Art is for the Brave

To create art one must be brave. You can draw, paint or invest your time in art installations but to create Art with a capitol "A" you must be brave.

You must step out side of your comfort zone.

You need to do that thing you think might work instead of the thing that you know will serve but could be bettered.

"Look, who?" by M Francis McCarthy

Don't be afraid. Do that hard thing and don't look back.

"What if it sucks" You say.

Ok, then it will and you'll feel bad. But if you keep at it you know you've at least tried to make Art instead of being happy with craft and kidding yourself that you don't know the difference.

Be brave. Make Art. 

Really, the worlds got enough of everything, except real art that touches others at the core of who and what they are as people.

Cheers,

A bit about "Look, Who?" This guy was created over a span of 10 years. He originated as a doodle on my desktop calender pad at Jab-Art Enterprises in about 1992. I scanned him into my computer at some point and colored him in 1994. Years later I changed the background and tweaked him some. I've always liked the pan in the face look on this guy.

Illustration - Digital Thoughts

Still deep into sorting my catalog of paintings. My computer muscles are getting a bit worn. So short blog post today.

Street Musician by M Francis McCarthy

This illustration I did of a street musician was done soon after I'd arrived to live in New Zealand. It was drawn and inked and colored using a Wacom Stylus and tablet in Photoshop. The watercolor coloring was done by manipulating a photo using lots of filters and Photoshop mojo.

I'd been hatching this style in my brain for quite a while and it wasn't until getting to New Zealand and getting off the hamster wheel that I had time to figure it out.

I used photos extensively my entire career as a paid illustrator. These days its so easy to blur the boundary between photos and illustration it's not even funny. Frankly I've never been too hung up on it as for me art is largely about aesthetics and all the myriad decisions that go into creating a striking image.

It's fun to have a play and let your imagination, skill and talent take you where ever they may. Photoshop and other programs are great for that. 

At the end of the day though I find the attraction of creating with a brush on wood panel to be far more satisfying. There's no undo but there is the tactile sensation of working a surface. Ultimately creating a unique object.

Digital Art 3

Since we we're discussing abstracts yesterday. I thought I'd throw up a few tonight and chat a bit about them and that era in my art adventure.

Lodgio by M Francis McCarthy

These images date from 1996. All of them we're created using my first PC, a 486 with 8 mb of ram. Actually in 1996 my friend David lent me 400 dollars to help me upgrade my machine to a 1 gig hard dive and 16 mb of ram. I owe David a lot and will always remember his kindness.

At the time, that ram upgrade was 300 dollars or so. In those days multitasking like we do now was limited. I was able to play a CD while working in my art programs though which was miraculous at the time.

Kope by M Francis McCarthy

I know, It's a bit of a cliche now but at the time power was a big factor in what you could accomplish on a computer.

We spoke a bit about my digital technique in my last digital art post but the truth is most of this work is not repeatable. When creating abstract art digitally I followed the path of pure inspiration. Though I had some formulas that I would use consistently, the array of options available at every turn meant that no two pieces we're ever the same. 

Muin by M Francis McCarthy

I always strove for organic expression in my digital abstracts. I wanted to develop each image in a natural way even though I was using unnatural means. I seldom would actually draw or paint them in a direct manner, preferring to manipulate digital media in more oblique ways. 

I used all the distortion and blur filters combined with Kai's power tools like vortex distort. However, I do not like anything canned looking and seldom would I leave anything but a faint trace of a filter used. I've more digital pieces that have never been aired and I'm sure we'll revisit this topic in a future post.

Digital Landscape Paintings

In my mind I always imagined being a Landscape Painter. Even now I'm not sure why but much of it has to do with my approach to art in general. To me creating art has always been the thing. Subject matter could change but the drawing and painting remained the same

From 1995 to 2005 I was creating 98% of my art on a computer. At first for my own edification then as a way to make a living. I explored most of the nooks and crannies of the digital art making process and I had attained a high level of mastery with the medium.

Sometime in 2006/07 I started painting landscapes in the computer working directly over photos with my Wacom tablet and stylus. I had developed several techniques that I used for animal illustrations that I wanted to try on landscapes

Falls by M Francis McCarthy

This was based on a photo I took while at Yosemite. I was somewhat pleased with the result but the painting had a stationary quality that I had not yet realized was due to it's method of creation.

View of Grant Parkby M Francis McCarthy

One of my favorite attempts based on a very old digital photo I'd taken. I still like this but I feel the color doesn't move like it would in a real painting.

Forest Path by M Francis McCarthy

Another semi successful work. These three pieces represent the best efforts out of a good 15 paintings done inside my computer using Painter and Photoshop. At the time I was not as aware of the inherent limitations of photography and thus I feel all of these paintings have a quality of effected photographs even though I panted them stroke by stroke over my photo reference.

A few of the limitations and traps involved with directly painting on top of photos are as follows:

• Too much detail in the painting
• Composition issues in the photo are not resolved by in the painting
• Photos have a far more limited color range than most paintings require to be interesting
• You paint everything you see in the photo because it's so apparently there.

I could go on but those are some salient points to remember. Personally, I still use photographic reference but always mindful of these and many more subtle and even insidious traps. There is actually a lot of debate on this topic and many painters prefer to paint En plein air.

I've much to say about photography and it's use in conjunction with landscape painting. So I'll definitely be revisiting the topic in future posts.

Ipad drawings

I did these last year on my wife's iPad. I used a program called LiveSketch HD. I really enjoy drawing the figure but it's awful hard on an iPad without a real stylus and especially difficult without pressure sensitivity. 

Nude Figure by M Francis McCarthy

I got my first Wacom tablet back in 1996. It was an an Artz 2 and used a serial port. I loved it so much. At the time I bought it I made a fairly low wage so I had to save like crazy to get one. I had a picture of the Artz 2 taped above my desk to help it manifest quicker.

Wacom 6x8 Artz 2

Drawing or painting with a mouse is like drawing with a 2x4. It's very difficult to control and fine detail is almost impossible. Thehe pressure sensitive tablet is a huge door to doing art on a computer. 

Drawing on an iPad with your finger is easier than using a mouse on a computer but nowhere even close to a pressure sensitive tablet for control and expression. Of course, a real piece of paper and a pencil or pen has them both beat!

Nude Figure by M Francis McCarthy

Ok, back to the LiveSketch sketches. I kinda like these for what they are. Like any medium you have limitations. The key to working with most mediums is to use those limitations to your best advantage and create as fully as possible within the boundaries of each different medium whether it be a tablet or pastel or oil paints.

Nude Figure by M Francis McCarthy

LiveSketch uses an algorithm to sort of web the line of your drawing. Going slower is darker and thicker while going fast produces thinner lines. It's a neat effect but challenging to control. You can do color as well but I preferred to use it like a pencil. 

I cannot wait for a real pressure sensitive tablet computer to come out. That's going to be awesome!

Digital Art 2

Christmas eve here in New Zealand and I thought I'd put up a few more digital art images.

Eog by M Francis McCarthy

Here in "Eog" I was fascinated by bezier curves and the path tool in Photoshop this was created using channel ops, many learned from Kais power tips. Kais power tips we're useful for creating effects we now take for granted. In a pre layers world most effects had to be created using the calculations menu and multiplying or subtracting various channels to create the desired effect.

Scrap by M Francis McCarthy

This was created using one of the first programs to ever have layers. Unfortunately I forget it's name and my researches cannot find the name of the program or it's inventor. It was very limited but I took the rough idea into Photoshop 3 and worked on it. We take layers so for granted now but they were miraculous when they came out.

Sopyu by M Francis McCarthy

Sopyu was created in Corel's Photopaint. Photopaint came with the suite and was just a few steps behind Photoshop back in 1995/96. This was done after they got a better Gaussian type blur. They're original blur was super boxy.

Uyki by M Francis McCarthy

Uyki was the first peice I sold that was digitally created. It was sold to an interior designer I knew from my time as a manager, artist and designer at a company that did art and framing for interior designers and the hospitality industry.

Digital Art

I first became aware of computers in the 80's. Frankly I was leery of them and was sure they we're going to take over the world and enslave us all (Er. I guess this is a legitimate fear given humanity's adoration of the smartphone. present company included). I wanted nothing to do with them

Hoquea                                                              M Francis McCarthy

Fast forward to 94. I see comics colored in glorious ways that I'd not imagined possible and on the film screens a new type of art was making it's presence felt. I've always followed my deepest intuitions and they we're leading me into this realm of color. At the time I made not a lot of money though I worked hard at the job I'd had for 9 years or so. My mother provided my door into computer land by secretly loaning me the money for my first computer (my dad never knew she did this).

Pokp                                                                    M Francis McCarthy

It was an AT&T 486 with a 500 mb hard drive and most excitingly a CD drive! Not a CD burner that was only an expensive and vague dream at that time. It took me awhile to wrap my head around the thing, this was 1994. I've no space here to delineate my complete progression of learning program by program but I started out with the CorelDraw 3 Suite and then progressed to Painter 3 finally I was able to get my hands on Photoshop.

Broken                                                                    M Francis McCarthy

My big goal at first was to color my pen and ink work and I did do a far bit of that but eventually I started getting really abstract with my art. The freedom of the virtual art studio was intoxicating and I ran wild in it. Creating whatever struck my fancy. I used to love starting with only a blank white file and using only noise I'd create a digital work of art filter by filter, manipulation by manipulation.

Nu                                                           M Francis McCarthy

These images I've posted today are just a small sampling of this exploratory period that lasted from 1994 to 1998. In 1998 I started working as a graphic artist and illustrator and was on a computer all day long working! How I got to landscape painter from there is one of the tales I plan to tell on this blog and I've more to share...