Beginner's - ArtTrader Magazine

Art TRADER
m a g a z i n e
What is your preferred media for your 2D work?
Hmmm. That’s actually a tricky question. I’ve focused
on ATCs and small mail art in my 2D work, and haven’t
done anything over 8” x 10” in terms of large pieces,
so I’m still finding my “preferred media.” I think I’m an
oil painter at heart, though; I love the softness of oils,
and their romance, blendability, and history. There’s
a sensuality to them, a smeary-ness, I relate to and
admire. And every time I play with oils, I surprise myself
with — can I say this without sounding obnoxious? —
how good my results are. I “think” in oils, perhaps.
I can wrap my head around them much more easily
than I can watercolors, or markers, or ink.
But oils aren’t practical for ATCs in most cases — they
take forever to fully dry and require an undercoat. Oil paints eat time. So I’m still playing around with mail
art media, to find the best fit. I recently received a huge Prisma marker set as a gift, so that’s my current
area of experimentation.
Any tips or tricks you like to use or a favorite supply?
I can’t live without a white gel pen and/or gesso, and I find myself using really skinny black fineline markers
to outline a lot. My paper cutter is a must-have. If I use colored pencils, I must have thinner or spirits to
blend them.
You’ve also branched into digital work, and have created some really
lovely pieces. Can you discuss your digital art a little? What draws you
to creating work digitally?
I’m such a hack with my digital stuff! It’s actually embarrassing. I have no
idea what I’m doing. But I can move past that self-consciousness, because
it’s so darn fun to draw with a magic, electric pen! And it’s fairly easy to
create the kinds of soft effects I like so much with a pen and tablet, and to
incorporate photo collage bits into art pieces, and to do and re-do and redo
again, because the technology allows those things so readily. For a new
2D artist like me who hasn’t yet learned how NOT to rip holes in watercolor
paper when erasing, a digital canvas which can be repaired to perfection is a
Godsend. So, you know—I’m hooked. I think, too, that I have an untrained,
undeveloped, underlying talent for graphic design, which nowadays is a nearly
entirely digital industry, and I’ve done some paid design work with reasonable
success in the past, so all that connects the idea of “computer” to “art” for me,
too.
I guess if I’m intellectualizing things, I can acknowledge that I know more about
digital drawing and Photoshop than most laypeople, for sure. But it’s such a
complex program, and I have so little experience with it, and no training, and I
just play around like a giddy dork and hope for a good outcome.
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