betsyillustration

Guys, guys, ohmygosh, check out these awesome INKtober prompt lists by DropTheDrawing on Tumblr!

There's a list of character prompts for:

• - Post Apocalyptic Wanderers
  
• - Anthropomorphic People
  
• - A Steampunk Adventure
• - Space Travelers
• - Super People
• - Characters for a Fairytale
• - Characters for an Urban Fantasy
• - Characters of the Forest

Are you going to do INKtober? Are you going to use one of these prompt lists?

I'm still trying to decide between Urban Fantasy, Steampunk, or Forest.
I'm doing Characters of the Forest! (#forestinktober)

Just a quick announcement that I'll be running a Character Clothing Design Challenge for the month of June.

Here's how it goes:

1. Pick one of your characters in need of a new wardrobe, or create a new character to use for all of the prompts.
2. Each Thursday, starting June 1, five prompts will be posted on Deviant Art. 
3. All five prompts are due by the following Wednesday.
4. Post your work online (or not).
5. Complete every prompt, and by the end of the month you'll have designed and drawn a complete reference sheet of your character's clothing, which comes in handy while drawing a comic or ordering commissions from other artists!

 I really wanted to share the inspiring story of Connie. A 70-ish year old lady who decided to teach herself to draw last year.

Many of you know I'm an art class teacher for a community center as my "day" job, and this lady, Connie, started coming to some of the classes. She carries a big 16x20 portfolio with more work in it than my own portfolio has.

What super impresses me about Connie is two fold: She didn't let her age or anything else stop her from learning something she wanted to do. And! She didn't dump a bunch of money or time into buying instructional books, videos, or other teaching resources.

Her routine of learning how to draw goes like this:

Go to the library and look through photography and art history books until she finds an image she likes. She doesn't care how difficult the image might be, she chooses purely on if she likes an image. Because of that, she has art pieces that include glass tables, metal armor, miles of velvety fabric, humans, animals, fruit, flowers, baseballs—anything that catches her fancy. She also chooses from a variety of art styles to study from like abstract to Renaissance to gestural sketches. There really is no limit for her. She never passes by something thinking "Oh gosh, that looks too hard."

Draw. Her preferred medium is colored pencil on white Bristol. Honestly, like all beginners, her shapes aren't very well formed, her color sense isn't well-developed, and the technique of the pencil was "crayon-like" in its application. But none of that matters because in every piece, there's always one small area that is good, where I can tell she learned something.

Draw everyday and document how much time it took. Connie completes a piece every 3-7 days by working 1-3 hours a day. I don't even know how long it takes me to do a piece. o_o; When I asked her where she finds the motivation to draw so much, she had a little sparkle in her eye and smiled saying "I don't like to be left in suspense. I want to know what it'll look like when it's finished, so I finish it!"

Start remixing. After a year of doing purely master studies, Connie is now brave enough to add or take away something she doesn't like from the original image. This is the exact process that the book Steal Like an Artist talks about. And coincidentally, her skills are a LOT better than when she started.

With my own younger students (yes, I'm looking at you millennials), I hear so much whining: 

"I don't know how to draw that."
"I don't like the face I drew, so why finish it?"
"I get bored drawing details."
"I want to get [insert expensive art tool or book] to draw better"
"I don't feel like drawing." (Then why are you even coming to this art class? Gosh!)

My point is, we would all do well to have Connie's learning spirit. Draw what you like. Draw a lot. You will get better.

From: Top 25 Things I've Learned About Hand Lettering

Full of awesome messages.

I think this Inktober is going to be all about hand lettering for me.

Oh, and the Background book? Yes, it's still progressing. Instead of repeating what my previous tutorials about 1 point, 2 point, and 3 point shared about grid building and all that, I've decided to do more of what I did with the Fullmetal Alchemist piece and problem solve as I draw an actual illustration. I feel like there's more applicable information that way, and it helps to see a similar process repeated for drawing chairs, tables, bookcases, etc.

Thank you for your continued patience!

From the blog of Austin Kleon (author of "Steal Like an Artist" and the "Steal Like an Artist Journal"). Had to share this simple wisdom.