The construction of any final illustration has, behind it, a series of decisions and choices that we often prefer to hide. But there’s power in showing them.
Author: Matt Shanks
Direct, Suggest, Comment
Getting feedback on your art can be confronting. Knowing what type you’re getting helps. A lot.
Something from nothing
How does one go from a blank page to a rich and detailed illustration that makes us feel something?
Get the images out
Just imagining a drawing isn’t good enough. If no one can see it, how will I know it’s any good?
The necessity of unpleasant emotions
While all emotion sits on a spectrum of pleasant to unpleasant, what may matter more is the energy behind it.
Being published doesn’t help
Do you start thinking professionally once you start working professionally?
The death of the still image?
With the overwhelming cultural move toward video content, what is to be done with the humble and understated still image?
Becoming more like me
Is it possible to iterate and calculate your way to your authentic self? Or, is the way to get there, in fact, the opposite?
Artist as social media bait
Is social media worth the time of the artist, anymore? Or is that time better spent making the work?
Monks don’t use leaf blowers
Is there value in doing things the slow way, sometimes? And why don’t monks use leafblowers when there’s so much sweeping to be done?