Fantasy TOP - land of best fantasies

Sometimes you'll get requests for critiques, or even have someone give you one (whether you want it or not). So I thought I'd write a quick post on my thoughts about painting critiques (giving and receiving).

• The first point of etiquette - don't offer a critique if the artist has specifically said 'no critiques'. It's the quickest way to get added to that artist's dislike list. There are many reasons why an artist may not want a critique: it may have been done as a commission and they were working to spec or within tight deadlines, it may have been an experiment/ speedpaint/ never intended as a refined, finished piece, or they may just be having a crappy day and don't want someone to point out all the flaws they already can see in their own piece. And yes, artists do critique their own pieces - they don't always need someone else telling them what they can clearly see!
• Even when an artist has asked for a critique, don't take it to heart if the artist goes off their rocker at you (sadly I have seen all out flame wars start over critiques). If it's in a forum specifically designed for critiquing (complete with levels such as 'don't hold back' or 'be gentle') then it's easier to define what the artist is looking for. But when it's on a personal blog or in an open forum, maybe see if they do this kind of thing a lot and how they take feedback. Some people aren't really asking for a critique and will take it badly - even when you are kind.
• When you give a critique, do it with the intention of helping them improve. Offer suggestions, ask questions as to why they painted something in a particular way, point out areas that need to be worked on. There's a term called the 'hamburger critique' - basically it's about always following a negative with a positive (the negative being the meat between the two pieces of bun).
• Ask before doing a paintover or a redline - there can be some legal and ethical questions when someone else adds their 'hand' to a painting. And some artists just don't like redlines (personally, I think they are great as I think visually)
• Watch the language. You can tell someone that you dislike an area of the painting, or something looks wrong without being mean. State the problem, keep emotional words out of it. 'The leg looks horrible' has a vastly different meaning to 'There's a problem with the character's leg - I think it may be because...". 
• Words can hurt. Try to avoid words like ugly, horrible, crap ... you get the picture. These are emotive words - the kind that if you were talking to the artist in person would have them in tears, or punching your lights out :) If you can't say it to them in person, then maybe you shouldn't say it online.
• Just because you offer a critique, don't expect the artist to heed your advice. There may be reasons why they did something in a particular way or with a particular colour - and considering it's their painting, they have the right to ignore your advice. Even if they don't use it, they may think about your comments for a future painting - so your words are important even if they don't appear to be acted upon.
• It's alright to ask about the concept, but just remember that it's an interpretation. The artist is not asking for example whether you think Morgan Le Fay was a goddess, fairy or chick with really cool clothes. The painting is their vision and just because it doesn't gel with your interpretation doesn't make it bad. However, you could ask about whether the colour scheme or costumes were influenced by a particular school of thought. Sometimes concept can influence colour choices, textures and symbols, and can help reinforce questionable areas of a painting.
• Don't critique the subject matter - if you think that all angels should be painted with white wings, that's not a critique - that's a personal opinion. It doesn't help the artist. But if you think that white wings would better help reinforce that the angel is a pure being then that is a critique.
•  Be careful if you are comparing an artist to another artist. It can come across as you suggesting the artist is a copycat. Of course there are some cases where the artist has taken influence - but mostly they tend to mention it (either in comments about inspiration or favourite authors). And there are cases where both artists have unwittingly worked from the same stock image or just had very similar ideas.
• Read the comments the artist has posted with the painting - and read the context of where it's posted. Telling the artist they need to work on the hands when they've stated in their own comments they need to work on the hands tells the artist you can't read!
• Be familiar with painting terms - especially with digital art. Calling something a paintover when it's a painting is about the highest form of insult you can manage. Photo manipulation, paintover, 3D render and digital painting are all completely different techniques. It can be seen as a backhanded compliment if you think a painting looks like a photo, but more often than not it insinuates the artist has cheated in some method or used what could be seen as short cuts.
• If there are lots of responses already, at least have a quick flick through to see whether what you've got to say has already been said. Sure, saying the same thing will reinforce the issue, but telling someone three times that their lighting is off just gets annoying after the first few times
• It's also alright to disagree with comments by others. A critique is subjective.
• And as mother always said, if you've got nothing nice to say, say nothing at all.

>> wrote this bodya year ago and had forgotten to pillarit. defertoday!

A few weeks ago I visited Toru?, a very old and historic incorporated townin Poland. I went there to see an displayof my ex-mother in law, a celebratedburnishpellicleMovie star, the slowHelena Grossówna. The incorporated townis celebratedfor having preserved almost untouchedits mediaevalspatial layout and many of the gothsbuildings, all built from brick, including of a monumentchurches, the placelarge roomand many townsmanhouses. Nicolaus Copernicus was born in Toru? on 19 February 1473. When falsein couchat the innduring the night, I was reasoningabout all the celebratedtribewho were born and worked in this city. Helenka Grossówna was born in Toru? too, in 1904. At that durationToru? was part of kinglyPrussia, a countryof the sovereigntyof Poland. After the Second universeenmityToru? returned to Poland. In her durationToru? wasn’t burnishanymore, the incorporated townwas part of the born of the same masculineparentand motherEmpire. At first I couldn’t remember any, and then unexpectedlyEureka! Jacek Yerka of course. I started to think about celebratedpainters born in Toru?. The finishedsubduefor my surreal-fantasy tradeblog. He was born and well-consideredin Toru? and he is one of the most celebratedimaginaryartists of his durationall more thanthe world. It was a duration(and probably still is) when technique was less important, and no one well-consideredthe old Masters.
Jacek Yerka was born in Torun in 1952 well-consideredtradeat the schoolof learningin Toru?. My instructors always tried to get me to representin the more contemporaneousseparatestyle, and impelaway from my enchantmentwith realism. But Yerka did, he learnt directly from the masters of northEurope - the frontEycks, Dierck Bouts, Robert Campin, Bosch, and surrealists such as Magritte.
Yerka said:

I did the first coloringin my life a year before going to college, where I began studying graphics. Eventually, my teachers relented.

His paintings are acrylic on canvas, pastels and drawings on paper. I saw this as an tryto smothermy own creative dictionand steadfastly refused to dropin line. The colours are now and then very savageand mightyand sometimesvery delicate, but nevertheless very expressive.
His works are neo-surreal, fayoral relationlike, imaginaryand sometimes more Sci-Fi than fantastic. You really powerof perceptionthe markof victoryand fingersof a Master, (F.E.: Between firmamentand Hell, The Way). The particularsare amazingly excellent.

I don’t like every actof his, but I definitely esteemhis conceptionand his technique. As a painter I can tell you how durationconsuming it is to make these kinds of paintings. I trusthe will make a few new paintings with this motif. I even think of buying one of his paintings of his grandmother’s kitchen.
Mind Fields, a workin which Harlan Ellison has provided recitalfor each of selected pieces.[1]
In 1995 the designerwas awarded the prestigious universefancyadjudgefor the best artist. His works are also to be seen in burnishtrademuseums.

On his website you can perusemore about Jacek Yerka, by Jacek Yerka.
http://www.yerkaland.com/bio_en.php
By the way the website is an superiorone, congratulations!

Below are a few images of my favourite paintings by Jacek Yerka.

The Strawberry wood

The buffetsunset

The hibernatewave

The road

Very interesting and cool interview with an original and talented artist names Taron or Timur Baysal. Great imagination.
.
Recruiting art talent enhance the creative process: Timur Baysal - Taron - Interview - pt.1

I was trawling for some specific brushes for photoshop. Here are 9 interesting sites

Free Photoshop brushes, textures and patterns
With over 5000 brush collections, 200+ patterns and nearly 200 textures, the collections are sourced from all over the web. Search by keyword, or look at the tag collections.

Brush King
Focusing on brushes, the collection includes over 7000 brush sets, with an easy to navigate set of categories. It also has a nice selection of general photoshop tutorials.


Quality Photoshop Brushes
While not all of these brushes are free in every single way, the collection focuses on quality rather than being a collection of everything. Features a user rating system, search and browse by tag functions, and if you go to the blog, you'll find some QBrush specially created brush sets.

In Obscuro - resources by Nela Dunato
Ok this is a collection of resources by one artist, but I really like her brushes. Her tutorials are nice and simple, focusing more to web design than art, but with brushes, textures and some lovely basic web templates, this is a site worth dropping by.

Get Brushes

GetBrushes.com is free Adobe Photoshop brushes directory, featuring handpicked collection of the best brushes for Photoshop on the net, all free to download and use.

Here you’ll find PS brushes for every style and taste, ranging from always popular decay & grunge brushes, over abstract and tech, to gothic, coffee spills, hair, or fractal inspired brushes for photoshop. Have a look around.. and, well, have fun (Blurb from the website)

 PS Brushes
 This site, while the site and content don't jump out and make you want to download the brush set because of all the glittery pages, I really like the interface that shows you the detail of the brush on screen. The brushes are sorted by category, and while there's only a small number of brushes online (500), this is a site that I hope increases in size and use.

 Brusheezy
Featuring a large collection of brushes, patterns, textures, PSD files, actions, shapes, styles and gradients, this is a one stop location for all things photoshop.

I did find the site a little slow to use, but it may have been my internet connection at the time.

My Photoshop Brushes
A nice collection of brushes, patterns, custom shapes, styles and gradients. The tutorial on creating your own custom brush is nice and simple to follow.

Photoshop Free Brushes

More brushes, this contains some different collections I didn't see on the other sites. The only thing that would make this nicer was if the liceses were displayed with the brushes, rather than having to go to the brush maker's website for usage details.





Images are copyright their respective owners. I did grabs of the images in order to more easily define the sites. When using brushes/ resources from online, please read the licenses/ image usage policies.

Today riptapparel.com is featuring a surrealist photo illustration tee called "imaginarium".
The artist that created the shirt is known for his dreamy collage-type illustrations. His name is Alex Bazinet, although he goes by the name Inner Monster and riptapparel has featured him on their site before.They only sell a shirt for 24 hours and at this moment only 7 hours left.

Here is the image of the T-shirt and the link to RIPTapparel page with the image://riptapparel.com/images/imaginarium.jpg


Two other nice images from this guy

I love learning and I'm always eager to improve the way that I do things. This is probably a good thing considering my core field is technology! However like a lot of people I am often time poor. Some of it is through disorganisation and bad time management (hey, I never said I was perfect!), but other times there are just so many competing tasks that things fall off the wagon.

I’ve found that if I really want to do something, I have to build it into my daily routines – make it like brushing my teeth or making the bed. And if I make it something that doesn’t take much time at all, it’s easy to move around if necessary, but more importantly is easy to fit in. One such thing I’ve found increasingly useful has been spending 10-20 minutes each day flicking through my RSS feeds.

RSS feeds for me are a great way to gather information on a range of topics. I read blogs to be inspired, learn new techniques, find out about new resources and software products, and to keep up with trends (for me it’s software patterns, however it could be what type of art is selling, which companies are hiring artists, what art directors want to see in portfolios etc). Admittedly if I read every entry I'd never get any work done, so I've been trying to improve the way I access blogs and the content they contain.

One problem for me is finding a suitable time. 20 minutes may not seem like enough time to do much reading, but the key is to quickly pull out the good stuff, so you can spend more time reading useful articles. For me, it comes down to finding time where I’m not likely to be interrupted, or I’m not going to feel guilty about ignoring some other task. Before the official work day begins or over my lunch break are good times for me to catch up on work specific blogs. I also find that by doing this over my coffee break, or when I have food in my hand I’m not going to start typing madly and thus get distracted by something else.

I have about 50 feeds on average and use Google Reader (http://www.google.com/reader/view ) to keep track of them. There are a range of RSS Readers out there, some are integrated into browsers, others allow you to read them on your phone – it doesn’t matter how you do it, I just find RSS readers easier to manage than a bunch of web sites I load individually. I cull the list on occasion as I try to keep this to the blogs I actually read, not ones that I bookmark as a reference for later on. If I’m constantly setting everything to ‘read’ without looking at content, I’d rather bookmark the blog and move it out of my main feed.

Each blog is tagged so that I can group them into relevant topics making it easier to identify blogs and enable focused reading. My topics are pretty basic ... things like 'art' or 'web design' or 'management' or 'debugging'. I try and limit the category to about 5 - 10 blogs - mainly because if I've got any more I'm probably not reading them all anyway. There are only so many blogs you can subscribe to about general web design anyway!

I load them with titles only, as it's quicker to load and I’m less likely to be distracted by the pretty pictures. There are some blogs I read every entry, however many I’d rather skim through the titles to get an idea if I’m interested in the content. I can expand it if it’s interesting. I find it far quicker to scan through 50 titles than to scroll through 50 articles complete with pictures.

Here’s my setup at the moment.



If I don’t have a huge amount of time, I often flick through my feeds and star articles to read later. The idea of the RSS feed is to quickly and effectively maintain an awareness of what’s going on. I don’t need to know all the details, but it’s far better for me to know a little bit about something so I can investigate it later, than to have no idea it even existed (particularly if it can save me time in the long run)!

Don't have time to go to the art shop? What can you get from your every day supermarket/ grocery store, newsagency or shops that you regularly visit that you can use as tools? Many of you are probably already using these or have heard of the techniques described, but I thought I'd collect a 'shopping list' of supplies!

Of course you are not going to find artist quality paints, or sable paint brushes, but there are plenty of things that you can add to your artist toolbox that are cheap, available from general shops, and can extend out your toolset or allow you to experiment, particularly if you don't have time (or money) to visit the art shop.

Cotton tips/ cotton buds/ tissues/ cotton balls:
-    Great for smudging pencil work,
-    lift out wet paint,
-    applying small amounts of paint,
-    apply paint with crumpled tissues or cotton balls to create interesting textures,
-    crumple tissues and place over watercolour paper. Paint through the tissues with ink or watercolour paint to create interesting textures.


Baking paper:
-    Place a damp paper towel beneath some baking paper in a tray or a dish, and you have an instant wet palette for acrylic paints. This stops the paint from drying out.
-    use it as tracing paper or for working out alternate designs for a sketch
-    use it as a stencil or for blocking out designs when applying paint

Salt (table or rock salt):
-    Sprinkle salt into wet watercolour paint and allow to dry. Dust off the salt and this creates
-    Also try wet pieces of rock salt into wet paint

Gladwrap/ cling wrap/ plastic wrap:
-    Use it to cover up paint palettes and save paint
-    Use it to create interesting textures by pressing a crumpled pieces into wet paint
-    Cover a plate with gladwrap and use as a paint palette

Aluminium foil:
-    Place over a dinner plate and use as a paint palette
-    Use to sharpen old scissors by cutting through 5-7 sheets
-    Wrap a large piece of cardboard in foil and use as a light reflector when taking photographs of still life or portraits.
-    Use for mono-prints. Paint a design on the foil and then place a piece of paper over the foil. Gently rub on the back of the foil to transfer the design. Peel back the foil from the paper.

Dishwashing Liquid/ Shampoo:
-    Use to clean paint brushes as a cheap alternative to brush cleaning solutions.

Hairspray
-    Use as a fixative for charcoal, pastel or pencil sketches. Of course the proper art fixative is recommended for really important pieces as it’s archival and specifically made for this purpose.

Tea or coffee
-    Tea and coffee can be used to paint with. Or course you may just want to drink them, but the variety of teas (including fruit and herbal teas) can give you a wide colour palette. All you need to do is brew up your tea, the stronger the better, and then start painting like you would with watercolours. Experiment with layers, intensity of brewing
-    Stain paper to do ink sketches, pencil drawings or watercolour paintings on. Try different methods such as ironing tea soaked paper to dry it, allowing the tea to pool in places, dropping coffee granules onto damp paper

Rubbing Alcohol
-    Use it for texturing by sprinkling or dropping into wet paint (particularly effective with watercolours). It effectively displaces paint pigments and leaving a speckled result.
-    Use it to lift paint layers when using glazing techniques with acrylics
-    Can be used for blending coloured pencils (I've heard of it being used with Prismacolors primarily, but no reason you couldn't try with other brands). You could also try watercolour pencils.

Candles:
-    Use your basic emergency candles for wax resist when working with watercolour techniques

If you want to play around with natural paints there are a number of things in the kitchen you can try (browse around for recipes online).
-    Vegetable dyes
-    Milk paint
-    Potato paints
-    Egg tempera


You can also pick up basics such as pencils, pens, sketch blocks, kneadable erasers from office supply stores and news agencies.

“The Mockery of Human Follies” is one of those mysterious paintings that don’t allow me to stop thinking about them. In the first place because it is an excellent art work (in my humble opinion) and in the second place (maybe it should be the first place) because it is a satirical-moralistic-fantastic painting in the Medieval tradition. And I am addicted to medieval art.

My first impression of the painting is that it is a realistic-satirical work a’la Breugel. I see a scene of the life of peasants in a village, with a wonderful renaissance landscape in the background. But then I discover all the unusual things. The faces of the pictured people are odd, some of the ugly, some of them not, but almost everyone is smiling. And the smile isn’t an innocent, nice smile; it is definitely a rascally-devilish smile. There are lots of strange scenes, unexpected moments, shows and associations in this painting. I see lots of resemblance with Erasmus famous book “Lof der Zotheid” (In Praise of Folly, in English). Erasmus used words to describe the folly of humans; the painter of “The mockery of humans follies” used the language of the colours of his paints.

The Dorotheum in Vienna attributed the painting to Frans Verbeeck. He belonged together with Hieronymus Bosch, Peter Breugel and Adriaen Brouwer to the group of the XVI century Flemish painters who painted satirical-moralising work. The fantasy and satire go hand in hand in lots of pictures, drawings, carvings, decorations, sculptures, miniatures, illuminated manuscripts in the art work of the medieval time. The Flemish painters did not have to invent all the monstrous creatures by themselves. They could fall back on a rich and broad collection of peculiar species, exotic monsters and extremely weird people from the medieval artists. What they probably did was add some new symbols, pictures of farmers and poor people, and of course lots of hidden eroticism behind the realistic scenes.

Frans Verbeeck is mentioned in the book written by Carel van Mander about important Netherlands and German painters. The book was written probably in the XVI century. Carel van Mander died in 1606. The first edition is from 1764. Frans Verbeeck was born and worked in Mechelen in Belgium. He died in 1570, but we don’t know his date of birth. His paintings can be admired in the Centre for Old Art 't Vliegend Peert in Mechelen in Belgium.



The painting, “The Mockery of Human Follies” was for sale in 2007 at an auction by Dorotheum in Vienna. The guide price was between €65.000 and €75.000. It was sold of course. I would love to have the painting on my own wall, look at it every day, discover new stories, hidden metaphors, hidden symbols. I'm still trying to work out the significance of the tiny people present in such numbers. Are they us? And are the huge people the gods playing with us? laughing at us? or it is just us, the human species playing with other humans? Please let me know if you have any more information about this painting. My curiosity requires answers!

At the moment I'm on a bit of hiatus from the art business, well at least commission work. But while I'm having a bit of down time, I'm refocusing on skilling up and getting together some portfolio pieces. That's not to say that I won't take on work that interests me and I have time for, and I won't be abandonning this blog as I continue to look for interesting articles, things to try and talk about my experiences in improving productivity, juggling things and improving my art.





How to clear you inbox when you're drowning
One of my favourite blogs, this article contains some great ideas on taming the inbox. A lot of the ideas aren't new, but it's always a good reminder.

"The beauty of an empty inbox is a thing to behold. It is calming, peaceful and wonderful.
An inbox that is overflowing with actions, urgent calls for responses, stuff to read … it’s chaos, it’s stressful, it’s overwhelming". (From the article)

How to design for your worst client - You
Not really a 'productivity' related article, but I found it a nice pieces on designing your website. Maybe a few of the things mentioned may help you save time in the long run. While aimed at web designers, I think the content is relevant for anyone that relies on the internet as a business.

"In this article we’ll examine the barriers that hinder designing for yourself and reveal 10 rules to help you create the best design for yourself. Together we’ll squash that dark side in all of us." (From the article)

Perfectionism isn't bad in the long term
 An interesting discussion on perfectionism and excellence, and how perfectionism can prevent you from getting stuff done.

"The best ideas come from unusual sources. And some of the best productivity ideas I’ve come across lately come from a now-dead, 2500 year-old Chinese philosopher. Lao-Tzu, founder of Taoism may not be remembered for lifehacking, but with a few modifications, some of his ideas will help you get things done." (From the blog)

How to learn to let go and love it
An article about learning to turn over work for your business to someone else.

" Are you a control freak? I think we all are at times, some more than others. Over the course of the last few years, as my business has slowly grown, I have learned that a big key to success is learning to let go and not freak the hell out about it. If you find yourself freaking out at the thought of letting someone else do work for your business without you looking over their shoulder, then this post is definitely for you." (From the article)

Image courtesy: FreeDigitalPhotos.net