Artists And Sleep (Or The Lack Thereof)

Many artists have the habit of spending hours upon hours on an image. Some even go without eating because they're so focused on finishing or in the zone. When an artist starts to focus too much on art, so much so that they start losing sleep, they start losing productivity and creativity.

What Sleep Loss Does To Artists

• Sleep loss slows down the brain processing power (AKA art block)
• Sleep loss becomes a badge of honor. "I stayed up until 6AM to get this piece done!"
• Sleep loss impairs judgement. That one thing that may be off in a piece becomes harder to figure out.
• Sleep loss depresses people—this may be why artists tend to face depression more often

Catching Up On Sleep
Regular sleep makes inspiration and learning easier to come by. The sleep deprivation fades away and creativity surges up. Getting regular sleep may be a struggle at first, especially when deep in the throws of the next masterpiece. 

• Set an alarm to start waking up at normal hours routinely
• Set a time (not an alarm—you don't want to be jarred awake) to go to sleep every night
• Take breaks from your drawings to exercise, you will be more likely to fall asleep faster
• Cut back on caffeine intake within 4 hours before bed

The Artistic Benefits Of Sleep

• Stopping in the middle of a piece rests your eyes so you can spot mistakes later
• Ideas come faster and more easily
• Depression becomes manageable with help from others

Be sure to get some sleep, it could be what inspires your next master piece.

Feature, C. (May 8). 10 Surprising Effects of Lack of Sleep. WebMD. Retrieved April 25, 2014, from http://www.webmd.com/sleep-disorders/excessive-sleepiness-10/10-results-sleep-loss

Artistic Failure Leads To Artistic Growth

Created in April, 2013 by Kristin Lanier

Many artists let failure completely overwhelm them, to the point of giving up for a period of time or even all together. With failure, every artist has the chance to learn and grow from something that otherwise eluded their understanding.

How To Grow From Failure

• Ask for a critique if what's wrong with the drawing is hard to find
• Ask for a critique during the process of the drawing as well
• Practice, practice, practice what you're having difficulties with in sketches and warm-ups
• Be prepared to redo that part of your art—think of it as a rough draft
• Go over past pieces that you used to love but hate now. What does it need improvement on?

If You Feel Like Stopping, Keep Going 
If you stop, you're denying yourself the opportunity to learn. Pushing through that struggle gives a reward far more fun than letting failure get to you and hold you back. 

When you push forward, you continue improving, especially when you focus on improving on the techniques and skills you struggle with. When you push forward, your skills snowball into a massive avalanche. Soon enough, your skills impress yourself as well as others.

Shaking Off The Feeling Of Failure
All artists, and many others outside the creative industry, have experienced the feeling of failure. Coming back from failure always proves difficult. Sloughing off the disappoint to move on to the next best thing takes willpower.

Keep This In Mind To Move Forward

• All artists have to start somewhere
• The greats became great by overcoming their failures
• Failing only means improvement follows
• Give yourself a break if you feel burnt out
• On the other hand, push yourself if you're feeling burnt out only because a technique evades you
• Natural artists may have talent at the beginning start—others can pass them up with constant practice
• You have a support system you're probably unaware of, seek them out.

Failing Is An Uphill Journey
When an artist fails, it's easy to give up. It's harder to stick with the art, although far more rewarding. You can only improve if you stay at it—the responsibility lies in the hands of the artist.

Created in December, 2013 by Kristin Lanier

Helmigh, s. (2014). Fast lane to becoming a better artist. Retrieved at http://conceptartsessions.com/forum/29/Tips-Tricks/13/Fast-lane-to-becoming-a-better-artist

Inspiration as a process

Review: Otherworlds: How to Imagine, Paint and Create Epic Scenes of Fantasy by Tom Kidd

OtherWorlds: How to Image, Paint and Create Epic Scenes of Fantasy by Tom Kidd presents a wonderful read and learning experience in fantasy art. Tom includes many of his pieces to demonstrate the lessons in his book while stressing that learning through imitations of an artist acts only as a crutch. 

He also asks that readers thoroughly read the book instead of simply copying the art. With my read through, the section describing why clouds appear the way they do made me have a huge "a-ha" moment. OtherWorlds has several more gems like this worth reading the actual content.

The Basics of Getting Started
Tom divided the book into three major parts, with The Basics of Getting Started as the first. This chapter covers studio setup with tools and mediums. He also covers how to stay inspired by learning from nature. He encourages to readers to go outside to draw instead of learning through reference images.

Techniques, Theory, and Subject Matter
This chapter takes a look at color theory, and has the tidbit on clouds mentioned earlier. The color theory shows how different colors used creates a mood, even when used in the sky. Tom encourages the readers to use unusual colors in the sky to your advantage—fantasy art permits some artistic licensing.

For me, this was the largest and most informing part of the book. 

Putting It All Together
Here, any misunderstandings on technique are clarified through example. This chapter shows the techniques, theories, and subject matters mentioned in the previous chapter and how Tom Kidd puts them to use. He goes through several pieces he created from sketch to polished painting.

Adding The Book To Your Library
OtherWorlds is available to buy on Amazon, or even through Barnes and Nobles, typically in the shelves in the Art section. If you go to Barnes and Nobles, call the store first to make sure the book is in stock, they normally only keep one on the shelves. 

Amazon Prime Free Trial. (n.d.). OtherWorlds: How to Imagine, Paint and Create Epic Scenes of Fantasy: Tom Kidd: 9781600618666: Amazon.com: Books. Retrieved , from http://www.amazon.com/OtherWorlds-Imagine-Create-Scenes-Fantasy/dp/1600618669

OtherWorlds: How to Imagine, Paint and Create Epic Scenes of Fantasy. (n.d.). Barnes & Noble. Retrieved , from http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/otherworlds-tom-kidd/1112140969?ean=9781600618666

Create Personal Art While In College

Getting a fresh break into the industry as a professional artist seems daunting. Plenty of artists lack to knowledge on where to start, especially those newly graduated from university or the art institute. While colleges teach artists the technical skills, they don't teach the skills to get artwork out on the market and into games and moves.

The pursuit to a creative career needs to start while going through college. College assignments don't impress hiring agents—they've more than likely seen the same assignment before. The artwork created outside of class—personal art—attracts work that an artist would enjoy.

Why Creating Personal Art Gets The Job:

• Personal artwork typically gets more time and care from the artist
• An artist stays inspired with personal work instead of burning out on assignments
• The hiring agent looks for fresh ideas to bring into the company
• By creating what artists are passionate about, the artists attract work they are passionate about. 

Making A Long Term Project Has Benefits
Cory Godbey suggested in his blog post Personal Work: Making It Count that creating a long term project with a series of pieces shows possible clients what you enjoy. By showing what you enjoy through a long term, you showcase your technical skill, your own creative ideas, and attract work that you enjoy.

Finding the time to create personal artwork may seem difficult while managing classes. Take the time to fill a sketch page a day to generate ideas as a start—the next step to create the piece is just a step away. Continuing with the sketch to finish, the piece has snowballed to completion. Then, create the next piece to your series and you have solid work to put in your portfolio.

While going through college and trudging through the workload, take the time to enjoy personal pieces. Those projects should be fun to attract fun client work. By creating pieces you find fun, you attract and build a network that finds the same subject matter entertaining.

Cooperstein, Page. (n.d.) Artists Share How They Make Money While Doing What They Love. Retrieved from http://www.businessinsider.com/8-ways-an-artist-can-make-money-2013-11.

 Godbey, Cory. (November 13, 2013) Personal Work: Making It Count. Retrieved from http://muddycolors.blogspot.com/2013/11/personal-work-making-it-count.html

Go Outside! - Learn about the environment and get inspired

In this podcast, I talk about artists spending hours on end inside over one masterpiece saps away inspiration pretty quickly. We need to go outside. Enjoy the nice weather, and learn a thing or two that we can apply to new pieces based on observations. Once we've learned something, we can apply that to new ideas!

Branch Into Different Mediums For Inspiration

Every artist has a favorite medium, whether it's digital, oil, acrylic, ink, or pencils. We get comfortable with our tools—every artist needs to push outside of their comfort zone to create something new and amazing.
 
Switching Mediums Promotes Learning 
Say, for instance, a digital artist takes up a paint brush and tries to paint a canvas. Traditional artwork lacks an undo button, which teaches artists to paint their way out of mistakes. Some tools in the Photoshop suddenly make sense simply because they are traditional tools translated into the technical realm.
 
On the other hand, traditional artists have tools at their disposal that they otherwise lacked. Seeing and changing mistakes in a painting takes little to no effort.
 
Switch mediums for the purpose of learning and getting inspired instead of creating a masterpiece. You may end up creating that something amazing without meaning to.

 Ideas On Applying New Mediums:

• Play with more than one different medium, one might be more fun

• Look at how other artists use different mediums

• If you normally paint digitally, carry a traditional sketchbook with you at all times

• If you normally paint traditionally, try sketching on a massive digital canvas

• Get a scanner and convert your traditional art into digital art

See Wylie Beckert's artwork for examples on crossing traditional and digital work. Also see her tutorial in the ImagineFX March 2014 issue featuring her work for further explanation on how to combine the two mediums.

Returning to What's Familiar and Combining New Knowledge 
Hopefully by changing up mediums, there's a discovery of a new idea. That idea could be textures to be applied to a digital painting, or a way to hold the stylus pen. Maybe there was too much pressure when working with graphite.
 
Anything new learned from switching mediums furthers the artistic skill and inspires new creations.

Beckert, W. (n.d.). Wylie beckert: Illustration. Retrieved from http://www.wyliebeckert.com/ 

March 2014 | magazine | imaginefx. (2014, March). Retrieved from http://beta.imaginefx.com/shop/magazine/march-2014

Advice on Inspiration by Guest Blogger Lauren Hidalgo

What can be done to draw inspiration to you when you are in the throws of frustration, which only further blocks your creative mind? This artist has a few suggestions to stir up a little creative storm. I am inspired by stories of people, by cultures different from my own, and tales of far away lands. And I am inspired by children and the way light fills up a space when a child laughs.
  
"You cannot wait for inspiration. You have to go after it with a club.” - Jack London

Daydream. 
Spend a little time in your own head and focus on nothing. Lay in a field and stare at the clouds. Keep your mind blank and relax—see what comes to you. Take a long road trip or ride a train. Read and watch the people coming and going to learn from them.

Search out the work of other artists. 
Plenty of artists often find inspiration from an iPhone application called sketchy that provides reference images for portrait artists.

Start. Just start. 
Start anything. Seek inspiration out. Put pen to paper and begin. 

“The muse visits during the act of creation, not before. Don’t wait for her. Start alone.” - Roger Ebert

Begin by realizing an ordinary thought on the page. Begin by realizing complete nonsense on the page. No rule exists that says art has to make any sense at all. Be inspired by your own lines and enjoy the process. Realize that every work you create leads up to something amazing.

Remember creating art is fun.
It is okay to make ‘mistakes.’ Mistakes can be exciting, wonderful, and even inspiring. Let the idea of imperfection cause you stress. Be brave and take a risk. In fact, if it scares you, do it. That fear, most often, means what you want to create can turn out big.
 
“The seed of your next art work lies embedded in the imperfections of your current piece. Such imperfections are your guides–valuable, objective, non-judgmental guides to matters you need to reconsider or develop further.” - David Bayles
 
Take time to develop your skill...
...and spend at least twenty minutes a day creating without expectations. Paint without sketching out your lines first if that is what you usually do or perhaps create in different discipline. Do something different.

A true artist works more than when inspiration strikes. Sit down, create everyday, and inspiration will come.

Art quotes by david bayles. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://artquotes.robertgenn.com/auth_search.php?authid=2989

 Goodreads - quote by roger ebert. (2014). Retrieved from https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/359677-the-muse-visits-during-the-act-of-creation-not-before 

Jarski, R. (2007). Words from the wise. New York, NY: Skyhorse Publishing.

Interview with Amanda Kihlström

Amanda Kihlström currently works as a junior art director for Aegik AB on the latest project War Arcana, producing concept art and making sure everything runs smoothly. You can find tons of her concepts on Aegik's home page. She has previously designed concepts with King.com and Vishindo as well.

I have asked Amanda for an interview, and she has been kind enough to answer a few questions on inspiration, technical abilities, and concept design!

Q: What has kept you motivated to draw throughout the years?

A: My main motivation has always been to get better, continuing to evolve as an artist, and also to get a foot in the game industry as a game artist. 2011, I reached my goal and got my first job as a graphic artist for an indie game studio. So, for right now, my inspiration is to keep climbing the ladder up.

Q: What do you do to inspire yourself in creative lulls?

A: Usually, I play a game, or look at other artists work to get some inspiration. Because I work with game art, I get very inspired by playing games, and also games give me have a little pause from drawing so when I start drawing again I feel energized and ready to do go!

Q: What was a massive "a-ha!" moment for you that you feel improved your technical ability the most?

A: I guess it was... "RIMLIGHTS"! Even though I overused rimlights in the beginning, and it didn't look so good at the time, it still improved my art a great deal. Another "a-ha" moment was when I realized that almost everything reflects color. It sounds very obvious, but the concept wasn't something I had implemented in my art before and it made everything look much better.

Q: What is your favorite resource book/lesson that you bounce back to for reference? Why?

A: Usually, it's other artists on deviantART such as JessiBeans (Jessica Oyehenart), UnidColor (Patrik Hjelm), artsammich (Sam Nielson), and shoomlah (Claire Hummel) for example. I like those in particular because they have vibrant colors and whimsical styles. Otherwise, I've found that pinterest is a great source to look up inspiration or reference pictures. I have a few pdf books on my computer which I gaze in from time to time like Trine Artbook, Dark Souls artbook and a book about Andrew Loomis's art techniques. The first two books are a collection of art from games and the third is, of course, the renowned Andrew Loomis.

Q: What do you practice when you sketch? Do you think you need to practice something else? If so, what?

I mostly practice anatomy and random character sketches to try and find a style and find quick ways to do poses and facial expressions. Also, I blindly sketch whatever comes up—it makes the inspiration flow. I need to practice more male characters though.

Q: If you could go back to the start of your artistic career, what do you wish you could tell yourself?

A: I wish I could tell myself to draw more real-life subjects and educate myself more in color and light study. I am self-taught, in all its glory, although I wish I had read about color and light earlier to facilitate for myself in the future.

Q: What has hindered you the most creatively, and how do you get around it?

A: That's a hard question, I don't think I ever felt like something has ever hindered me creativity.

Q: What inspires you the most? Themes, music, coffee, fresh air, etc.

A: Games, movies, photographs, other artists, and reading or watching history documentaries.

Q: What do you wish starting artists breaking into the concept industry knew?

A: Try to be as good as you can on one area, and still be versatile with your artwork. Work hard and be willing to learn new things. Don't beat yourself up if over critique, just continue with what you do and you will evolve as an artist. Avoid free" work"!

Q: What's something you want the readers to know regarding inspiration and artistic knowledge?

A: I am not someone who advocates going to art school, even though I have never went to one myself. I know a lot of people who have, and none of them have any good experience. There are plant of sites and books that can help you just as much as a full year in an art school would have (and with a lot less loans). I do advocate doing online courses with personal feedback that you can find on Schoolism, online art camps, workshops, etc. Those venues have proven to be really helpful and a great source of learning. Most importantly, those venues help you meet other artists in the same position.

I would like to thank Amanda for the wonderful opportunity. Feel free to follow Amanda's work at her tumblr, deviantART, and personal webpage!

Aegik ab. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.aegik.se/

Amazon. (n.d.). Andrew loomis books. Retrieved from http://www.amazon.com/Andrew-Loomis/e/B004L5LII8/

deviantART. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.deviantart.com/

deviantART. (n.d.). Amanda kihlström's deviantart. Retrieved from http://amanda-kihlstrom.deviantart.com/

deviantART. (n.d.). Patrik hjelm's deviantart. Retrieved from http://unidcolor.deviantart.com/

deviantART. (n.d). Claire hummel's deviantart. Retrieved from http://shoomlah.deviantart.com/

deviantART. (n.d.). Sam nielson's deviantart. Retrieved from http://artsammich.deviantart.com/

deviantART. (n.d.). Jessica oyhenart's deviantart. Retrieved from http://jessibeans.deviantart.com/

Hayashi, M. (2014). Dark souls: Design works. Udon Entertainment.

Schoolism. (2014). Retrieved from http://www.schoolism.com/

The artwork of amanda kihlström. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://amandakihlstrom.com/

Tumblr. (n.d.). Amanda's blog of art and random stuff. Retrieved at http://amandakihlstrom.tumblr.com/

Trine. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://trine-thegame.com/site/index.php?page=home/

King. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.king.com/

Vishindo. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.vishindo.com/

Review: Steal Like An Artist: 10 Things Nobody Told You About Being Creative by Austin Kleon

Austin Kleon's book Steal Like An Artist: 10 Things Nobody Told You About Being Creative presents inspiration in a small handheld book that fits in a purse, backpack, or simply under the arm on the go.  The book gives great unique ways to keep an artist drawing and offers creative boosts.

Austin Kleon Introduces His Book
Austin Kleon starts with explaining his belief that "when people give you advice, they're really just talking to themselves in the past." In his book, Kleon wrote advice from experiencing specific past incidences. He goes on to explain that the advice shared is comprised of advice to his 19-year-old self.

Kleon briefly shares that as he gave his insights, those insights applied to any person seeking creative inspiration. While writing for himself, he later realized that people that try to "inject some creativity into their life and their work" have a need for his book as well.

An Overview Of Steal Like An Artist
10 quick chapters summarize the entire book, designed in a way to read easily in many different ways. The reader has the option to read through the whole book in one sitting, or thumb through the pages for something particularly inspiring. A person can easily come back to Steal Like An Artist on a creative low the spark the brain into productivity.

On top of inspiration, anyone can afford the book. With art books or inspiration books, anyone can expect to pay from $15 and upwards from there—the high gloss and ink used to print the artwork typically runs up the price. Steal Like An Artist is available for only $7 on Amazon, included with imagery for the visual learners.

You can also continue to follow Austin Kleon on his tumblr. He continues to discover new ways to stay inspired as well as learn from other artists.

I would recommend this book to anyone looking for a quick pick-me-up on a less than productive day.



Kleon, A. (n.d.). Tumblr: Austin kleon. Retrieved from http://tumblr.austinkleon.com

Kleon, A. (2012). Steal like an artist: 10 things nobody told you about being creative. New York, NY: Workman Publishing Company, Inc.


Amazon. (n.d.). Amazon: Steal like an artist. Retrieved from http://www.amazon.com/Steal-Like-Artist-Things-Creative/dp/0761169253

Inspiring Art-Blocked Artists

Blogging for inspiration and learning’s sake
Every artists of every level needs help with art-block at some point. This blog aims to make going around that block a million times easier. The blog primarily reaches out to offer tips and tricks to concept illustrators — if different types of artists find help through the blog, the more the merrier.

Learning continues even years into an artist’s career, which means the struggle with inspiration continues as well. This blog gives the materials and advice on learning, inspiration, and motivation that I wish I had had given to me.

Things to look forward to:

• Reviews on materials to learn from like James Gurney’s book, Color and Light
• Advice backed by professional concept designers on staying creatively charged
• Feedback from fellow readers to other readers to help encourage ideas and grow artistic skills
• Possible interviews and/or podcasts with working concept designers
• Tips on presenting the best foot forward in the creative industry
• A long list of resources to learn from and a review on why I recommend the books
• Looks at established artist’s such as Noah Bradley and Feng Zhu and how they approach professionalism and inspiration

Background on the author
My name is Kristin, and I’m currently a college student studying animation. I have been drawing since I could hold a pencil, and have found that I produce more and better work when around other creatives. About 2 years ago, I realized that I can create a career out of my drawings instead of enjoying art simply as a hobby. I decided that if I am to go after a career in concept illustration, I need to look outside of college courses and take my education into my own hands.

After doing some searching on my own when I struggled through an art-block, I realized I had to search several sites to find an idea that worked for me. With this blog, I compile everything I have found and melt it into one giant mixing pot for other artists to use.