SAM GUAY creates a poem-inspired painting and tells us why self-evaluation is an important part of her process with personal projects
Over the past few years I’ve been fortunate enough to spend my time focusing on my personal work – whether it be my tarot project, gallery art, or things that are just for fun. With each piece I create, I set goals for myself, experiment, and evaluate my piece when I’m done. Though these things aren’t obvious when you look at my final paintings I consider them just as important to my process as the technical part.
Setting goals for my work, such as drawing a challenging subject or working with unusual colours, gives me a gauge for the success of my piece. By evaluating my own work I can document my growth, think critically about my choices, and maintain a healthier relationship with my work. If I’m happy with a piece I can identify why that is – I don’t need to rely on social media for any validation. Often I’ll feel frustrated with a piece, so instead of dismissing it and considering myself a failure, writing about my art gives me a better perspective and forces me to answer why it’s not working and what I can do to create paintings I’m happier with. Plus, if I do consider my piece unsuccessful, at least I’ve learned from the experience and can plot the next steps forward.
Choosing something small to experiment with in each painting enables me to slowly integrate new techniques instead of making a drastic change in my work. I don’t paint on my original line-work, I scan the line-work and print it onto watercolour paper. The benefit of this is that if an experiment goes wrong and I need to start over, I don’t have to draw the entire piece again. This time I experimented with using SpectraFix, and it worked out for me.
This story is from the July 2019 edition of ImagineFX.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber ? Sign In
This story is from the July 2019 edition of ImagineFX.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Sign In
Jan Wessbecher
Dominic Carter talks to the visual artist about creating his own comic and why sketchbooks are great for creative experiments
Kyounghwan Kim
The Korean character concept artist speaks to Dominic Carter about staying open to ideas and the value of drawing regularly
Slawek Fedorczuk
Dominic Carter talks to the concept artist about what keeps him motivated and the advantages of using physical sketchbooks.
Raquel M. Varela
Raquel is inspired by magic, fantasy and fairy tales. She loves designing female characters from distant worlds. \"My greatest reference is Loish's art, thanks to her I learned to draw the movement and fluidity I like to convey.\"
Estrela Lourenço
Estrela is a children's book author and illustrator. Her work is influenced by her background in character animation and storyboards for clients such as Cartoon Network, and she channels comic strips like Calvin and Hobbes.
Daria Widermanska
Daria, also known as Anako, has been drawing for as long as she can remember. Inspired by Disney and classic anime, she loves creating new characters and often finds that a single sketch can spark a unique story.
Allen Douglas
Allen has been painting professionally since 1994 for the publishing and gaming industries. Inspired by folklore, he distorts the size, relationships and environments of animals, and calls his paintings 'unusual wildlife'.
Thaddeus Robeck
Thaddeus has been drawing from the moment he could hold a pencil, but it was the 2020 lockdowns that gave him the time to focus on honing his skills.
DRAW FASCINATING SYMBOLIC ARTWORK
Learn how JULIÁN DE LA MOTA creates a composition from his imagination with a focus on crafting figures, volumetric modelling, and light and shadow
First Impressions
The artist talks about his journey into the mythological world