Please Like, Comment and Follow.

In my experience, when I display a drawing or something I've created to someone, either via social media, but more often in person the response to it and therefore, me, tends to fall into a number of defined categories.

Category 1 - Praise.

Category 2 - Envy.

Category 3 - Aww, that's cute.

Category 4 - Scrutiny.

Category 4 - Meh.

Praise - I welcome praise, but I am completely terrible at knowing what to do with it. I post my drawings and paintings on at least 4 different social media platforms, I have hung them in art exhibitions, created a website.....clearly, I'm desperate for more people to see what I do and get as much art out there for others to enjoy as possible.

And yet, positive comments are like mosquito's to me...I tend to bat them away as quickly as possible and then vigorously spray the effected area. It often comes across as being rude and dismissive, such is my derision. I'm sorry, I don't mean it, I'm just very socially awkward and clearly have trust issues. If you've ever said nice things about my stuff I thank you, truly... *psshhh*

Commission painting for a member of a local singing group.

The best compliment anyone could ever give me, and something I will never feel uncomfortable with, is when someone asks me to create something for them. That's an endorsement of the highest order and gives me the warm fuzzies every time.

There is another separate issue when it comes to praise, and an area I've discussed often with creative people ( I don't call them 'creative people' to their face....that'd be really quite unusual. Many of them have regular names like John or Sue.) is seeing any art as being Amazing!!! (multiple exclamation marks as standard) and throw 'likes' at it regardless of it's artistic merit.

This isn't the reserve of the art world - society now feels that 'liking' is the same as acknowledging and it gets my back right up....but for fear of this becoming a rant I shall sidestep.

Disingenuous much?

Envy See; - 'this is soooo good,..... I hate you.'

Wow.

Now, I'm reasonable enough to understand that so much hate speech isn't actual hostility, but even so, 'I don't like you', seemingly because you've spent time and effort on something is a curious reaction. I would imagine it probably speaks more of the person commenting, than a critique on yours truly.

Does this envy run through the same person do you think? 'That's a lovely cup of tea....I hate you', 'Mmm this cake is amazing!....I wish you ill health', 'OMG those cushions!.....DIE, YOU FIEND!

Too much? Possibly.

Aww, that's cute - this is the slightly patronising response from individuals that see my work as, 'something nice'. Walk around any craft stall or art exhibition and you can invariably pick out people who enjoy 'chocolate box' art, predominately traditional to the exclusion of all else. (Chocolate box, is of course a patronsing term, often describing highly accomplished if dull style from masters of their craft. Big up.)

I draw a lot of skulls and monsters and robots, I'm a man-child. You'd be surprised at the number of requests I get for 'nice' work though.

I rarely turn it down but it does raise a chuckle when I think of someone leafing through my zombie collection and drawing the conclusion that this is the guy I want to draw my local church. (true story)

Scrutiny - My fave. I love people who scrutinise. Okay love might be too strong a term, very sexually attracted then. Those that look at work and pick out details, good or bad and reference them. This might be the teacher in me, but if you can back up your criticism, positive or negative, with examples I'm likely to respond.

I want to know why that sells, or why this sucks.

I'm a tender little flower of course, so be constructive in your damning appraisal, but let me know. Horrible cliche though it is, I learn more from scrutiny than 20 likes (5 likes, lets not get carried away here) and a quick 'garjuz'.

Meh - cba tbh

Pete

#illustration #painting #drawing #art #commissions #etsy #redbubble #pinterest #instagram #watercolour #tameink #papagena

To Illustrate the Point

For many, there appears to be something of a division if you look at the work I produce, a line in the sand that seperates one approach from another.

At one end stands my drawing and painting, the traditional artwork to quote from Deviant Art's complex and divisive catagorising system.

Everything from my doodles and sketches, produced at the back of important meetings, to the complex watercolour illustrations that scatter peoples homes and have now probably faded a little because you hung them in direct sunlight.

These are my bread and butter.....mmm bread.........sorry, these are the cornerstone of what I do, and no doubt always will be. I love to draw and paint. I find the immediacy of being able to pick up a ball-point pen and sketch zombie's on an A4 agenda or the preparatory nature of setting out trays of watercolours and an easel ready for a days painting equally fulfilling. The day I realise I can no longer draw or paint, will be my 'time's up' notification.

Wow, way to put a downer on things.

In recent years however, and certainly during this whole lockdown shenanigans I have taken to creating more digital work.

Commendeering my daughters graphics tablet, cheers Emma, and trying to guide myself through the intricacies of Photoshop, and in particular Illustrator.

An added bonus of using these very expensive apps is that it has brought life to a lot of the sketches that have been sat dormant in the bowels of my sketch books for years.

I love a sketch book, and must confess to starting (though not always finishing) scores of them. However, they can become museum pieces once I've worked through the empty pages.

I have no problem with museums you understand, but everyone wants to know the dinosaurs come to life once the lights are out, and this gives me that opportunity.

So turning funny little pencil sketches into funny little vector graphics, with the added bonus of then being able to use sites like Redbubble to transfer, quite easily, those images onto real products is pretty darn cool.

Now, to be clear, personally I see no division and no line in the sand. Traditional and digital art is simply art. How I produce it may be different, and a poor wifi connection, like on so many occasions can be the decisive factor. Every idea tends to start with a sketch on paper, so if I had to choose, and if someone threatened me with a pointy stick....who are these people, and why are they threatening artists with sticks?, neanderthals......I'd say traditional has the edge.

But no one ever has.

Pete

These designs and others can be found at

Tameink.redbubble.com

#illustration #redbubble #superlambanana #liverpool #tameink #illustrator #photoshop #adobe #drawing #deviantart #artwork #digital #vector #sketchbook

Brilliant!....who is it?

Confession time....I hate doing caricatures. Loathe them, detest....am.... not..... partial! I've done quite a few of them, but they are just not something I enjoy.

Why?

Well, its the pressure.

Achieving a good likeness, capturing their face and features, but being significantly cartoonish is tricky. What doesn't help is thinking the participant will be offended because I've given them a big nose, or made them look more overweight than they already are. And if the painting is of a female, that anxiety only gets worse!

Invariably I've tried to dissuade people from getting them, or offered alternatives - I do more simplified portraits that remove the need for big noses altogether.

And yet, every couple of months someone will ask, and invariably I will say yes.

I struggle to say no to anything, and my personal pride wont let me do a bad job.

But a good painting does not a good caricature maketh.....or something.

If you would like a caricature from me in the future however, I have a few simple conditions then.

They are as follows:

1. Have a 'caricature ready' face to begin with - big nose, questionable facial hair, few teeth missing....gents, you too.

2. Provide photo's - plenty of, all angles and decent quality....just the face though and maybe the ears, though I can probably improvise there.

3. Ask for lots of distracting other details- these will put me at ease when drawing, and distract your eyes when you see that I may have given you that big nose or a few pounds.

4. Try not to be female, or if you have to be accept you may not look female in watercolours.

Obviously if you've already had a caricature from me cheers, you probably want to ignore half of what I've just written. Unless you're someone enjoys having the piss taken out of them visually, which is effectively what they are anyway.

If that's the case, I thank you.

Sorry about your nose.

#caricature #illustration #painting #tameink