Saturday 29th November 2014Holiday Gifts for Artists
It's that time again - and this year, with our suggestions, every artist in your life will be sure to appreciate their gifts. Whether they're for a loved one or a special treat for yourself, this is a fantastic time to get great deals on art supplies, no matter if you're restocking your supplies or branching out into some new experiments you might otherwise not bother with.
Winter can be a creatively bleak time, and even though the bad weather tends to lend itself to extra studio time, the holidays tend to be full of bustle and family and friends - all lovely, of course, but not always the best way to produce new work. Take it as an opportunity to explore new media, or try out new projects that require supplies you might not buy. Give yourself a budget, and drop by your local art supply store or browse the net for some new and interesting ideas, and give them a shot!
Tech toys are one of the best items to pick up around the holidays though, as the combination of Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and all sorts of holiday deals mean there is a huge section of time when tech products are on sale. While they might not seem like the first choice for artists, you can be sure that you'll get some great deals they'll love.
One of our favourite deals for the burgeoning digital artist is a tablet. Not a drawing tablet, although those are awesome too, but actually a tablet computer. Thanks to the various deals, its possible to pick up a cheap tablet for under $50, making it affordable to even the most starving artist. Add in a free sketching application, and suddenly they have a digital sketchbook that never runs out of pages - and comes with an 'undo' button!
Digital picture frames are also a great gift idea for artists, who often have difficulty choosing between the various works they love to display around their homes. With a digital picture frame, you no longer have to choose. For an even better gift idea that's a sneaky promotional idea to boot, buy cheap digital frames, preload them with your own artwork, and give them to friends and family in the hopes of generating some sales for your larger works!
And of course, if none of those ideas suit, it's always a good idea to help the artists in your life with a Gallereo subscription! ;-)
Posted on November 29th 2014 on 05:07pm
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Friday 27th June 2014Going Beyond Your Medium
The search for fresh inspiration never ends. It's an inevitable and undeniably enjoyable part of living your life as an artist that the entire world can speak to you and inspire you to create. But as we all know, that doesn't make it true 100% of the time. We all have our little slow-downs, so we've explored various ways to fight the creative doldrums over the past few months, and many of these tactics can lift you back up out of a slump. What we're going to look at today, though, is more about how you think about yourself as an artist.
For many of us, we have specialized or gravitated towards a specific discipline, be it photography, sculpture, music, performance art, painting or whatever. But many - perhaps I should even say most - of us have become inadvertently locked into our chosen discipline, and that can sometimes make it extremely difficult to break free from creative slumps. We establish modes and patterns of thinking within our respective disciplines, and sometimes we can't see our own ways out as a result. But what happens when you put down the paintbrush and pick up a camera? Ditch the dance shoes for a collage construction? Wonderful and exciting things, if you go into it with the right attitude.
The key is to stop thinking of yourself as a painter, or a photographer, or whatever your discipline may be. Even if you'd only like to switch out your watercolours for acrylics or oils, even small changes in your habits can have huge impacts on the way you interact with your own work. Don't expect to produce masterpieces right away in a brand-new medium (although don't be too surprised if you do - art is full of happy accidents!), but try to understand the creative process from other perspectives and with other approaches.
Similar to the way that learning a new language or teaching yourself a musical instrument can keep your brain sharp and on its toes, the act of switching media can really break you out of an artistic slump and get your creative neurons firing at full capacity again. Who knows, you might even discover a passion for a style that you'd otherwise never have experimented with! Try to pick something that's always interested you but you've never experimented with before - this is your excuse (or kick in the behind!) to get out there creatively and let your passion through!
Posted on June 27th 2014 on 06:35pm
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