A piece done for Inktober back in 2018. The key word was flowing, so I decided to draw my wild west heroine crossing a flowing river. My first idea (as you can see in the unfinished pencil drawing ) was to show her leading her horse across a raging torrent of a river, but that seemed too violent for ‘flowing’, so in the end I drew her riding her horse across a much more calm stream. As is often my preference, I decided to make a version which looks like it has been pulled from an old comic book.

Pencil & ink on paper, digital colour & aging effects.

-17.11.2020- Tuesday Lecture – Painting is dead painting is alive painting is dead painting is alive.

This week's Tuesday lecture was about painting and how its importance within the arts has changed over the years as referenced by the name “painting is dead, painting is alive, painting is dead, painting is alive etc.” And how painting has come over threat and how it’s no longer relevant. Adam then went on to talk about how painting is always under threat and how the medium and idea of painting is forever changing as different art movements and eras get involved. Ever since photography was discovered, painting has been consistently been challenged as many people would rather take a picture of a landscape rather than see a painting of it.  

One artist Adam mentioned was Gerhard Richter and how he wants to keep preserving the vitality of painting. As an artist he is very self-reflective about painting to a point where he makes panting a painting about painting. He went through a variety of styles such as pop art which became a turning point for him. He adapted his work to each art style and movement// location such as eastern Europe and the West. When Adam was talking about his work I found it very interesting that he changed his art style a range of times just based on the places he was visiting and the art movements that were around him. I felt like, in a rather abstract way, I do the same and relate my practice to him in how I do the same. Throughout the years I have changed my art style a wide range of times and I change it for a wide range of reasons. I change it because I see another art style or art movement that inspires me such as Renaissance art and artists like Bwusagi who replicated this art movement through one of their favorite pieces of mine:  

RIKA (2020) Bwusagi [Instagram]  Available at: https://www.instagram.com/bwusagi/  [Accessed: 19th October,2020]

Rika (2020) “Have Mercy” [Digital Art]  Available at: https://www.instagram.com/p/B-pQPNVjTPT/   [Accessed: 19th October, 2020]

This then changed my art style to drawing more classical things such as going to the Walker art Gallery and drawing the marble statues there, and finding inspiration in old Greek statues and mythology as a subject for drawing. Here is an example of a sketch I did of Michelangelo’s David:

Robin (2018) “INKTOBER - DAY #8 // SKETCH #11 Michelangelo's "David" 29.10.18”

I also did these sketches above last year when visiting the Walker Art Gallery.

I still find a lot of inspiration from art movements like this even now. I also find inspiration from other Contemporary Artists and movements who have a completely different style and source of inspiration such as Junji Ito. I have collected some of his Manga Horror collections as I’m a massive fan of his tyle of not only drawing but also writing. As a result, I have also drawn things in my own style based on one of his stories “Red Turtleneck” which can be seen below.

Robin (2020) “Day One: Stained” [Digital Art]  Available at: https://www.instagram.com/robin_damien_tinman/ [Accessed: 24th November, 2020]

Going back to Richters work and process, an artist// art movement he was inspired by was Roy Lichtenstein and his work on Pop Art. He was attracted to Roy Lichtenstein’s work as it was anti-artistic as it was opposed to “peinture” the culture of painting. He enjoyed his work going against the norms of art and this was certainly reflected in how he consistently changes his art style with different art movements he finds and enjoys; personally, I think this makes his work feel very organic and even alive in a sense. To me it makes it feels as if his art has a kind of heartbeat and living timeline as just with people, we change with time and different eras such as with the 1900’s and changes in political stances such as Womens Suffrage and recently in 1969 with the change of LGBTQ+ rights with Stonewall. Although it isn't explicitly said, it feels like his work incorporates changing societal norms in art. He doesn’t want to stick to one movement or style, which I feel not only relates to my art style but also my personal life and how I never want to be stuck in one place. This goes the same for my gender identity. I know I will always identify as a man and nothing will change that; but I don’t want to be pinned down by that either. For example, Ive recently been experimenting with making myself a skirt to wear to go against the societal norms of skirts being for women only and break down that barrier. Although Richters work isn't about politics in this sense, I still feel his work relates to politics and society in how he chooses to show and express his way of working.  

This is why I found myself really connecting with Richters work; even though I don’t relate to it visually. When seeing his work, I don’t feel it connecting to my own; but when going deeper into how and why he creates the work he makes, I found myself finding more and more reasons to love his artwork and his process. So, overall, I really enjoyed learning more about Richters work and I find him inspiring as an artist myself.  

When film and camera was invented and created, a lot of artists and critics saw this as the end of painting. Such as Paul Delaroche who said “From today painting is dead”. It is clear to see that Photography as an art form was seen as an attack on painting by many artists such as Delaroche as it was seen as the end of painting. This was because many artists began to replace the form of painting with the form of photography for their use of capturing subject such as landscapes and portraits which before the development of cameras; could only be captured by a painter's eye through their paintings.  

One artist who transforms the art of Photography and Painting into one is Louisa Gagliardi.  She uses an I pad to create a digital initial sketch, and then goes into more detail with colour and shading once she's happy with her idea. After completing a sketch// digital painting, Gagliardi will then transform the painting by printing it onto PVC material to look paint like. The texture of the PVC looks similar to that of a canvas and as a result changes her piece from a flat digital painting to a tangible large-scale painting transferred to canvas. Her pieces feel like a relation to digital art while having a commentary on ‘physical’ painting by how she presents it. She also brings in the aspect of traditional painting by sometimes adding gloss or varnishes over certain parts of the canvas; such as with the highlights; to show some kind of ‘3D’ aspect and physical texture. She is additionally forced to draw when she's in transit such as in a plane without any internet as it feels more fulfilling to her to have an image come from her rather than an amalgamation of too many images she saw online. She would sketch her drawings and take a picture of it and transfer it to her laptop in order to draw and trace them digitally in order to go into more detail before printing.  

Louisiana Channel (2017) Louisa Gagliardi Interview: Longing for Something Else [online video] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fWXW4sPhRPc [Accessed: 24th November, 2020]

I feel this relates a lot to my practice as when I create images and drawings without using any reference or without looking at any images it feels this different kind of satisfying to me. As much as I love using references and how I don’t see any issue in artists using them, it feels so much more gratifying to me as an artist when I create a piece I genuinely enjoy just from my head// memory as it feels like I've learnt something from years of drawing. An example of this is when I draw dragons or wolves or portraits. Especially when it comes to portraits with their proportions, I will always use a reference to solidify the base rules of a face's proportions in my head; so, when I create a sketch of a portrait from memory it feels so fulfilling to see how Ive retained the information I've taught myself and applied it on my own. An example of this is this sketch I did from memory using my Switch: 

Twitter (2020) Shaded Man [digital art] Available at: https://twitter.com/AmyTinman/status/1324134821866532864 [Accessed: 24th November, 2020]  

Along with these sketches of a snake-dragon I did from memory:

Twitter (2020) Dragon Snake [digital art] Available at: https://twitter.com/AmyTinman/status/1331266365437579264 [Accessed: 24th November, 2020]

Overall, I feel as if I really gained a lot from this lecture such as discovering new artists who relate to my work along with learning more about how they fit into different art movements and how they break social norms of art.  

500 Post Milestone.

Wow I’ve sure been busy. 

I’ve done so many posts since the last milestone so I may be covering quite a few of them. Here are my favourite posts since reaching 250.

We got quite a few posts from Inktober that I was proud of including my Shyren of the deep. I like this one for a lot of reasons. First that the shading turned out alright, and also that that hard work of her character design came through. This was actually an improvement on her design for Underlimbo but due to cuts she may not be included in the main story anymore.

Next up we also have Blooky who was hanging around as my profile pic for a while. It’s just a nice simple pic that turned out really nice.

And we also have me messy Naru child, which was a real fun pic to do because of the change in medium. She’s also a character with a lot of energy so that naturally influences me as I draw.

I also really liked my Chara style challenge I gave myself. It was interesting seeing how other people draw the character and comparing them to my own. 

My latest digital Bete Noire picture is still a fave of mine. I really liked how the shading and colouring turned out. I’ve drawn Betty quite a few times now and its interesting to see how she changes with each drawing.

I really enjoyed working on my Skybox parody arc poster. It took a lot of work to finish but I’m so glad I did. It turned out real nice and I was rather proud of the background as well. (If you guys haven’t read The Skybox you definitely should.)

On a pjo related note I quite liked my Nico & Will performing ink. This picture just opened up a whole nother story. I was beginning to write a fic for this, I may or may not get the first chapter done. And it was just nice to see the emo boy be happy for once.

My Sick Patience piece turned out better than expected. Though I am sorting out the different head cannons of the fallen humans, Patience has been one of the most consistent and one of my favourites. While she does come off as one of the youngest, she is also the first child, so she just had this wisdom and age about her in her passed on form.

It was also nice to finally post the old work of mine, Genocide Blues. I still quite like how this turned out even if my style has changed a bit since then. 

In terms of Underlimbo pages I can’t seem to pick a favourite. Of course there are plenty of contenders. Papyrus losing his head, Flowey being unimpressed with Frisk, the rock rant, Papyrus bursting out of the bush. 

But in the end I have to say that I am rather happy with the pages that have just come out. It’s mainly that I’m impressed with the designs for Final Frogget and Whimsalot. It was really nice to see them finished and coloured on the page.

So we hit 500 posts on here, and those are some of my favourites. 

See you at the next milestone.