About Talent

I think there is talent in everyone, especially in creativity and art. But Talent is not really to be relied on as 100% of how a person succeeds. Talent is a spark, or more like a desire to do something creative. 

People certainly would not succeed on talent alone. I think Talent would help a person make the decision to do art. I believe that talent makes you have a natural affinity toward an art or skill... a desire to express oneself.

I didn't get encouraged at all, but I always had a thing about drawing and painting and doing art from a very young age. I had bouts of not being able to do art just because of the inconvenience of my locations and lack of materials. 

Now as I teach art. I tell my students that Talent is something that would get them started in arts, but if they don't put the hard work in improving their skills, then they won't be getting their ideas expressed fully.

I do have talent. But I want more for myself, I want to get better. I am fascinated by art. I am obsessed with it. That's why I really work hard when I see a new challenge that would give me a new depth to my art. I want to move towards giving my ideas life and getting the images out as I want and as I see it in my head.

A lot of kids have asked me about how I had gotten so good with my drawings and paintings. I tell them that I practice a LOT!

How is Talent relevant for me? It is the spark and the beginning of life long love affair with what I love doing the most. Talent for me is the call of passion. And my Passion is to do make pictures and images that tell stories.

Practice is a Virtue

Practice, draw something once a day should help you hone you drawing skills; even if you are pressed for time. It takes only  few minutes, but it would keep your skills sharp. 

Your drawings don't have to be perfect. That's what Practice is all about, you are aiming to make your art a little better each time. Practice and challenge yourself to get better at what you find difficult. The time you make for practice is going to pay off well... because when you need to sit down and be serious with your art, you will find yourself a lot more disciplined and you wouldn't need to rely on sparks of inspiration to occur, but instead you can trigger inspiration as you settle into your routine of starting to draw... your mind would be relaxed and you wouldn't feel daunted.

Before you get messy with Calligraphy... try this

There is a really easy way to start with Calligraphy if you're truly interested. And you don't have to get messy with ink and nibs until you understand how to. 

Try using these pencils. They're carpenter's pencils. Usually HB and has a flat lead. You can sharpen it with a blade or hobby knife (just be careful when you do it)

The Pencils easily replicate the feel of writing with a reed or quill pen, without the usual mess of drips and spills of inks and paints. And these are perfect for beginners.

This video will help you get started.

adding guidelines to help you on your way.

Try making your first Textura Quadrata minuscule letters. 

Here are some capitals to go with the small letters. Try these after you're able to write the small letters.

There is no quick fix on how to get good at Calligraphy. Like other disciplines in Art, this is a skill. You can learn it and then refine it through practice. If you don't practice you don't get better. And there is no one to compete with. 

This is an Art that you can consider as "Mastery of Self".

Eyes

There are many ways to draw eyes in Manga. 

Basically, what is true is the fact that a lot of the personality of the characters depend on how you manage to express it through their eyes. 

People don't usually notice that the first thing that they look at when they meet a person is the person's eyes; the "windows of the soul". This is never more truer than in Manga drawings where the artist has to convey in one glance enough information that is needed to give their audience a glimmer of understanding of the character on the page.

Though not attached to complete faces, and unpaired, each eye that I have drawn below tell a little bit about what kind of person they could belong to.

A new tidbit on drawing eyes in Manga style. It's a good start for just playing around with a  few minutes, a pencil, a blank page and no real reason, except to study different ways to draw eyes.

Drawing fabric - about Drapery.

With the coming week being a week-long holiday for kids here, I promised that they can always check out this blog because I'd post something for them to think about.

Last Wednesday, we talked about how to draw clothing and how the folds happen i.e. drapery.

Folds and drapery are probably one of the most difficult things to depict in illustrations. You would need to figure out how to convincingly draw the behaviour of the drapery, all the while taking into consideration the nature of the fabric.

It will probably serve you best if you had a swatch of different fabrics the size of a large handkerchief to research how each fabric behaves. Because each fabric will behave differently, their weight will affect the folds, their sheen (shininess) will be affected by the light, and the point of tension will dictate how the fabric will fold. 

The different softness of the fabric commands how much light the fabric absorbs therefore how much light will reflect. 

Does the fabric wrinkle easily, does it stay wrinkled? ~ Because the wrinkles will also affect the way light bounces off the surface.

Is the fabric heavy or light? Because gravity will dictate how the folds fall when the fabric is worn on the body or draped over and object.

On Drawing/Drafting

I am quite adamant about telling my pupils not to scar their paper with their marks. It doesn't matter how much you push down on a pencil it will not make the mark any more beautiful. It is only a form of murdering the paper senselessly.

Draw your pictures lightly with the pencil... small flicking that connect to make a longer line is more effective than really bearing down with all your weight on the pencil and expecting a masterpiece. You need to understand the softness of your pencils and the tonal value scale.

If the picture is done only in graphite pencils, you are essentially using only shades of grey, from light to dark. Learn about light and shadow, as lighting makes up 90% of a picture. Effective lighting can create astounding results in the picture you are drawing, even if it's only with a humble  pencil.

 I usually do two pictures, one is a draft in my sketchbook, and if I really like it and want one in colour, I would copy the draft to watercolour paper.

Welcome to my Art Attack blog.

Well what is there to say? I am Art obsessed and I share it. I'm a bit well rounded in Arts, so I do a bit of everything, and in many different styles.

I was thinking of making a blog where I can show my creative process... add some tidbits about materials that I use. How I go about building a picture and so on and so forth... Maybe some tutorials.

For starters, here is a short video of some of the materials that I have and use... i made this video back in February 2015, so most of my materials were still new back then.

Today they're already quite well worn, and some had to be replaced. I also got some new materials...

Here is a video of  realistic apple painted using the Gansai Tambi watercolours.

The painting of playful Mira. My favourite mermaid original character.

*Feel free to drop me a comment below. Ask if you have any questions. I will do my best to answer them.* ^_^