15 Minutes each Day for your Art

We're all busy and artists who have families with young children and teen are especially busy. We're busy with our lives and we're also busy taking care of our children's lives as well.

With this in mind, there is no reason EVERYONE can find at least 15 minutes per day to draw or sketch. If you take public transportation then you even have less of an excuse because you can take a sketch book and make a quick sketch during the ride to work.

List of possible places and times to sketch:

1. During your commute while your stuck in traffic.
2. During your commute while your en route on public transportation.
3. During your lunch break.
4. Doodle while your on the phone with a customer or client.
5. Waiting to pick your kids at school or sporting event.
6. During breaks at your kids events.
7. In the morning set your alarm and wake up 30 minutes earlier.
8. While dinner is cooking.
9. Stay up 15 minutes each night and sketch before you go to bed.
10. In line at the deli doing your groceries.
11. Just give it some thought and you'll figure out many other times.

Fifteen minutes per day and you will greatly improve your drawing and painting.

Meeting Other Artists & The Public

I met a very nice guy name Arthur Fleming last week and I stop by to say hello to him every day because he works for the public transportation I use. He's a fellow artist and for the short time I've known him he appears to be a really great person. Arthur works on watercolor portraits and plans on becoming a full-time artist in October when he retires. He paints every day and I think he's going to become a really good artist.

The reason I'm mentioning Arthur here is because I would like to stress the importance for artists to get out into public and meet the public and to meet other artists. We as artists have to become more approachable and less snobby if you will. I think the internet and social web sites are changing this attitude but we all need to make more of an effort to get out and make art more approachable and obtainable.

I believe that average person is afraid of art for the fear of looking stupid because they don't know enough about art. We as artists should educate the public and answers their questions. We need to be proactive and approach the public and ask them if they have any questions. Most people love to speak with artists and it's good the future of all artists if we can welcome them into our world and let them know it's okay to ask questions and learn about art. Everyone is a possible collector and the more education we give, the better our chances of gaining collectors.

Vintage Baseball Paintings

I mentioned in my last post that I would like to do a series of old time baseball paintings. If Google "vintage baseball" you will get some hits on this subject. There are small groups of people putting together games using the old time rules and wearing the original uniforms. You can check out some of the rules and information at this site: '

http://wiki.vbba.org/

Red Sox win the opener

I watched the season opener of the Red Sox and Yankees last night and the Sox pulled through. I also play myself on Sundays and it may me realize that I should do a baseball series of paintings. I think I'm going to attend one of the old-time games they have around the Boston area and take some reference photos for a baseball series. For the uninitiated there are small groups of players who get to together for play baseball and play baseball just like in the beginning with no gloves and pausing in between pitches, the pitcher's mound is closer. Not for the faint of heart. I'll post links in my next post.

Serious About Blogging

I'm going to try once again to commit to blogging regularly by life keeps getting in my way, but I've decided that if I want to get out of this life and into a life that I want that I have to make a commitment to my art and to this blog. I want this blog to be a place where other artists can come and learn, get inspiration and to share their thoughts about art.

Importance of a Sketchbook

A sketchbook is one of the best tools any artist can have in order to consistently improve the quality of the art. You can have a larger sketchbook for home use and use a smaller sketchbook to keep with you all the time. I keep a sketchbook in my bag to take with me to and from work and I draw on the train and that provides me with an addtional hour of sketching time per day. This helps when you are juggling a family life and a full time (non-art) career. This helps improve every aspect of your artwork including painting. Painting is just drawing with a paint brush so if you improve your drawing then everything will improve.

If you keep a sketchbook in your car you can sketch while you are stuck in traffic, waiting outside for friends or family, etc. You should take every possible change you get to sketch and I promise you'll see significant improvements in your work.

You don't have to sketch large scenes. You just want to find something nearby, no matter how small or large, and do a quick sketch of it. You can create really loose or really detailed drawings as time allows.

You can arrange to work on particular areas of you work that you need to improve on. For instance you can agree to get proportions correct during one session and then agree to work on getting your shading rendered correctly in the next.

Keep some small items with you or in your car to draw so you don't have to rely on the existing surroundings to provide subjects and this also allows you to continue sketching at another time on the same object. Some simple items you probably already have around the house or are easy to get to take with you are: toys, small statues, pens, plastic figures, leaves, rocks, sticks, keychains and just about anything else with light and shadow and bits of details.

I sometimes sketch faces and objects from newspapers that I tear out and put inside my sketchbooks or draw people or items such as shoes people are wearing on the train. My point is that there is always something to sketch so keep your sketchbook handy and start drawing.

Dr. Sketchy's Anti-Art sketching session

While scouring the internet and Googling the work "sketch" I stumbled upon this strange dare I say "arts" event." On every second Sunday of the month Great Scott's nightclub offers up "Dr. Sketchy's Anti-Art School Burlesque Life Drawing Session" that is not your average art school life drawing class.

In there own words, "Dr. Sketchy is the life drawing session you dreamed of in your dirty little art school head. Hot models with crazy costumes, sometimes genderbending antics, poses that keep your interest for hours, nice folks around you, beer, and it's cheap. The models talk and keep you entertained, there's good music, you could win prizes for good and bad art! You don't have to be a good artist, or someone who draws everyday. Dr. Sketchy is a great place to start back, or to try to pick up a new creative outlet.

We start with short poses to get you warmed up and then move on to longer and longer poses, but that's about where the traditional life drawing session stops..."

Here are the details if you are so inclined:

Dr. Sketchy's Anti-Art School Burlesque Life Drawing Session
Please bring your ID - this is an 18+ event
Great Scotts (Nightclub)
Second Sunday of every month
2.30-5.30pm
Cost $8 at the door. Tips for the model are welcome.
1222 Commonwealth Ave Allston (at corner of Harvard)