How I switched from black outlined art to a no outline style

When I was painting a lot of art in the physical realm (as opposed to digital art :) my go-to method was:

1. Rough outline in pencil
2. Color in with paint
3. Outline with a black pen or black paint

When I first started learning Inkscape, I sought to duplicate this method. I tried a bunch of different methods to do this. I would scan in line art and then modify it and attempt to color it in. I tried drawing on my tablet and saving the line art as a .png. That didn't really have the effect I was going for.

Long story short, I started thinking in a different way.  I started thinking in chunks of color instead of sketch/color/outline.

That took my art in a new direction. I had a renewal of creativity and productivity. Now I feel excited about making artwork again. I can create my own world and it is as fun as playing video games or watching any type of media.

The old style outlined art

The new style - will be available soon!

Art, drawing, painting, or design? Design.

I'm in an online group, and within the group we have an art club. We talk in voice chat while we do art. Someone keeps asking me if I'm drawing, and I say yes. But I'm not really drawing. It is design.

I'm working on a cohesive line that has elements of folk art but with a more modern aesthetic. I'm creating a lot of design elements that can be combined in different combinations and colors. The hardest thing is keeping all of them organized!

I am building up a good collection of my own designs. I just started seriously working on my store and planning exactly I want to do.

It's been a long time leading up to this. I basically realized I wanted to do it over a year ago, and it took me this long to get comfortable with Inkscape, with design, store planning and feeling good and creative and productive.

If I knew how long this would take I would have been really discouraged at the beginning. I'm glad I didn't know, because I worked hard, planned, and expected success. Now I have gotten to a good place!

This chicken mug was the first thing I made that I feel is good enough to offer for sale. The first of many!

Progress

I made a banner for my store on Zazzle. I am not 100 percent happy with it, but it is still good and I'm using it until I make something I like better.

I realized while I was writing my last entry that even though I wasn't painting much for a couple of years, I was doing a lot of layout and design work for flyers and web pages. I think that helped me get into a frame of mind where I was interested in digital art and design. That is what led me to learn Inkscape. I had downloaded the program when I wanted to make some simple graphics for a web page. It was much harder than I thought it would be, and I forgot all about it for a long time.

At some point I saw some artwork that I thought was really cool and I saw it was made on Inkscape. Hey, I have that program! So I decided to give it a second look. Instead of just trying to wing it, I started watching YouTube videos on it. They make it look so easy, and I was surprised that it was still hard.

 I kept watching videos and experimenting with the programs. I didn't like the things I was making and it was discouraging. But all of a sudden something snapped into place, and I started creating things that I liked. Using Inkscape became really fun, and I could get into the flow and work for hours. I'm glad I didn't give up.

Continuity and Planning

When I was painting every day and selling my paintings online, I was successful. I built up a small following. That was hard to keep up, and with a couple of international moves I lost direction.

Every time I stop painting for a while, it is hard to get back into the flow. The longer I don't paint, the harder it is to get back into it. When I started working in property management, I painted less and less. After a while I got very depressed and wasn't painting anymore at all.

When I quit that job, I tried to start painting again. But I just couldn't get into it at first. It took a couple of years to get to the point where I am now - eager to get up early in the morning and start working on art.

I made two changes in my attitude towards art.

The first is I changed my medium. My art is mostly created through Inkscape, an illustration program. I also use a painting program called Krita. These are both free and open-source programs.

I also decided to design specifically for products. Instead of doing paintings and then trying to make them fit on products, I'm designing in a way that the elements can be combined in different ways to fit on different products.

The most important thing is that I can't stop. I don't want to go through that period again where I am trying to create art and feeling like there is only a sad cloud in my head. So I decided to do art every day. In case of any moves/travel/disruptions where I can't work on my computer, I have a drawing program on my tablet and a sketchbook.

 Ego Etiam Vivo means I am still alive. I was inspired to make this because someone named Tree said they were still alive on a message board I go to every morning. I am still alive too, and that is a good thing to remember.

Designing a new path

Since I didn't want to go large and expensive with my paintings, I decided to change two things. One was to learn some type of computer art program and create most of my work that way. The other was to start working on designs that could be printed on products or used as online graphics.

I decided to learn Inkscape,  a graphic and illustration program similar to Adobe Illustrator. Unlike Illustrator is free and open-source. I had seen art made with Inkscape, and I watched a couple of YouTube videos about it. It seemed fairly easy in the videos, and since I am pretty good at picking up programs and experienced with art, I thought I would quickly be able to produce images that were similar in spirit to my paintings.

I discovered is that it was not so easy. I was used to programs designed for manipulating photos and drawing with a stylus. Inkscape has a totally different focus. The most common type of Inkscape art is created by making basic shapes and combining and modifying them. It is kind of like making collages with cut-up paper. This sounds like something that I would take to right away and I was surprised that when I sat down at the computer it was confusing and frustrating to figure out.

However, I am proud to say I didn't give up. I stuck with it. Now it is a year later and I feel really comfortable using it and excited about the designs I'm producing.

One of the first designs that I felt really good about.

New Direction, Same Spirit

It's always been difficult for me to get back into art after an absence. The longer the absence, the harder it is and the longer it takes me. This was the longest time in my adult life I have gone without painting or drawing most days.

experimental tablet painting!

I did work on some creative projects like writing, gardening, and photography, so I did have creativity in my life. But when I tried to sketch out a painting like I used to, I couldn't get into it. I tried a Wacom tablet and various drawing programs. That did not help either. Finally, I started drawing on a regular tablet using a cheap stylus and I started making art on a regular basis again.

I knew I wanted to get back to making an art-based business, but with a different business model than I had before. Selling original paintings is hard work. Each one has to be scanned, listed for sale online, and then stored until they are sold. When they sell, they have to be packaged and shipped. This makes sense if you sell expensive paintings. But when you sell many small paintings, it is not an efficient way to work.

So it looks like an easy answer would be to make larger and more expensive paintings. But I like to work small.

It has been a long time.

Nine years later, I'm back.

I started working in property management. For the first few years I did really well and it was a rewarding experience. But it is a stressful business even under the best conditions. After a while, it seemed like the harder I worked and tried to do a good job and be honest, the worse things got. In the end, I was very stressed out and had gained a large amount of weight from comfort eating and not exercising.  I was depressed and my house and my life were a mess.

I set about to improve my life. I started walking long distances, doing intermittent fasting and I cut out most sugars in my diet. As I got in better health, I was able to get to the mental state where I was working on getting my house fixed up and my life in order. I also started experimenting with language learning and teaching. This led me to where I am now - working on a degree in Educational Design and Technology. It's an online degree, and since I want to develop online education I think that is very appropriate.

New Melsky Art