use upper level dressage riders (who are strong athletes and always have highly developed thigh muscles and lightly developed calves - which is a sign they're dressage riders rather than jumper riders or western riders - just a detail to be observed if you want to portray the sport properly) or dancers as reference, with the occasional body-builder thrown in for fun at times. :)
There are 3-D anatomical models you can touch, move, light different ways to help you see anatomy. I'm not talking about those wooden doll things you can pose to get proportions. You can buy resin castings that are copies of Michelangelo's "David'"s ear, eye, nose, mouth, etc. There are full-body anatomical models in resin. There are some models that have half the man's body with skin over his muscles, and half showing the muscles with no skin. You can get horse models like that too. That's the way a 3-D mind learns anatomy, that and studying the real subject you're going to sculpt, whether people, horses, wildlife, etc. (Suggestion - if you're going to sculpt wildlife, run your hands over taxidermied animals - good ones - rather than getting THAT friendly with a real cougar or whatever! That's what I did to sculpt a cougar - it worked just fine.)
I "see" with my hands a lot. When I did my first portrait of a horse (rather than doing "imaginary" ones or ones based on reference photos), I asked the horse's owner to allow me to sculpt him from life once I had the piece fairly well along (I wanted to be sure I had the details and proportions right). The horse was tied up and I put the 3/4 finished bust on a tall tack box near him. I closed my eyes and ran my hands over that lovely stallion's head, then did the same to the 1/4 life-sized bust of him I was working on. The resulting bust is easily recognizable as him by those who know him even without his huge blaze (a white marking on his face) that covers most of his face. For people to recognize his bust that way rather than just thinking it's "just" a Quarter Horse is amazing to me since it was only my second attempt at a realistic horse and my first real portrait. (Copies of that piece are still for sale on my website: Fascination)
Don't let shop assistants deter you from sculpting. Get your hands in the clay (when using Super Sculpey, condition it first or your hands will get sore - it needs to be run through a pasta machine - rollers only, not cutters - several times to mix the oils in and soften the clay before you try to use it. Pasta machines are about $25 and available at Hobby Lobby, Michael's, Dick Blick's, etc.). Once you start working with the clay, your hands and innate knowledge will get you started on your first pieces. Then you'll see where you need to improve your knowledge and skill and the rest of it will be a joyful path of discovery. Let the 2-D people have fun with their paints. We're creating art you can touch, feel and appreciate from all sides. Good luck with it!
Now the rant! Someone posted in the Sculpture forum on Wetcanvas that when he bought some Super Sculpey in a local art supply store so he could start learning to sculpt, the clerks there told him he was going about learning sculpting the wrong way - that he had to learn to draw and he needed to learn anatomy first. Here's my reply:
Sculpting does not require drawing skills - I'm a prime example of that. For those of us whose minds work in the 3-D realm, sculpting is far easier than 2-D work. People who don't think 3-D (which is the majority of artists) don't understand the way 3-D thinkers think, the way we see things, the way we relate to things - seriously. And they believe you have to draw before you can do anything else in art. They'll point to famous artists who were/are both painters and sculptors (Michelangelo, for instance). Michelangelo considered himself a sculptor and claimed he couldn't paint (despite the evidence of the Sistine Chapel ceiling). I'm the same way - I learned to draw *after* becoming a proficient sculptor and it is HARD HARD HARD for me to do 2-D work, but I can if I have to. Don't let a 2-D artist's lack of understanding make you the least bit hesitant about sculpting. Sculpting is in your hands and your heart and your mind and you'll be amazed at what you can create once you understand the materials you're working with.
Now that I'm done ranting (for now, LOL!), I will say it's always good to learn anatomy any way you can. However, learning it by DRAWING isn't necessarily going to help you with learning how to sculpt it. You'll need to run your hand over the muscles of a horse or a smooth-coated dog (you don't want the muscles hidden by fur as they would be in a cat or long-haired dog) while its leg is being held in a flexed position, then study photographs done in excellent light of a leg in a similar position to see how muscles move under skin (for instance). Studying anatomical drawings and even copying them if you can draw decently can be quite useful. I use anatomy books with drawings all the time, but I mostly study anatomy in real life to do my art.
You need to pay attention to how the body moves - for instance, have you noticed that when someone is walking, the leg bearing weight makes that hip actually higher than the other one? (That's what makes women's rumps sashay prettily.) If a group of muscles bulge, the same ones on the other side will be shaped differently. I'm a horse artist, so I'll use horses as an illustration. Muscles bulge the most when they're contracted, so when a horse is LIFTING (not standing on) his left hind leg, for instance, his rump muscles (and abdominals, etc.) will be bulging while the muscles on his right hind leg, the one he's standing on, will look flatter because they're engaged in supporting the body, not contracting to shorten or move that leg. The more effort being expended, the more bulge you'll see in the muscles. Muscles at rest are flatter and more relaxed looking than those being used to lift a limb. If you haven't studied anatomy, you may not have consciously noticed such things, but they're also true in humans. Most people don't have the muscular development or else they have too much body fat for the muscles to be defined the way I'm used to seeing them in horses, so I use upper level dressage riders (who are strong athletes and always have highly developed thigh muscles and lightly developed calves - which is a sign they're dressage riders rather than jumper riders or western riders - just a detail to be observed if you want to portray the sport properly) or dancers as reference, with the occasional body-builder thrown in for fun at times. :)
There are 3-D anatomical models you can touch, move, light different ways to help you see anatomy. I'm not talking about those wooden doll things you can pose to get proportions. You can buy resin castings that are copies of Michelangelo's "David'"s ear, eye, nose, mouth, etc. There are full-body anatomical models in resin. There are some models that have half the man's body with skin over his muscles, and half showing the muscles with no skin. You can get horse models like that too. That's the way a 3-D mind learns anatomy, that and studying the real subject you're going to sculpt, whether people, horses, wildlife, etc. (Suggestion - if you're going to sculpt wildlife, run your hands over taxidermied animals - good ones - rather than getting THAT friendly with a real cougar or whatever! That's what I did to sculpt a cougar - it worked just fine.)
I "see" with my hands a lot. When I did my first portrait of a horse (rather than doing "imaginary" ones or ones based on reference photos), I asked the horse's owner to allow me to sculpt him from life once I had the piece fairly well along (I wanted to be sure I had the details and proportions right). The horse was tied up and I put the 3/4 finished bust on a tall tack box near him. I closed my eyes and ran my hands over that lovely stallion's head, then did the same to the 1/4 life-sized bust of him I was working on. The resulting bust is easily recognizable as him by those who know him even without his huge blaze (a white marking on his face) that covers most of his face. For people to recognize his bust that way rather than just thinking it's "just" a Quarter Horse is amazing to me since it was only my second attempt at a realistic horse and my first real portrait. (Copies of that piece are still for sale on my website: Fascination)
Don't let shop assistants deter you from sculpting. Get your hands in the clay (when using Super Sculpey, condition it first or your hands will get sore - it needs to be run through a pasta machine - rollers only, not cutters - several times to mix the oils in and soften the clay before you try to use it. Pasta machines are about $25 and available at Hobby Lobby, Michael's, Dick Blick's, etc.). Once you start working with the clay, your hands and innate knowledge will get you started on your first pieces. Then you'll see where you need to improve your knowledge and skill and the rest of it will be a joyful path of discovery. Let the 2-D people have fun with their paints. We're creating art you can touch, feel and appreciate from all sides. Good luck with it!
Wednesday, November 16, 2011
Marketing Your Art/Creating a "Brand"
Most artists are unaware that it takes about 50% of your time to market your art properly. No agent, no gallery is going to market your art with passion and knowledge like yours (remember, they aren't working only for you!), so do it yourself and put that money you'd give an agent into your own advertising!
As an artist, your name is your "brand name" unless you prefer promoting your studio's name. Either way, it's a "brand" and that's a good way to think of it as you promote it.
Building a "brand name" is a multi-pronged task. You need a business card with an image of your work preferably on both sides (with some clear space left to write notes on if you need to - and all your contact info on one side). ALWAYS carry a good supply of your cards with you. I recently gave cards to a couple of people I was introduced to in church, when my friend included "She's a sculptor" in his introduction and then asked me to show his friend some pictures of my work. Carrying cards is the first, simplest and one of the most important steps in marketing. And try to always have at least some pictures with you, even if they're on your cell phone, as mine are (gotta love smart phones!).
You need brochures or fliers with pictures of your work - color, if possible (if I can afford it, I'm doing color next year!). Don't do cheap-looking brochures (those printed on regular computer paper, for instance) or people won't consider your art to be worth much. Use heavyweight, glossy or matte paper, but GOOD paper to make the best and most memorable impression.
You need a Website - not just a Facebook page. People looking for artists don't look on Facebook, they search the Web. Google won't find your art on Facebook, just your posts, but it will find your Website if you build the meta tags right!
All your promotional materials - cards, brochures, website, etc. - need to be similar in style. Perhaps you'll use your business logo on everything, or a picture of the same piece on the cover of each thing, so every piece of advertising, each hand-out, tells people this is YOUR work, without them even having to read your name. If your work is elegant and refined, your Website and other materials should be elegant and refined. If your work is more eclectic or funky or whatever, then your website and everything else should have the same feel. You want to create a "presence" that's recognizable.
Think of Nike and their "swoosh" - all you have to see is that "swoosh" and you know it's a Nike product, which tells you something about its quality, style and price without you even looking for that information because you know the brand. Find a way to make your work that recognizable. I can recognize a Kimberly Kelly Santini painting the instant I see it - her style is that unique (to my eye, anyway). Same with Elin Pendleton, Debbie Flood , Shary Akers and many other artists.
Create a unified presence with a real similarity in style or palette among your works. My bronzes are COLORFUL because I want them to look like real horses. I rarely use the French brown patina people think of as "bronze" color - it's good for outdoor art because it's durable, but there are many more interesting choices for indoor sculptures. I have my bronzes finished with translucent patinas so the metal glitters through just as a real horse's clean summer coat glitters metallically in the sun. I haven't seen anyone else use such patinas on horses the way I do, and that's fine with me! The few paintings I've done are bold-colored and look more like stained glass than realistic horses, and I like them that way. If I ever produce paintings I think are worth selling, they will be bold and probably a bit stylized since I can't draw as well as I'd like to. But they will fit in my "colorful" style. (That's my "Frolic" show above.)
Stand back and look at your work. There is a uniformity or a thread of continuity to it somehow - that's your style. Find ways to emphasize that in all your advertising and in your booth setup. For instance, I don't use black drapes for my table covers. Mine are a slate blue and my carpet is light beige - it's a light, bright, elegant but cheerful booth. Early in my career, I followed someone else's advice on how to make my booth elegant and used to use black drapes, but all the Friesians I do faded into the black when it was behind them, and I found that much black to be kind of overwhelming, so I went for contrast with the art, and lighter, pretty colors to keep me happy.
There are tons of books out on marketing your art. Go buy at least one of them - preferably two or three so you can compare methods between them - and then do what they say!! Do your own research and figure out what will work for you. Nobody but NOBODY can sell your art like you can! Believe it!
As an artist, your name is your "brand name" unless you prefer promoting your studio's name. Either way, it's a "brand" and that's a good way to think of it as you promote it.
Building a "brand name" is a multi-pronged task. You need a business card with an image of your work preferably on both sides (with some clear space left to write notes on if you need to - and all your contact info on one side). ALWAYS carry a good supply of your cards with you. I recently gave cards to a couple of people I was introduced to in church, when my friend included "She's a sculptor" in his introduction and then asked me to show his friend some pictures of my work. Carrying cards is the first, simplest and one of the most important steps in marketing. And try to always have at least some pictures with you, even if they're on your cell phone, as mine are (gotta love smart phones!).
You need brochures or fliers with pictures of your work - color, if possible (if I can afford it, I'm doing color next year!). Don't do cheap-looking brochures (those printed on regular computer paper, for instance) or people won't consider your art to be worth much. Use heavyweight, glossy or matte paper, but GOOD paper to make the best and most memorable impression.
You need a Website - not just a Facebook page. People looking for artists don't look on Facebook, they search the Web. Google won't find your art on Facebook, just your posts, but it will find your Website if you build the meta tags right!
All your promotional materials - cards, brochures, website, etc. - need to be similar in style. Perhaps you'll use your business logo on everything, or a picture of the same piece on the cover of each thing, so every piece of advertising, each hand-out, tells people this is YOUR work, without them even having to read your name. If your work is elegant and refined, your Website and other materials should be elegant and refined. If your work is more eclectic or funky or whatever, then your website and everything else should have the same feel. You want to create a "presence" that's recognizable.
Think of Nike and their "swoosh" - all you have to see is that "swoosh" and you know it's a Nike product, which tells you something about its quality, style and price without you even looking for that information because you know the brand. Find a way to make your work that recognizable. I can recognize a Kimberly Kelly Santini painting the instant I see it - her style is that unique (to my eye, anyway). Same with Elin Pendleton, Debbie Flood , Shary Akers and many other artists.
Create a unified presence with a real similarity in style or palette among your works. My bronzes are COLORFUL because I want them to look like real horses. I rarely use the French brown patina people think of as "bronze" color - it's good for outdoor art because it's durable, but there are many more interesting choices for indoor sculptures. I have my bronzes finished with translucent patinas so the metal glitters through just as a real horse's clean summer coat glitters metallically in the sun. I haven't seen anyone else use such patinas on horses the way I do, and that's fine with me! The few paintings I've done are bold-colored and look more like stained glass than realistic horses, and I like them that way. If I ever produce paintings I think are worth selling, they will be bold and probably a bit stylized since I can't draw as well as I'd like to. But they will fit in my "colorful" style. (That's my "Frolic" show above.)Stand back and look at your work. There is a uniformity or a thread of continuity to it somehow - that's your style. Find ways to emphasize that in all your advertising and in your booth setup. For instance, I don't use black drapes for my table covers. Mine are a slate blue and my carpet is light beige - it's a light, bright, elegant but cheerful booth. Early in my career, I followed someone else's advice on how to make my booth elegant and used to use black drapes, but all the Friesians I do faded into the black when it was behind them, and I found that much black to be kind of overwhelming, so I went for contrast with the art, and lighter, pretty colors to keep me happy.
There are tons of books out on marketing your art. Go buy at least one of them - preferably two or three so you can compare methods between them - and then do what they say!! Do your own research and figure out what will work for you. Nobody but NOBODY can sell your art like you can! Believe it!
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