Gregg Visintainer Finds an Emotional Outlet in Drawing

Most artists would agree that art is an emotional outlet of epic proportions. Art is truly miraculous in the way that it helps people process through difficulties. The amazing thing is that even when art is created in hard times, it somehow always turns out beautiful in some way. This is especially true if the artist created the art work from an authentic place emotionally. Gregg Visintainer is an artist who can identify with the idea that art is an emotional outlet. Not only that, for Gregg art has also become a major form of income.

Gregg Visintainer has been drawing since he was a child. In school the young artist would use his class time to perfect his art of drawing. While he loved drawing, Visintainer wasn’t convinced he could make a career out of it. As a result of this belief, Gregg essentially gave drawing up after high school.

When he was 24, after 6 years away from creativity, Gregg picked his art back up and began drawing again. This rebirth of art was brought on by an emotionally difficult time in Visintainer’s life. During this time he drew a piece titled “Lonely World.” This drawing took approximately 250 hours and 3 months to complete. Gregg so enjoyed expressing his emotions through “Lonely World” that he continued drawing, eventually establishing a company called Viz Art Ink.

Viz Art Ink features drawings made of pen and ink. The drawings are complex and full of hidden meaning. From far off, a Viz Art Ink drawing appears to contain one primary image, but when one gets closer it becomes clear that there are “hidden pictures, words, messages, and a lot of meaning that relates to each theme.”

Gregg has quite a following of fans, but his talent has also been noticed by big name companies like Volcom, Element Skateboards, DC Shoes, Dregs Skateboards, Skinit, Grateful Dead, Falken Tires, and Disney. In fact, Gregg has worked with each of these companies in the past few years.  It’s clear that these major companies see the value in Gregg Visintainer’s dynamic pen and ink drawings.

Even when they have abandoned their art for a season, true artists tend to find their way home to art making eventually, even if it takes them a lifetime to do it. Things didn’t take so long for Gregg Visintainer. Are you an artist who once forfeited creating art, only to return to art making during a difficult season of life? Tell Segmation your story in the “comments” section below.

Sources:

http://www.vizartink.com/pages/about-us

Coming soon: Just how far can technology go in assisting creativity? Read our upcoming blog post to find out.

If you liked this Segmation blog post, you will definitely enjoy:

• What a Cute Baby Face!

https://segmation.wordpress.com/2013/02/10/what-a-cute-baby-face/

• Can You Be Taught to Read in Color?

<a href=”https://segmation.wordpress.com/2012/09/18/can-you-be-taught-read-in-color/

• Make Artist Famous with Hole-Punch Portraits

<a href=”https://segmation.wordpress.com/2012/12/02/make-artist-famous-with-hole-punch-portraits/

Be an Artist in 2 minutes with Segmation SegPlay® PC (see more details here)

Segmation

FREE Newsletter

Join us on SegPlay® Mobile iTunes now available for iPhone and iPad

www.segmation.com

Advertisement

What to do With A Child’s Artwork: Tips and Tricks for Parents and Grandparents

If you are a parent or a grandparent you may be familiar with the joy of receiving a child’s drawing as a gift. In this case, you also know it can be a challenge to store the many scraps of paper covered with imaginative drawings and colorful doodles.

Here are some tips and tricks for preserving your child or grandchild’s art:

1. Create and Organized File System– Purchase a large binder and folders. Organize the folders by age and start filling them with your child’s artwork. Too many drawings to choose from? Consider purchasing a binder for grandma and grandpa as well. This way, you can divide the child’s drawings so everyone can enjoy them. A system like this will also serve as an organized record of your child’s achievements.
2. Turn and Entire Wall into a Refrigerator Door– Is your refrigerator door filled to capacity with your child’s artwork? Now you can purchase magnetic primer paint and convert an entire wall into a refrigerator door. This means your child can have an ongoing art exhibit in his or her bedroom.
3. Turn the Drawings into Placemats– Pick some of your favorite drawings and have them laminated. Make sure to have your child sign his or her name and include an age. The drawings become usable objects in your house and will make great gifts for family and friends. This is also a great way to help your children enjoy being creative.
4. Make a Photo Album– Photograph your child’s artwork and put it in an album or scrapbook to create a book full of childhood memories. Or, scan your child’s drawings and save them digitally. Then, send them off to a company that can turn the drawings into a one of a kind coffee table book.

Looking for a way to make your children’s art come alive?

1. Animate their Drawings– Gamefighters.com can animate your child’s drawings. Can you imagine your child’s creation coming to life in this way? This will get your kids excited about their art work because they get to interact with their creations in a virtual setting.
2. Turn their Drawings into Stuffed Animals– Child’s own Studio can take your children’s drawings and transform them into stuffed animals, which means your kids can create the designs for their own toys! These also make wonderful gifts for grandparents.
3. Show off your Child’s Art by Wearing it– Formia Design turns your child’s drawings into pendants and charms that you wear as necklaces or bracelets. You can showcase your child’s creativity proudly by wearing one of these pendants.
4. Hide their Artwork Around the House– Stick some of their drawings in books, magazines or even cookbooks. Someday, you may just find yourself pleasantly surprised by the memory you uncover. Your children will also be delighted to find their old drawings in one of their favorite childhood books.

Be an Artist in 2 minutes with Segmation SegPlay® PC (see more details here)

Segmation

SegPlay® Mobile iTunes now available for iPhone and iTouch

www.segmation.com

Related articles

• Children’s drawings come to life as delightfully weird toys [Concept Art] (io9.com)
• 7 Children’s Drawings Transformed Into Real Toys (techeblog.com)
• Wisdom Wednesday (ctworkingmoms.com)

Tips for Improving your Landscape Drawing Skills

Whatever your level of skill, these tips will help guide you in developing habits that will grow your abilities to draw and paint landscape scenery with just a couple of weeks of consistent practice.

Implement these for 15 or 20 minutes a day and the improvements will be greatly evident.

Tip No. 1 – Quick Impression Drawings

Get out of the house! Go to the zoo, the museum, a park, an apartment building complex, somewhere other than where you typically draw. Focus on drawing moving things. Drawing objects in motion will help you develop the flow. Every experienced artist can tell you about the flow. Your speed of drawing will increase by practicing these quick impression sketches, but will also help you to develop your perspective drawing skills and build up a repertoire of animals, objects, and people that you can readily access from your mental toolbox.

Tip No. 2 – Blind Drawing

This method is mentioned in all major drawing instruction books and often goes unnoticed or ignored by most artists. This method (also known as “blind contour drawing”) requires that the artist follow its subject with his/her eyes and not focus on the paper they are drawing on. This technique is a great way to keep your drawings vivid and has been dubbed the ultimate anti-stiffening tool in a professional artists bag of tricks.

Tip No. 3 Forget the eraser!

“Do not fear mistakes. There are none.” – Miles Davis

Every line you draw is a representation of your own handwrite. This is the unique signature of your artistic expression. Do you really want to erase that? Practice making every line work for you.

Tip No. 4 Take measurements!

One of the largest sources of complaints of growing artists is that their proportions are off. You don’t need to get fancy here. Use your pencil or other small stick, extend your arm as far as it will go (in order to ensure accuracy for each measurement), and note with your eyes how much of the length of your stick that particular object runs. Drawing roofs, chimneys, beaches, trees, animals, and many other things become much easier to make proportionate when you implement this small technique.

Tip No. 5 – Draw negative space

When you see a bale of hay, a fishing net, or long strands of hair, are you trying to individually draw the lines in the net, the fence, or the hair? Try implementing this technique and draw the negative space and see what objects it works best on. It’s a nifty trick that, when mastered, provides a faster, easier, and better looking drawing of more intricate items.

So grab your pad and pencil and practice, practice, practice! After all, this is the one surefire way to improve!

Be an Artist in 2 minutes with Segmation SegPlay® PC (see more details here)

Segmation

SegPlay® Mobile iTunes now available for iPhone and iTouch

www.segmation.com

Related articles

• Do a Blind Contour Drawing (education.com)
• Exercise 16: Observing negative space and perspective (rlangham.wordpress.com)
• Inspiration Station: Tree Drawings by Tim Knowles (fthats.wordpress.com)

Bauhaus Art School

Are you impressed to learn about the invention of Op-Art?

The modern art style, best associated with the art and theory of Josef Albers, influenced an artistic evolution throughout the 20th century, and continues to impact the 21st century as well.

But did you know that this trendy new art form started in Germany in the early 1900’s? Even more, it was created and taught at a school that was also a forerunner for architecture, graphic design, interior design, industrial design, and typography.

The famous school of art, called Bauhaus, existed in three different parts of Germany between the years of 1919 and 1933. This seems like a short period of time to have such a strong influence on the world. However, the principal thoughts and practices that encouraged artists at Bauhaus traveled with them and spread throughout the world when many of the practicing students and teachers had to emigrate during Nazi control.

The Bauhaus art school was known as a “House of Construction” or a “School of Building.” Even though studies in architecture were not implemented until later, the school built its values on the idea that creating a “total” work of art incorporates multiple elements of art.

A good example of this is optical art’s use of three types of elements: optical illusions, canvas painting, and color. Perhaps it was this concept of completeness that catapulted the Bauhaus style into success, becoming one of the most influential styles in modern art, design and architecture.

Another thought that contributed to the success of Bauhaus was the founding philosophical principle of constructivism. This term originated in Russia and commonly associated with the idea that art could contribute to a better society. With major political and economic shifts happening all over the world, especially in Europe, people learned they could express themselves and propel a positive message with art. Even though there was a negative atmosphere in the world during the time of World War I and leading up to World War II, individual artists knew that art had the power to carry the significant message of peace.

In a war-torn society, Bauhaus school had much to teach. Here are some common art forms that excelled and were mastered by artists at the school between 1919 and 1933:

• Woodworking
• Cabinetmaking
• Work with Metal
• Ceramics
• Weaving
• Printing and typography
• Theater
• Drawing
• Painting
• Photography
• Architecture

Bauhaus art school existed at a poignant time in history. It’s location in the world and foundational European thought are two of the many reasons why it is still a reputable resource for art history today. The other reasons are artists, styles and creations that were consistently produced by the school. These are the pieces that influence modern art today, and will continue to do so evermore.

Figure Drawing Tips

The human figure is one of the hardest things to draw accurately. When drawing a human figure, you need to be aware of technical issues such as proportions, shading and foreshortening, but you must also be able to portray the figure with emotion and sensitivity. Even if your figure drawing isn’t 100% accurate in terms of resembling real life, a drawing imbued with creative energy can create a powerful effect upon the viewer.

To better study and render the human figure, Renaissance artists dissected and studied corpses, taking detailed notes and making realistic drawings from their anatomical observations. Learning about the structure of muscles and other internal organs helped Renaissance artists create more precise artwork. These days, you don’t need to visit a morgue to brush up on your figure drawing skills. Ample books and websites focus on drawing the human form, providing countless illustrations of body parts, both externally and internally.

Figure drawing classes are invaluable for enhancing your ability to draw the human form. Most community art centers offer figure drawing classes with instructors who can critique your artwork and give you pointers. Most figure drawing classes are conducted with live nude models, which may come as a shock for people who have never been to one before, but this is standard. Drawing the nude figure helps artists gain a better grasp of the human body and how it looks in various positions.

If you are unable to attend a drawing class, you can search for free reference photos online. Many “artist community” websites offer a bank of free reference images that you can use without worrying about copyright or obtaining a model release. For specific poses, expressions or costumes, you’ll need to take your own reference photos. Hire a model or bribe a friend to do the posing for you.

If you want to draw a person is a specific pose but you do not have a model and can’t find the right reference photo, use a poseable mannequin, such as the one shown above. The poseable mannequin will give you a general idea of where to place the various body parts, but you’ll have to “invent the details”, such as facial features, clothing, etc. For this reason, a wooden mannequin is usually more ideal for gesture drawing, rather than a figure drawing that needs to be true to life.

Segmation

FREE Newsletter

Join us on Facebook

SegPlay® Mobile iTunes now available for iPhone and iTouch

www.segmation.com