*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. :)
Hey, there! In today's post I'll be sharing my most recent paintings and sketches. I've been working hard on, not only staying consistent with my blog and YouTube channel while teaching art classes locally, but also on producing the work I will be selling as soon as I'm able to open my online shop. The two oil paintings included in this small compilation are the last two in the collection of five large (90 x 70 cms.) landscape oil paintings that I sought out to create about two months ago. It was a self-imposed challenge as I had never really created a "series" of larger paintings, and I really wanted to push myself to explore one single theme. This weekend, I'll be starting on a collection of five still life oil paintings that will also be for sale and I'm very excited about that! Through my online art shop, I'll be selling originals created with both oils and watercolors!
Check out my FREE Patreon-exclusive tutorial and class samples here.
Aside from these two oil paintings, I'm sharing the watercolor illustrations I created for the July calendar I sent out to my e-mail subscribers this week (at the end of each month I send them a calendar for the following month). I really enjoy painting with watercolors and pushing myself to continue improving with this medium. Aside from using these illustrations as part of the calendar design, I also create awesome products for my Society6 and Redbubble shops with them, which I'd love for you to check out! :) And, finally, I'm also including some sketches. I'm always going on about how I find drawing so important, and how it's important for artists to keep drawing throughout their journeys, and I'm holding myself accountable! I'm continuing to push myself to create human figure studies in more complex/dynamic poses (as opposed to the very stiff and uninteresting poses I drew when I first started). The human figure is a great challenge for me, but I've seen significant progress since I've started drawing it more consistently.
Thanks so much for dropping by and checking out my work. I really appreciate it! And if you're a beginner/intermediate artist looking to improve your skills, make sure to visit my library of free resources. It's jam-packed with helpful tips and tutorials on a variety of different mediums and subjects. Cheers!
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Hey there, creative friends! In this week's blog post, I'll be sharing some of my recent sketchbook entries and finished paintings (both watercolor and oils). As far as sketchbook work, I continue challenging myself whenever I'm able to, focusing on subjects that are difficult for me. For these last entries, I practiced female figure studies and a male portrait (I rarely draw men!). The oil paintings included here are two in my new landscape series. I have now completed three out of the five I will be selling. Very soon, I'll be sharing progress of the fourth one. So do follow me on Instagram if you wish to know how that goes! Once I complete these five landscapes, I'm going to be working on five still lives. I currently sell my original artwork only in Mexico, but have plans of opening online shops to ship to other countries in the near future! So due stay tuned! :) The watercolor paintings included here, are part of the group of illustrations I created for the June calendar design I will be sending over to my e-mail subscribers very soon! At the end of each month, I send them free printable calendars in both Letter and Tabloid size featuring my illustrations. :) If you'd like to become part of my insider group and receive these exclusive freebies, as well as helpful art content and news about offerings that will help you progress artistically, subscribe here:
Check out my FREE Patreon-exclusive tutorial and class samples here.
Thanks so much for visiting and checking my work out! I really appreciate it! If you're a beginner/intermediate artist looking to improve your work, do check out the posts below! I constantly produce helpful blog posts and YouTube videos with art tips, tutorials and encouragement! Have a beautiful weekend! Hey there, art friends! The past couple of weeks, I've been sketching a lot of female figure studies, as well as portraits. In case you're not following me on Instagram, you should! Over there, I share what I'm up to on a daily basis. If you've already been following me, then you're probably aware that a couple of weeks ago I challenged myself to produce a total of five landscape paintings using oils. I've nearly completed the second, which I will be sharing soon! I'm including the first in this mini-collection of my latest artwork! That's it for now, but stay tuned for much more to come! I hope you're having a wonderful day and that you've been able to set aside at least a bit of time to work on your art. Cheers! Have you reached a point in your art journey at which you feel relatively confident about your skills but are anxious to find your own style and voice? Are you stuck with your art and feel that your own perfectionism and/or fear of failure is keeping you from moving forward? "Create your own visual style... let it be unique for yourself and yet identifiable for others." -Orson Welles There is a point in every artist's journey at which a substantial amount of time and effort has been dedicated to developing artistic skills, but the artist has yet to decide what ideas he/she wants to share with the world and what mediums, techniques and style will set him/her apart from others. It takes an immense amount of work, exploration and introspection to push through this point, but it's important to keep on until the breakthrough happens. In my opinion, it's exactly this desire to push through the initial phase that differentiates a hobbyist from a pro. It's a point at which perfect rendering and technique becomes just as important as (or may even take back seat to) having an artwork transmit the ideas or feelings we are striving to transmit. In this blog post, I will be sharing five very useful tips that will help you loosen up and express more of yourself through your art. It's this exploration that will help you discover yourself as an artist. If you're at this point, it's time to experiment fearlessly and push your limits! I wrote a blog post several months ago in which I share an excellent method that you can apply to start discovering your own art style using other artists' work as inspiration. This strategy will be very useful for you in this stage, so make sure to check it out after this post. How to Effectively Use Other Artists' Work as Inspiration and a Great Method to Start Developing Your Own Artistic Style. Currently, I'm doing a lot of exploratory work with oils on canvas. If you've been following my work for any amount of time, you probably already know that I love working on smaller-scale watercolor illustrations. However, I've had the pleasure of creating larger decorative fine art for local clients and have really enjoyed it! I'm making time for oil painting as much as I can and am planning on selling my artwork internationally in the near future. I'm working on a series of five large landscape oil paintings. I will be sharing these with you throughout the upcoming weeks so stay tuned!
If you enjoyed this video and found it helpful, make sure to subscribe to my YouTube channel. I share a brand new video every week with art tips, drawing and painting tutorials and mindset/productivity tips for artists. *Subscribe HERE*
5 Tips That Will Help You Become More Loose and Expressive When Creating Art "Regularity, order, desire for perfection destroy art. Irregularity is the basis of all art." -Pierre-Auguste Renoir 1. Gain confidence in your skills by learning and practicing Art Fundamentals In order to draw or paint freely, you need to have a certain level of confidence in your skills and artistic knowledge. And the only way to truly gain confidence in anything, is by practicing first-handedly and delving deep into the fundamentals. Knowing Art Fundamentals inside and out is going to help you immensely, and is the basis for everything else. Topics like composition, harmony, proportion, color, perspective, texture, value, etc., have to be engrained in your head so that you can apply this knowledge naturally and organically as you are creating your artwork. Over at my Patreon site, I have a library of classes that cover all the basic Art Fundamentals I learned about in school, in sequential order! All of my most helpful, exclusive content such as real-time drawing and watercolor painting tutorials with downloadables, weekly sketchbook prompts, feedback from me on your work, and much more can be accessed immediately upon joining. Check out my Patreon site here! Aside from knowing Art Fundamentals, it's also imperative for you to have some experience working with whatever medium and supplies you're thinking of using. How are you going to paint or draw freely if you feel like you're constantly fighting with the medium, or have no idea how the substrate/medium/etc. is going to react throughout the process? The saying "Learn the rules before you can break them" applies here! In my blog post titled Why Sketchbooks Are Essential Tools for Artists and A Few Usage Tips I share how I personally use my sketchbooks on a daily basis to make sure I'm progressing continuously. 2. Prepare yourself mentally before you begin It's absolutely essential to start a challenging piece in the right headspace. Once you have arrived at the idea of what you'll be creating, start with positivity and confidence. I've mentioned this before, but our minds are extremely powerful. Remember, if you think you're going to fail, you most likely will. Now is the time to embrace experimentation and throw perfectionism out the window. Allow the magic to happen as you work with your medium and tools. Do your best to give up some of your control and allow your medium to do some of the speaking for itself. 3. Paint with larger brushes and, if possible, on a larger substrate Painting/drawing at a larger scale will not only encourage more arm movement (which in turn leads to more dynamic work), but allows you to focus on larger shapes. Using a larger brush, or drawing tools like chalk or charcoal, also make it more difficult to obsess over tiny little details. This, in turn, challenges you to think about what is actually needed in your composition and what can be left out. Not to mention, larger pieces are also (usually) meant to be viewed from farther away. At the moment of drawing or painting, step back and continuously remind yourself that the piece is meant to be appreciated from a distance. If you're creating a painting, remember that your paintbrush is not meant to be held as a writing pencil or pen! Try holding it with your thumb and index finger, and keep the rest of your hand relaxed. Beginners have a tendency to hold brushes very close to the bristles to feel more in control. Try holding your brush farther up the handle, anywhere from halfway up to the tip. Explore the different types of brush strokes your brushes are able to create, and the shapes and textures their bristles naturally leave behind. Load your paintbrushes with a good amount of paint so that there's more of a chance for interesting "natural" occurrences to happen.
Check out my FREE Patreon-exclusive tutorial and class samples here.
4. Use music Music can have such a deep impact on our mood and inspiration levels! I love creating a good, long playlist for myself prior to starting with a painting. Music helps keep my creativity flowing and my energy high for hours. Our taste in music will vary from person to person, of course. Perhaps an artist looking to create an extremely dynamic abstract painting would be inspired by music with a faster/upbeat tempo. Whereas, another artist might find more relaxing, classical music more helpful. Regardless of your taste in music, create a playlist that will help you stay positive, inspired and motivated to continue. 5. Practice leaving your brushstrokes alone Do your best to place your brushstrokes (or lines if your drawing) with intention and then leave them alone! Allow the organic occurrences to happen and think of how you can use these effects to your advantage instead of trying to correct them or blend them out. Stop yourself from pushing forward with actions that are really not really necessary. Try to do more with less and don't obsess over every tiny little accident or irregularity. Let go of the need to control everything! I hope that you found this post helpful and that it encouraged you to keep exploring and moving forward with your art. I wish you all the best and remember to enjoy the process!
*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 want to go off on vacation, but fear you'll lose your creative streak or even fall behind artistically if you take a few days off? Ever wondered how you can ensure creative progress while away from the studio and regular work routines? Curious to see what happens when you take your art-making on the road but are, perhaps, a bit nervous about working in unusual/public settings? As artists, traveling is a great way of gaining new inspiration and facing challenges that can lead to substantial growth. It may sound counterintuitive, especially for us workaholics, but putting miles between us and our studios may be just what we need to kick our creative progress into gear. In today's blog post, I'll be sharing the three things I personally did to prepare for my last trip, which allowed me to enjoy it immensely WHILE moving forward artistically. By preparing ourselves mentally and doing a bit of research beforehand, we can take full advantage of our travels and come back home refreshed, motivated and full of ideas! To clarify, I consider the incubation of ideas just as important as the act of creating finalized artworks. It's through first-hand experiences that we get to know ourselves as artists and come to conclusions about what messages we want to bring to the world. This, for me, is just as essential as working on our cold artistic skills. I absolutely loved Toronto! In my last blog post/YouTube video, I shared how there was just SO much to get inspired by! Check that post out HERE. The huge variety in cultures present in the city, as well as the beautiful architecture, music, coffee, shops, galleries and art studios triggered a lot of emotions in me that made me want to create.
Visit THIS blog post to find more pictures of the painting process for this watercolor sandwich!
If you enjoyed this video and found it helpful, make sure to subscribe to my YouTube channel. I share a brand new video every week with art tips, drawing and painting tutorials and mindset/productivity tips for artists. *Subscribe HERE*
3 Hacks to Apply Before and During Your Next Trip1. Give some thought to what supplies and promotional items you'll be taking with you The supplies that you choose to take with you will vary depending on your artistic medium(s) of choice, as well as how comfortable you are drawing or painting in public (or rushed) situations. I love watercolors and immediately reached for my smallest/most portable set to pack up. However, I knew that I would probably have limited time and space to create, so I also made sure to take a few pencils and drawing pens with me. I recommend sticking to the basics and taking only what's truly necessary when selecting your art supplies (unless you're deliberately traveling to a drawing/painting event). Take your most portable sets and supplies that allow for easy cleaning, making sure they aren't the most expensive or even your favorite. Things get lost and damaged during trips, and you want to avoid sad situations. Also, consider what bag you'll use to carry your stuff in while walking around. I knew since before my husband and I started preparing for our trip, that I didn't want to pressure myself or take away from fully enjoying the experiences Toronto had to offer. I wanted to focus more on taking note of moments, feelings and thoughts that popped up. The few sketches I created were quick, but I made sure to take lots of reference pictures that I could work with when I got home. If you're up for the challenge, however, traveling is a great opportunity to practice plein air painting, drawing settings, objects and people! You can also set timers for yourself to practice creating faster drawings and/or paintings, which will help you become more expressive and efficient!
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Are you a professional artist? I highly recommend taking time to create unique promotional items that you can give to awesome people you meet while you're traveling!
Instead of giving out a regular business card, think of items that people will actually want to have around and/or use. Be practical about it, of course, as you'll have to make space for them in your suitcase and there's always a risk of things getting damaged throughout the journey.
I had some notebooks made with my artwork on the cover and contact information on the back and people loved them!
Check out my FREE Patreon-exclusive tutorial and class samples here.
2. Use social media to reach out to locals working in areas related to your niche
A couple of weeks before my trip I got the idea of using social media channels to send out a message to artists actually living in Toronto. It's one thing to get recommendations from friends or family who've visited the city/town before, and quite another to get insights from actual local artists.
I created a nice-looking image using Canva calling out for Toronto-based artists and posted it on Instagram and Twitter (a few appropriate hashtags included). I honestly didn't know if I would get any responses, and should have posted it at least a couple of more times.
Fortunately, two very helpful locals got back to me with their recommendations. I even got to meet one of them during my trip, which was awesome.
Using your own research, as well as suggestions from local artists, create a list of places that you want to make sure to visit during your trip, always taking into account their distance from the hotel you'll be staying in.
Think of experiences that you find particularly enjoyable, instead of spending your whole trip running around from place to place visiting the usual tourist-y locations just because that's what everyone tells you you should do (unless you actually want to).
2. Use social media to reach out to locals working in areas related to your niche
A couple of weeks before my trip I got the idea of using social media channels to send out a message to artists actually living in Toronto. It's one thing to get recommendations from friends or family who've visited the city/town before, and quite another to get insights from actual local artists.
I created a nice-looking image using Canva calling out for Toronto-based artists and posted it on Instagram and Twitter (a few appropriate hashtags included). I honestly didn't know if I would get any responses, and should have posted it at least a couple of more times.
Fortunately, two very helpful locals got back to me with their recommendations. I even got to meet one of them during my trip, which was awesome.
Using your own research, as well as suggestions from local artists, create a list of places that you want to make sure to visit during your trip, always taking into account their distance from the hotel you'll be staying in.
Think of experiences that you find particularly enjoyable, instead of spending your whole trip running around from place to place visiting the usual tourist-y locations just because that's what everyone tells you you should do (unless you actually want to).
3. Stay open to inspiration coming from EVERYWHERE (not only the visual arts)
Think about things and experiences that usually trigger your inspiration/motivation. If you're an artist, of course you're going to find museums and galleries enjoyable.
However, what other things do you find inspiring? Is it history? Architecture? Fashion? Food? Nature? Music? Clubs? What is it for you and how can your personal interests translate into activities that you can experience in that particular city?
I understand how for some people it may be important to check off every-single tourist attraction in a specific city, especially because you never know when you'll be able to go back to that particular place. However, try to also incorporate your personal interests into your trip.
I often find quaint, lesser known establishments/areas just as enjoyable as the bigger attractions, and I also love getting to know what life is like for locals. Having the opportunity to chat with locals is very inspiring because you get to know perspectives of people living in cities different from your own.
In my blog post titled How I Find Inspiration as an Artist and Some Ideas to Keep You Going, I talk about the mentality I've adopted as an artist that allows me to be constantly inspired to create. I also give some useful tips that you can apply to keep your creativity flowing steadily.
Supplies and inspirational items I bought during my trip:
1. Black back-pack and pins: Sonic Boom Records
2. The Starving Artist Cookbook, written and illustrated by Sara Zin: Sonic Boom Records
3. Leuchtturm1917 sketchbook: Art Gallery of Ontario Museum (Gift shop)
4. Emily Carr and Lawren Harris Art Magnets: Art Gallery of Ontario Museum (Gift shop)
5. AGO Museum Tote Bag: Art Gallery of Ontario Museum (Gift shop)
6. Emily Carr- An Introduction to Her Life and Art: Acadia Art and Rare Books
*Book can be acquired through Amazon HERE.
7. Wanderlust and Wildflowers Colored Pencils: Kid Icarus Gift and Screen Print Shop
8. Green Ink Pad: Kid Icarus Gift and Screen Print Shop
9. Schoolbook Lowercase Alphabet Stamps: Kid Icarus Gift and Screen Print Shop
Artusiasm is an amazing art gallery that was recommended to me by an artist/designer kind enough to respond to my calling through Instagram! I'm so thankful for this recommendation because the gallery and its owners are truly amazing people! Thanks Ben!! :)
*Click on the images below to visit Artusiasm's site.
To end this blog post, I want to remind you to try to find a balance between enjoying life, taking care of yourself, and staying productive. If you're lucky enough to travel, enjoy the experience as much as possible, remain open, and most likely, inspiration will happen naturally. Don't pressure yourself and focus more on recording your thoughts, feelings and ideas!
I wish you the best of luck in your art journey and lots of opportunities for traveling!
Cheers!
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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.