Do you enjoy listening to inspiring and/or educational podcasts while you work? Do you find it encouraging to listen to stories or advice from other creatives who have found success doing what they love? Lately I've been trying my best to absorb as much as possible about what it takes to succeed as an artist. I am so incredibly grateful for all the artists and experts out there willing to put out information for us to learn from and apply in our careers. As artists, most of us are responsible not only for continuously producing good art, but of promoting it as best as we can and dealing with everything else that comes from selling a product (numbers, money, taxes, etc.). There's just so much! Is it worth it in order to do what we love and living life on our terms? Totally! Nonetheless, there's a lot of learning involved and if it wasn't for all of these incredible, helpful people putting all that information out there, the learning curve for new artists would be a lot steeper. I love listening to these talks as I work (yay for multitasking!). The following five podcasts are by far my favorite. They all offer large libraries of episodes to choose from and their topics range from motivational to practical. I hope they will help you as much as they have helped me. 1. Accidental Creative Accidental Creative is a group dedicated to helping creatives thrive by providing workshops and many other useful resources. Click here to listen to the episode released yesterday titled ¨Avoiding the Comparison Trap¨. 2. Creative Pep Talk I find Andy J. Miller extremely inspirational and I quite enjoy his more intimate approach to podcasts. He combines interviews and personal stories in his episodes. Click here to listen to the last episode titled ¨You Are More¨. 3. The Jealous Curator 105 episodes of inspirational interviews with artists and creatives. Click here to listen to this wonderful episode titled ¨If It Scares You, Do It¨. 4. Art Marketing Action Podcasts from Alyson B. Stanfield (ArtBizCoach.com) As artists and freelancers, we have to be our own promoters. Alyson Stanfield is an expert at Art Marketing and puts out a lot of useful information for us. Click here to listen to choose from 189 different episodes on iTunes. 5. Artists Helping Artists This is also a very helpful podcast in which artists talk about the business side of being an artist as well as other practical tips. Click here to listen to the interesting episode titled ¨20 Lists Artists Should Keep¨.
Check out my FREE Patreon-exclusive tutorial and class samples here.
Do you know of any other awesome art/creativity/creative business related podcasts? If you do, please share them in the comments section below so we can all get some inspiration!
6 Comments
Hey, there! Here is a collection of pencil sketches and watercolor paintings I have created in the past couple of weeks. Thanks for popping by today!
*This post contains affiliate links. I receive small commissions for purchases made through these links at no extra cost to you. These commissions help me keep this site up and running, in order for me to keep providing helpful and inspiring art content. :)
Do you have a few old paintings laying around that are no longer up to par and wonder if you could reuse them to make even better artwork? Interested in moving your painting skills forward by creating more art and in finding ways to save on supplies? You want to make an omelette? You've gotta break some eggs.
-Tyler Durden (Fight Club)
In today's post, I will be taking you through the process of preparing an old canvas painting in order to reuse it to create a new painting. With just a few tools, you'll be able to have a brand new surface to paint on! I am a firm believer in using what we have and in being as resourceful as possible in our explorations. Because, as most of you already know, us artists need to explore a lot and we have to be smart about how we spend our money. First and foremost, a bit about the original painting. This canvas was a part of an artwork composed of three separate panels (three long rectangles meant to be hung vertically side by side). The paintings around 35 years old. Probably more. Another important note is that these artworks seem to have been created using very thin applications of acrylic paint. It is definitely not oil. And they don’t have much texture to them at all. I took all of these points into consideration when I decided to use them in my oil painting explorations. I knew resurfacing them was going to be easy and that they presented good opportunities for me to work on a size and format I had never worked on before. Canvases with thickly applied paint (either oils or acrylics) or a lot of texture on them will probably require more work because more sanding will have to be done. Secondly, I used regular Gesso I had at hand in order to resurface my canvas. There is a lot of debate whether or not it is ¨safe¨ to use oil paint on a canvas prepped with gesso. A lot of folks believe that it should not be done because it is just a recipe for cracking, peeling and an overall less durable painting. Other artists believe that a good quality Gesso can serve as base for practically any type of paint or medium. I think it is up to you to figure out if this will work for your specific type of artwork or not, and the only way of finding this out is through first-hand experimentation. Perhaps your just experimenting and learning like me, and aren't really looking to create a masterpiece that will be passed on from generation to generation. In this case, it doesn't really matter. Something you do have to keep in mind is that if your goal is to resurface an old oil painting, a whole new set of rules apply. Regular Gesso cannot be used for this purpose. You would need an oil-specific ground and/or primer (I will not go into this process today because it is not something I have personally tried). So, once again, you can create an oil painting over traditional Gesso, but you cannot apply gesso over an oil painting. Are you with me? Ok!
I personally didn't worry much about creating an impeccable surface for this project because, as previously stated, I knew since the beginning that this was mostly an exploration for me.
However, if it worries you, a solution is to apply Linseed Oil prior to starting the painting process (if you're painting with oils). Simply brush this all over the previously dried gesso and allow it to soak for about 24 hours. Afterwards, wipe off the canvas with a dry cloth and let the games begin! The idea is that the gesso will absorb some of this oil and it is less likely to make the painting crack later.
Check out my FREE Patreon-exclusive tutorial and class samples here.
How to Resurface an Old Canvas Using Gesso Supplies -Old canvas painting/print/pretty much whatever as long as it's not an oil painting -Sandpaper -Gesso -Thick used up/cheap brush -Old fabric or dusting cloth -Glass containers for water -Linseed oil (*Optional)
Process 1. Wipe the old artwork clean. Make sure it is clear of dust and other particles. 2. Sandpaper the surface using light pressure and focusing on heavily textured areas. Don’t fret so much about getting the surface super even if the painting has a lot of texture to it. Wipe surface using a cloth. 3. Apply first layer of Gesso as evenly as possible and allow to dry for a couple of hours. If your Gesso is too thick and this bothers you, you can add a bit of water to it. Make sure that first layer completely dries before continuing with the next step. If it feels damp to the touch, this means you should wait longer. 4. Once the first layer is dry, apply a second coat of Gesso and allow to dry once more. 5. Sandpaper the surface again. How much you sand this layer will depend on the amount of texture you want your painting surface to have. Some artists like starting off with more texture than others and this is where your personal preference comes in. Just make sure that after you're done with your sanding, you remove any left over particles by dusting your canvas once more. At this point it should be ready to be painted on. But if you are still a bit nervous about not having a quality surface to work on, use the Linseed Oil suggestion I mentioned before. I will be trying this out on the next one. To end this post, I would like to encourage you to experiment with new artistic processes first-hand even though maybe you don't have much experience about how to go about them. Sure, do your research, but actually do it! Trying things out for yourself is going to leave you so much more knowledge and experience than just reading or hearing about them. Also, always remember that both in art and in life, it's much more about enjoying the process than the final outcome. Even if you don't end up with a masterpiece, the skills you learned throughout the way and what you discovered about yourself make the process totally worth it. Have you ever re-purposed an old artwork in order to create a new one? I'd LOVE to hear about it in the comments below. |
www.erikalancaster.com
is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com. www.erikalancaster.com is a participant in the Shareasale.com Affiliate Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Shareasale.com partner companies. |