Rupam Grimoeuvre's Blog

People don’t buy art, they buy products; not that they don’t buy art, it’s just they buy products.

In other words, at any point an artwork is for sale, it is a product. And it is better for you–the artist–if you acknowledge this sooner than later.

You may put aside your artist ego, false knowledge, misconceptions, holier than thou attitudes, etc. because there is #NoShame in selling art as a product. And please don’t start with that being an illustration and commercial-thing crap, fine art is also a product. Galleries sell art. Get over it.

Unless you are filthy rich or have other sources of income (aka not a full-time artist) you have to sell your art to be able to create more art, it’s common sense.

Because nothing is free, right? Nothing.

Anyway, so, yeah. I get it, my art is my product. Now what? How can I sell it?

You sell your art just as anyone sells anything—by giving the people a reason to buy it.

In other words:

1. Define what the product is.

2. Figure out who is it for (the target market) and what makes it unique (the selling point).

3. Pitch the product to the right market, in the right way.

But one thing we need to understand, first, that people don’t buy products, they buy emotions.

Alright, I know, I said people buy products, but we are getting a layer deep now, bear with me. Everything is about emotions–feelings run the market.

I mean, think about it, it is all about the feelings. Every time we buy something for personal use, we pay to buy a certain feeling, mostly a good kind of feeling. And the more emotions we get from a product, the more we cherish it.

So if at any point you want to sell your “artwork” you need to focus on creating products and selling emotions. Huh? But how can you sell emotions, right? And isn’t it wrong?

Yes, it is wrong if you fake it. But can you? Because to sell emotions you need to put in a lot of emotions in your work. (Duh.) The more love you put in your work, the precious it becomes. And others can feel it. People are good at feeling; they can judge crap from real art, well, most people can.

So what should I do? Be original?

Um..nope. Don’t try to be original or different, that’s BS. Just be authentic; be genuine; enjoy the process of creating the art, and you’ll be fine.

Your work has to come from a place of truth. And that means you cannot fake it. You either have to love what you create or you have to create what you love, but it has to be genuine. In other words, you have to love everything about it, so much that you don’t even want to sell it.

That’s the irony, to be able to create artwork that sells, you have to create a product that is not for sale. You have to invest your heart and soul to your work. If you love it so deeply that you don’t wanna let it go, people will want it! Because we always want what we cannot get.

Well, shit. And nope, this is not a shrug to justify the sociopolitical state of the world, nor a comment on what we—as humans—have become. In fact, this is the truth; the gist of most of our lives; two words to explain it all!

Anyway, long story short, earlier this month, someone broke into my website server and stole nothing! Well, instead they spilled a lot of bad codes. Turned out those codes had mentions of some recent Bollywood flick. Bad promotion strategy, Mr. Badri. Very bad. Terrible!

But it worked, apparently. Just not for me.

This little incident cost me a lot of data (I thought I had it all backed up!); some of my sites became useless; and I got a bad website rating from google—for being hacked! Victim shaming? Nah! Maybe. IDK.

Yeah, been terribly slow at this whole updating-the-blog thingy. But well, I keep posting stuff on my Patreon now. In fact, that’s the best place to hang out these days. BTW, my patrons are getting a hi-res version of this painting as this week’s reward. Just so you know.

Fan art or fanart are artworks created by fans of a work of fiction (generally visual media such as comics, movies, television shows, or video games) and derived from a character or other aspect of that work. As fan labor, fan art refers to artworks that are neither created nor (normally) commissioned or endorsed by the creators of the work from which the fan art derives. (source: wikipedia)

If you’re an artist, chances are you have done fan art in some way or another, for most of us that is how and why we got interested in art in the first place! So, just to make it clear—fan art is good! And there’s no shame in expressing your love for something by creating its fan art. I do it all the time, because I’m a fanboy!

I just told you, like, 1 second ago!

So, if it’s all fine and dandy, what’s the problem?

Well, we’ll get to that but let’s not talk about fan art for a moment, instead let’s talk about art thefts! (Trust me, it is to explain the context, and to rant over, a bit.)

Art theft is not a new thing, people have been forging art for a long, long time; oh, btw, this happened recently.

Anyway, so if you’re an artist or if you follow other artists on social media, you must have heard them screaming about their work being stolen or printed or copied by someone without their consent. It’s wrong, but with the internet and the ease of printing media, art theft is becoming super easy thing to do.

In fact, you don’t have to paint anything now, you can just print and sell! And you can even claim it as reproductions, like this site. But in the past few years many artists have complained that this site is stealing their work.

And if you’ve been to comic cons, every comic convention have at least one person behind the booth who’s selling a LOT of art prints in various art styles and subject matters, and is clearly not the artist. So, that guy, that’s an art thief.

But then there are some who genuinely don’t know if it is legal or illegal to do that, people think they can download a photo from the internet and print it and sell it, it’s that simple!

And that somehow tangentially brings me back to fan art! Fan art is a complex subject, copyright laws are even more complex-er! #intensity

Yeah, that’s kinda easy.

In a nutshell, you’re stealing art when you take photos from the internet and print that (with or without any superficial manipulation) and sell them without giving credits to AND without permission from the original artist.

This is wrong and you will get into trouble, unless you are some sleazy businessman selling stolen shit in the guise of art and your last name rhymes with Thirst.

Fan art, if follows the above pattern, is also stealing art. In most cases, fan art is created from scratch by an artist who genuinely loves that subject, which does in a way make it their own artwork, because they made it; however, you own the art, you still do not own the thing that is depicted in the art. So technically, this is still stealing. But it’s not this simple, is it?

In another nutshell, all fan art is illegal. But it is not. Or maybe? Like I said, it’s complicated.

Ok, fine. Not this complicated.

But I guess we will all agree that fan art is the single most quickest way to get traction, especially if you’re new, or do not have your own IP established. Plus, it is such a joy to create fan art! It helps us share our love and appreciation for a specific character, or creator, or story.

Aww!

But let’s focus on the cons, I mean, the cons of doing fan art and not the cons where we sell fan art.

Yes, not this one. But this is kinda cool!

Anyway, the main reason most artists do fan art is to get their name out. That is okay, we all do that. We need people to love our art; we like to show off. It is all good. However, it is possibly not a great idea to invest in fan art, only because of this one reason. I’d say, do it no more! Just because.

 

I once had a chat with some guy who shared his Doctor Who artwork:

Me: So, another Whovian?

Guy: Na man! Never watched it, doing this for the views and likes.

Me: Like, to get a following?

Guy: Yup, following is important. Getting what’m saying? Ya see, there ain’t many who know me yet.

Me: So you plan to do this like, forever?

Guy: I do this and people know I exist. Not that I want to do it forever, I have my own thing in mind, just not ready yet.

 

This bad transcript still has some good points:

1. Don’t do it just for the likes.

If you wanna justify, don’t bother; I get it; we want people to see our work, fine. But if you’re doing it just for the likes, you’re not doing it right. I am a DW fanboy, and that guy pissed me off when he said just doing it for the likes. It was an artist-to-artist conversation, yes, I know.

Most fans don’t get this information, but you know, it shows. If you love something, you will be excited to talk about it.

Yeah, this excited!

I am a fanboy of many things, and I do a lot of fan art. But I never painted any Game Of Throne stuff, because even if it would get me a lot of views and likes, I know I cannot connect with the fans. Because I haven’t seen Game Of Thrones, or Stranger Things, or even Breaking Bad. I am so behind!

Speaking of GOT, this is the only #sketch I’ve done of that show, but in fact this is not from the show itself. It was from a hilarious gag reel, which I absolutely loved! And who doesn’t love Dinklage, right?

dooo weeee dooooo…. oh. 

2. A following is important.

Obviously, you need fans. Your fans are your prospective customers. Every business needs customers, and you’re a business. But the thing is, not everyone is your customer. So, yeah, a following is important, but try to get the right kind of following.

Broadly speaking, if you are interested in creating futuristic sci-fi comics, and you want a following, then do not do Game Of Thrones’ fanart if you don’t love it!

Because understand this, most of your new followers will then follow you because they love Game Of Thrones. So unless you keep making Game Of Thrones art, or similar high fantasy stuff, you are good.

Or you may start watching it, so that you start loving it as well. But if it not something you enjoy, then avoid it.

But if you’re enjoying then don’t listen to anyone.

 

3. Do it forever.

Yes, I know, I am advocating fan art now. Well, I am advocating the right kind of fan art.

Alright; alright!

See, once a fanboy/fangirl always a fanboy/fangirl. You cannot un-love your fandom. So if you are into this, you are into this for life. And that’s great! It means others are also in it forever. Yeah, people lose interest in stuff but they won’t start hating things.

#NeverSkipNine

So, it goes back to that chat. If you’re drawing the Doctor because you love Doctor Who (which you should anyway), then please keep doing it. Because then you will always be excited about drawing the Doctor, and it will show. And people will follow you, because you actually share similar interests. And they might also like your futuristic sci-fi comics.

In short, you have much greater chances of converting a fan into a client, if you are true to your fandom.

Yeah, that’s what I’ve been trying to say!

Now let’s end this abruptly.

 

If you like this post, please share it with someone who might find it useful. Also, if you want to see more (and better) stuff like this, or you want some extra goodies, or just wanna fund some art, you can do that by becoming a patron of mine @ Patreon.com/RUPAM

The post Little Something About Fan Art (Feat DW) appeared first on Grimblog.

Thor : Ribbit
Oil painting on watercolor paper mounted on hardboard
~14×21 inches

Once upon a time I decided to paint a Thor poster, with the Norse God of Thunder as a frog! To be clear, I was thinking about the Marvel comics’ version of Thor, and not the mythological version. And in case you don’t know, there are a few versions of Frog-Thor in the comics. Actually, to be specific, the one I wanted to paint was more inspired by the Ultimate Spider Man cartoon series, in which Thor was turned into a frog mostly because of his own arrogance and stupidity. And that was all I had in mind when I started with the sketch.

 

So, I did this one sketch on the whiteboard, yeah, this detailed sketch, and that was it. I kinda decided to use this as the model. Usually this step includes a lot of different layout ideas, and I always get back to the initial design layout anyway; so this time I just saved myself some time.

 

The next step was to decide the dimensions and how was I going to paint this.

(Disclaimer: This painting was done in a span of about 1.5 year! Yeah, so when I started this, I didn’t know how to paint, let alone painting in oils. I was in fact experimenting with watercolors and gouache and had no intention try oils.)

So I thought I’d paint it in gouache. And sketched it on an 18×24 ” sheet of Fabriano hot pressed watercolor paper. This was how I marked the placements of the characters. (I’ve digitally added color to the shapes to make them discernible.)

 

Somewhere between the last step and this, I mounted the paper on MDF board to give it some rigidity. (I was not a fan of non-rigid support back then. Now I am kinda okay with it, but I still prefer rigid supports.)

Anyway, next I went on to drawing them in detail. I draw by eyeballing the measurements; there are more accurate ways of drawing, like using a measuring tool, proportional divider, by creating a grid, etc. But I just do it this way.

And I quickly got into the details. My bad. #ProTip: Don’t start detailing this quick, it is better to fix the proportions BEFORE you get into this beautification process.

 

It was pretty detailed for my taste, I don’t draw that much anymore, that is if I know I am going to paint it. But back then I was not very sure of the approach, plus it was kinda large piece. So, the drawing part was important.

 

I was also figuring out the details as I was drawing this. Again, it is what I do. Not a hard and fast rule. I’d say it is always better to have a vision of the final artwork, at least in your head, and if you are going to paint large, make sure you do at least a few small sketches of the painting, first.

I was happy with the sketch so I started with watercolors and added some washes to give me an idea of how to approach the values.

If you don’t understand value, or don’t have enough experience working in black and white, you might want to do a b-w grisaille underpainting or a few small value studies. The point is, if your values are wrong, your painting is screwed.

I kinda like to do a color study instead. Color is not just about hue, each color has its own value as well; so it does the trick, and saves some time as well. But I see the value in my head before adding colors.

 

Added another wash (this is the second pass) of watercolor to basically flesh it out more. And then I put it aside and forgot about it for about more than a year—my guess is because I was not satisfied with the paints or with the process.

I went on experimenting with different media, testing all sorts of paints and mediums and surfaces and stuff. And eventually tried oil paints. At first, I was not very interested in oils because of my allergies. I’d tested oils once before and the result was problematic at best. But then after about seven months, I re-researched and tested a few solvent-free mediums and tried oils without turps and aha! It kinda worked. And I liked it!

 

So fast forward 1.5 year from the last photo, and now I was painting in oils—exclusively.

I forgot to document the part where I prepared the watercolor paper for oil painting. But in short, I sealed the paper with Acrylic Matt Medium, at least 3 thick coats of that. If you’re using it diluted, make sure you do 7-8 coats. You can also sand between coats while doing it, this way the surface remains smooth.

ProTip: Avoid accelerating the drying process by using a hair dryer. Matt medium dries transparent, this is why it is suitable for sealing a drawing, however, sometimes, if you use some sort of dryer, the medium might get cloudy. Not good if you want to see the drawing underneath.

Now, in oils, I started with the clouds and painted the face. It was looking all good until I checked it against the reference photo. The likeness was way off! So, obviously, had to repaint the face. The photo above shows the difference.

 

Once that was done, I began with the lightning. (Because I do not draw stuff in detail beforehand, I am always “drawing” while I am painting.) The colors are not very good in this photo, but surprisingly the lightning was more pink-ish than blue-ish.

 

Then I started with the Frog-Thor. (Remember it is different than Throg, which is another frog who is Thor in Marvel comics, but I am digressing.) It took me some time to figure out the colors to paint the lightning behind the cape, that was a challenge. And I thought I knew what I was doing! Huh.

 

Anyway, so it was done. And I was kinda happy-ish with the progress. So I thought why not paint the text! Because I wanted it to be all traditional. That is fine, if you can do that. I sketched the text over the painting, with a pastel pencil (which kinda works over oil paints, in case you want to experiment there) but I rejected the idea because it was unnecessary work.

Moral? Don’t do unnecessary things.

 

Eventually I painted the stone, fixed the plants and the painting was finished! Well, almost. I signed it. And then I realized the highlight on the armor was kinda too distracting! -_-

 

So fixed that and the painting was done, after about 1.5 year! From watercolors to oils, this was a fascinating journey. And to be honest, it looks kinda good.  

Being original is a big deal, right? I know. We artists often try to be original, and boy do we try hard! Because that’s what we are supposed to do: We are artists, we must be original! We must be different!

Actually, nope.

We are different enough already, we don’t have to worry about being more different. In fact, if you think about it, you can connect with more people just by being less different. Isn’t it the point of all arts? Isn’t it what we as artists strive for? To connect with each other on a deeper level.

 

This is a sketch I did for #Inktober 2014, and today seeing this kinda triggered this post.

 

And just like you’re different enough, you are also original enough that you don’t have to worry about that as well; and also because you cannot be more original than you already are. So, well.

You are a result of your life experiences, and you will always borrow from that. It is a good thing, this makes you human. And good for you, a good number of your audience is also human.

Most of us share similar life experiences and that’s why we relate to some pieces of art over the other; not because they are original and different, but in fact because they are not.

 

Keep calm and drink tea. Another #Inktober 2014 sketch.

 

Don’t worry about being original, instead focus on being authentic.

 

Create your own job. #Inktober 2014

 

So how can you be authentic?

Remember the part where you’re already original enough? Exploit that.

Instead of trying to come up with a story which no one can understand because it is so original and so different, try to tell an unoriginal story—differently—in your own way. Make it yours.

 

It’s a new dawn, it’s a new day; it’s a new life! Another #Inktober 2014 sketch

Don’t try to be original, just focus on being authentic and true to yourself, and you’ll do good. You are unique, you have a voice. Use it.

PS: Also, #Inktober is coming, do take part and make something cool! It doesn’t have to be different.

In recent news, I got this super small, and by far the cheapest, wacom tablet—Wacom One, to experiment with digital paintings. Not sure if Wacom still manufacturing them, but they are available on Amazon for about Rs. 4300 INR / $64 USD.

If you’re somewhat serious about digital painting you can start with this, but mostly people suggest to at least go Intuos.

Anyway, I am a traditional painter and not much into digital paintings, but I wanted it to do digital sketches etc., because it’s not easy to sketch with a mouse. Trust me, I know. So, I got this one:

      The working area of this is less than 4×6 inches, super small. Get at least the 5×8 ” size.

 

I once had a Wacom, like, four years ago, but then I lost its pen and never bothered to get a replacement.

But speaking of pens, this pen is not super comfortable to use, and that’s a bummer! Or maybe it is for me, IDK. Otherwise I am using this pen-tablet since morning and have a total of like 10 hours of experience with this thing and so far it is okay for my purposes, I just need to do something about the pen. My painting space is not fully equipped to use a pen-tablet, so that’s something I need to fix as well.

That’s the first one I did as a test. Turned out not bad, I think.

All that being said, one thing I’ve noticed after using it for a day, I am kind of comfortable with working digitally. And that’s surprising, even for myself. I tried digital painting once, but I did not like the process at all. But this time, I think, the difference is, four years ago I didn’t know how to paint! Now that I am kind of aware of the traditional painting process, maybe that’s why I am not hating these digital tools. Just an interesting observation.

So I’ve done a few sketches since morning, but I’m not sharing them all. I think I can use these sketches to resuscitate my almost dead sketchbook, so keeping some for that.

I’ve also started, as a serious experiment, a proper portrait painting. If it works out well, and if I can manage to finish it, I might consider doing some professional works digitally. We’ll see how this one goes.

More of a digital scribbling of Dr. Tyson, a work in progress as of now.

I thought I could also record a video of the process as it is relatively super easy to record a process video for a digital painting than a traditional one. But unfortunately, my five-year old laptop is not capable of doing that. (But if your machine is not this old, and you have Windows 10, you can get to those setting by pressing Windows+G.)

 

However, I created a GIF instead. Hah!

One, two, three, stop!

In case that doesn’t work, check it here: Neil deGrasse WIP

 

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First post, woot!

And I thought what better way to start a blog thingy than to talk about a crowdfunding platform! I know, right?

So, here’s super quick post about Patreon, a crowdfunding platform that has grown a lot in the past three years. And it’s about time that you should use it for your independent art business.

(And yes, it is a play on the word Patron, like, obviously!)

Crowdfunding is not a new concept, but for some it is, well, more or less. And for the past few years, this is becoming a thing again. Mainly in the independent art market, where artists are working directly with and for their fans. The gatekeepers are out! And this is such a fascinating time to be an independent artist, with the growth of sites like Kickstarter and Indiegogo and now Patreon, you don’t have to wait for permission, if you are ready to do the hard work, people are there to support you! But I am not sure how well it is growing in India, despite the fact that crowdfunding has always been popular in our country.

Anyway, so about Patreon, it is a crowdfunding site for people who create free content on a REGULAR basis. Like, weekly YouTube videos, daily sketches, series of paintings, web-comics and even crafty stuff etc.

Unlike kickstarter/Indiegogo—which are better if you are selling an existing product—this one works best for creators who are in the process of creating their product.

Granted there might be some tax issues here in India, but despite that it is a great platform for content creators from all over the world!

In case you decide to join, remember:

• Especially my fellow Indians, yes, this is asking for money, but this is not asking for free money. And there is NO SHAME in asking for money for your services. Everyone does that. Just make sure you give value to the customer/fans.

• Good things take time, so be patient and consistent.

• Be creative in designing different tiers of support and reward sections to provide value to your supporters for their patronage.

Check out http://patreon.com and their blog http://blog.patreon.com/ for more tips and info.

 

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