Hey Folks,

I decided to write this blog today about some misconceptions about a lot of the artists out there. You know the ones? the ones that do amazing murals, drawings or paintings. The ones you look at their work, marvel and think, I could never do something like that, the skill involved must be astronomical. Well...it is and it isn't. What not a lot of people know is that artists use "cheats" or methods to make their works easier to produce or do. I am going to reveal a couple.

So you are looking at some amazing west coast native art, or some new symmetrical contemporary art wondering how in the hell it could be so perfectly even? Easy, 90% of the time, they "cheat". They simply draw one side of the piece, then trace it on a piece of paper, flip it over and bam a perfectly symmetrical piece. Artists are trained to have a good eye, but when its got to be perfect we have no problem using this method or similar methods to make the piece look just right. I want to point out not every artist does this, but I'd be willing to bet they have at least once in their lives before.

Now you're looking at some surreal art. Its so bizarre and fantastic and you are sitting there wondering how they could ever think of something like that. You probably think

you could never be that creative? Wrong. Professionally trained artists are taught to make something called maquets. Basically its a bunch of pieces of work from anything around them, photos, magazine clippings, color swatches etc. We arrange these pieces into pleasing compositions and go from there. Sure you say, that covers a lot of the abstract stuff but what about the realistic surreal stuff? well, apart from the masters and the few random folks that really do just imagine this stuff out of their head, we steal ideas. Now that sounds a lot more harsh then it's meant to be perceived. We don't actively steal ideas in a malicious way, rather, we are influenced by EVERYTHING around us. That is to say...nothing is truly original anymore, everything has a root somewhere. For example, most of my oil paintings are of tiki masks. I take the basics from artists that have come before me, I add my own flare and methods to make new pieces. Some artists may claim foul on this, but to be honest and to reiterate, nothing is original anymore when it comes to subject matter.

These are just a couple of methods artists use that you may not be aware of. I will reveal more in another blog in a day or so if anyone is interested. Remember to never let yourself be discouraged by others artwork, all artwork has its place, with time and patience you can do the same.

cheers,

Z