Tips

5 Ways That I Incorporate Art into My Desk Job

Post-it Notes– Post-it notes are a great way to write down phone numbers, to-do lists, instructions, etc. and they can also be a great way to add some fun to a cubical space. I alternate between the color of post-it notes that I use, and stick them into fun shapes and patterns in order to add some color and creativity to my cubical.
Designing Layouts– Even a task as simple as designing a word document or flyer can be a great way to incorporate a little bit of art into your job. I recently had to design flyers for bulletin boards around my office, and I took that as an opportunity to have some fun with deciding what I wanted the layout to be and what photos to use.
Patience– The patience that I have acquired through years of making drawings and paintings that can sometimes take hours to complete, has helped me to be able to complete long and tedious assignments without feeling the need to slack-off or take a break.
Desk Space- I have a poster of one of my favorite paintings, Café Terrace at Night by Vincent Van Gogh, thumbtacked up in my cubical. It’s a great way to brighten up my dull cubical walls, but I have to be sure to not have up too much art or my space will become cluttered and unprofessional.
Doodles- If I am on phone duty, I usually take advantage of that time to make a few simple doodles while I’m waiting between calls.

Redbubble is a fantastic website that allows aspiring artists to easy sell their work. It is unbelievably fast and easy for an artist to upload their art onto the site and sell it on dozens of different types of products. You can put your art on shirts, bags, phone cases, duvet covers, pillows, tapestries, posters, dresses, scarves, stickers, and many other products.

Here are a few stand out artists that I came across on the site:

Beatrizmeneses

Buko

Redbubble also has many sellers who create designs for TV shows, books, movies, sports teams, or anything else that you may be interested in:

firamos

“Rupaul’s Drag Race- Season 6- Bianca Del Rio”

wss3

Artists can even decide for themselves how much profit they want to make from each sale:

Redbubble is a great way for aspiring artists to be able to make a profit from their work, and be able to continue to create more designs. I hope that this amazing website continues to grow, and that it allows artists everywhere to be able to continue to do what they love.

RIP My Digital Art

January 16, 2018 By nicole

I was going to look for some of my digital art from when I was younger, but it seems that it has all been deleted. When I was 7 to when I was about 14, I used two online drawing websites called Sketchfu and Ratemydrawings. Sketchfu was more basic while Ratemydrawings had more advanced tools. Sketchfu was more like a social media for artists, so I ended up using that one more so I could talk and interact with my friends.

I couldn’t tell you how many drawings I created on Sketchfu, thousands probably. Most of them were really bad fanart drawings from a children’s book series called Warriors, but I remember that some were actually pretty good. I had created my own original characters. There was Princess Noodles, Hayley the girl with cat ears, a family of cute dragons, Naomi the girl with fire powers, and many more. I didn’t log on to Sketchfu for a couple of years, and when I went back it was gone. The site shut down some time around 2014. I’ve tried to see if there is an online archive or cache somewhere, but as far as I know all my art is dead. I remember printing out some of my digital art when I was younger, so I’m sure that a file of it exists somewhere, but unfortunately my childhood computer also died some time around 2013. That was before I understood how to back up a file. Maybe somewhere in the blackhole that is my email account I had when I was 10, or in a Facebook messaging chat from when I was 13, there is an image of some of my digital art, but for now I’m just going to assume that it’s lost forever, and I’m pissed

As for Ratemydrawings, I tried to log on today and all I got was a message saying that the site is down for maintenance. I looked up a cache of the site from two days ago, and it also said it was down for maintenance. I’m just going to assume that it is permanently down for maintenance. I only had around 40 drawings on that site, but they were all pretty quality. I’m also pissed about that.

So what is the moral of this story? People will tell you that the internet lasts forever, but it doesn’t. Pro Tip: Don’t trust any website to save your drawings. Back them up onto a flash drive or at least print them out and store them in a folder somewhere.

Picking a Drawing Medium

January 19, 2017 By nicole

Pen or pencil?

Although it seems like a simple question, the medium you use to create your art can be very important. Different styles of art require different tools to create them, and it is crucial that you choose the right one.

Lion painting
Paint is the most common medium used for most famous artworks. Using paint can allow your art to be very vibrant and pleasing to the eye, but fine detail is a struggle. Water color paint is even harder. Practice is required to master the art of painting, but a skilled artist will be able to use it to create beautiful masterpieces.

pastel eyeball
Pastels offer a finished product that greatly resembles paint, but they allow for more control and finer detail. The downside is that you only have a choice of a few colors, while paint lets you mix and match until you get the perfect shade.

Color pencil girl
Colored pencils can be used to create a vibrant and detailed drawing, but often appear to be flatter. Colored pencil drawings also allow for very fine detail, but require a large amount of patience. Rushing through coloring a large section could result in a whole project being ruined.

marker iron man Markers offer a more bold and eye-catching product, but they often don’t apply evenly, and leave wonky splotches of darker color all over your drawing. They are best for a cartoony style rather than a realistic one.

chalk ballerina Chalk is personally my least favorite drawing medium. It applies very lightly, sounds unpleasant while you draw, and it is very easy to smudge. Chalk can allow for a certain wispy style, but I tend to avoid it.

pen and ink girl The ability to use pen and ink comes naturally for some artists, but is almost impossible for others. It leaves little room for error, but if you have a certain bold style then pen and ink is the perfect medium.

scratch board cat Scratch board also leaves little room for error, but it looks incredible with animal fur or very detailed black and white drawings.

Links to Art Featured:
Painting Pastel Color Pencil Marker Chalk Pen and Ink Scratch Board

Art in the Office