How I Became An Artist

What Is This Lens?

It's a look inside my life as an artist. What I do, why I do it, how I do it, etc, etc, so on and so forth, in the hopes that you might learn something and be better able to create works of art of your own.

Why Should I Read It?

* Because you are interested in learning how to create art for your CafePress or Zazzle shop.

* Because you want to know more about what it's like to be an artist.

* Because you want to.

I didn't choose art. Art chose me. Being an artist is not something that I consciously choose either to do or not do. It's just something that I find myself doing, without even thinking about it. It's a habit that I often find myself doing. I can, have, and often do, find myself with a drawing nearly finished before I realize I've even picked up a pen at all. Many of my drawings of Etiole and EelKat were done without ever looking at the paper.

Why did I choose to become an artist? I didn't. I don't consider myself to be an artist either. Drawing is just something that I do.

Both.

Though I draw more often than I paint. Drawing is quicker, and supplies are cheaper. I often can not afford to buy new paint, or rather, I'm too cheap to want to be able to afford to buy new paint, depending on how you want to look at it. The price of a box of 96 colors of crayons is the same as one tube of paint. I can do so much more with 96 crayons than one tube of paint, so I end up with the crayons bought and the paint on my "to buy later" list. This is an unfortunate side effect of reading Uncle Scrooge comic books for the last 30 years with a rapid obsession, his stinginess seems to have rubbed off on me.

I also lack patience. I can draw a picture in under 20 minutes. A painting on the other hand, required drying between layers, and drying can take anywhere from a few hours to a few days depending on the type of paint I am using at the time. The end result is I have A LOT of unfinished painting floating around that got put away after the first coat dried, because I had moved on to something else while waiting, and lost interest in finishing the painting. Eventually they all get finished, but sometimes it takes a few years for me to get back to a painting.

If you are asking which is easier? For me? Drawing, because it's what I started out with. Drawing is second nature to me, I do it without thinking about it. I doodle on everything. Open up a book I was reading last week, and you'll find every blank space filled with my scribbles and doodles. Call it an obsessive compulsive habit, but I can't see a blank piece of paper and leave it blank. I have to fill it up with something, anything.

uhm... none.

I started drawing before I could read and write. I must have been about 2 years old when I started. I do not remember a time that I was not drawing. It was in those early years of practice that I developed what would become the unique style I have today.

During the first ten or so years of my life, I set out to collecting a lot of drawing books, and it was through those drawing books that I got my first start. Many of these children's art instruction books, I still use even today, and would recommend them to anyone of any age who desires to learn to draw.

If you have never drawn anything at all, there is nothing better than the any art books by Ed Emberley. These were among my very first books, and were well used. Used so much if fact that I had to buy multiple copies of several volumes. I still use Ed Emberley's books, as there is nothing better to teach the basic ground rules of drawing.

Sadly of Ed Emberley's some 30 or so books on art instruction, only a handful are still in print today and the out of print volumes are rather hard to find.

I had already written and illustrated my first book at the age of 3, two years before starting school.

My school time was limited to three years, from the time I was 5 to 8 years old. In K-5 I sat through their baby classes bored out of my mind, because I had already been reading and writing for two years, while the rest of the class was still learning their ABCs. I felt so out of place in Kindergarten class, but due to my age, I was not allowed to skip ahead to the higher grades where I should have been. I alleviated my boredom by writing the first rewrite of my book Friends Are Forever, the first volume of The Twighlight Manor Series. The only lessons I took any interest in was art class and theater. At age 9 I did not return to school, opting instead to teach myself via high school and college texts.

My early years were spent doing two things: writing books and illustrating them.

My mom was a seamstress, and at age 6 I sewed my first cloth doll and set out to drawing, designing patterns for, and sewing her wardrobe. At age 12 I drew, designed, and sewed my first "prom-dress" ball gown. At age 14 I enrolled in a college course in fashion design and dressmaking, graduating 2 years later at age 16. From that point on, a large majority of my art career was devoted to fashion and costumes. My goal than was to recreate in complete historical accuracy every costume throughout history. Yes, I know, when I dream big, I dream big.

After completing this course, there was a dramatic change in my both my books and my art. The Twighlight Manor series saw it's first dramatic change into the book it is today, with it's characters now dressed in elaborate costumes which they are famous for.



A year later, at age 17, yet another thing would greatly effect my art career: my Sunday school teacher, was about to become VERY, VERY famous. Brother and Sister Hawkes were among my Sunday School classes' favorite teachers. They were known for teaching their lessons through colorful children's picture books, and using Brother Haweks drawings to bring Bible and Book of Mormon stories to life in a way that no other Sunday school teacher could ever do. All the teenagers hoped that when teachers were chosen, that they would get put into Brother and Sister Hawkes' class. I was one of the lucky ones to end up in their class.

That year, however, their Sunday school classes began to change, as Brother Hawkes took to bringing into class, his huge canvases, and babbled with joy over the fact that his art had finally been accepted by a book publisher and these were the pictures he was about to send in. Our little group, got so over whelmed with canvases and talk of publishing agreements, that we barely had time for Bible studies anymore, and soon we were coming to class with pads of paper and drawing more art than we were memorizing scriptures!

A year and 3 books later Kevin Hawkes was #1 New York Times best sellers list, and winning awards as the best modern day children's book illustrator. Sadly, his career as an artist took him and his family away from Maine, as they moved to be closer to his publisher.

Most of my art training, however, did not come from books or lessons or art teachers, but from my own backyard. I grew up on a farm, in the woods, on a beach in Maine. Most of my childhood was spent in the company of animals and nature. Most of my time spent with animals and nature was spent drawing pictures of animals and nature.

My training and my drawing style is what is known as "Look and Draw". Simply put, I draw what I see. I look at something and put it on paper.

Well, I would have to say that Kevin Hawkes had the biggest actual impact on my art career, him and his wife being my Sunday school teachers and all. I may not have learned very much about the Bible or the Book of Mormon that year, but I did learn the inside business of book illustration and publishing contracts, as it was the thing we heard talked about the most during class. Kevin Hawkes art is utterly amazing. I am so glad I was able to see the huge original canvases of so many of his paintings, years before the rest of the world saw those same pictures on the pages of books. Though his art is beautiful in the books, it is utterly stunning in actual canvas. However, while his art is beautiful and I learned a great deal of the publishing industry from him, I can not actually say that his art in itself had any effect on my own. His style is completely different from mine.

When I was about 4 years old, I used to watch a show called "Let's Draw". No idea who the artist was, but he, was the one, who got me going. I would eagerly await every episode and follow his instructions without fail, drawing in duplicate everything he drew on the show. Though I have no idea who he was, I'd had to say that the artist who hosted the show "Let's Draw" is the one that influenced my style and techniques the most.



I was about 7 or 8 years old, when I discovered yet another TV artist, one whose show I quickly became addicted too, and who, though he died many years ago now, I still watch the reruns of his show: Bob Ross. Bob Ross intrigued me. I was mesmerized by the fact that he could take a knife and a fan-brush and four tubes of paint, and end up with some of the most amazing mountain vistas and lake views I'd ever seen.

Bob Ross had a huge impact on my style. Oddly though, my style is nothing like his! The problem I had with Bob Ross, was that he was painting in oils, and I had no paints or brushes. I had only my pens and crayons. So, I improvised. I began to watch his show with a rabid obsession, and duplicate all of his paintings, but in pen and crayon instead of oil paint. I was determined to match my drawings to his paintings, and did not let the fact that I was dueling my pen to his brush stop me from trying to recreate his art. I was not about to let the fact that he was using completely different supplies than what I had on hand, stop me from taking his lessons. The end result was, Bob Ross ultimately became my art teacher and the inspiration the set me on the road to being an artist, and my lack of the correct supplies to take his classes, set me on the road to developing a style that was uniquely my own.

The artist who influenced me in my adult years, was one long dead: Charles E. Burchfield. A classic painter of long ago. Well, maybe not so long ago, as he died in the 1960's but still, as great painter whose art is displayed in museums around the world, and sells at auctions for prices in the millions. Charles Burchfield is known for his landscape art, filled with passion and furry. Not your typical landscape artist, his art comes to life with snow storms and destruction, filled with twisted trees, and raging clouds, you can feel the anger of the storm gods as they reek havoc on the earth.

I was about 25 years old, when I bought a book on painting art for greeting cards. I'm not sure why I bought it, it was just there and I saw it there, and bought it. By the end of the week I was drawing my first art designed specifically for greeting cards. Later that month I took to compiling a portfolio to send out to card companies, but never did send it out to any. Instead I went online and started researching card companies and greeting card artists.

In 2003 I founded Copper Cockeral Cards and Gifts and set out to printing up Christmas cards off my desktop printer.

Before I knew it I was in gift shops and book stores and analyzing what other card artists were doing. I began to write up graphs on what types of cards were hot sellers and at what prices they were being sold and what type of locals were buying what type of cards.

I noticed a trend in buying packs of custom cards with art drawings on them, over buying one card at a time mass produced by companies such as Hallmark.

I went back to the internet and did more research, now looking into the art of creating custom cards.

Than in December of 2004, I discovered what I had been looking for: a way to get my art on greeting cards, and than sell them myself: I had found CafePress and the rest is history.

I'm a multi media artist. Meaning that if it's a method used to create art, I probably have tried it already or soon will. On the most extreme levels I have taken to drawing on fabric and "painting" the picture with embroidery.

My fashion design and Twighlight Manor art is done in pen and ink and colored with marker and pencil. These are drawn on 8x11 20lb bright white paper.

My paintings are done in watercolor, gouchae, and acrylics; sometimes in one, but usually a mixture of all three in a single painting. These are done on a wide variety of backings, from copy paper to ragcloth to pastel coloured construction paper to canvas board.

For my nature and pet spot illustrations, which you see on my more popular CafePress and Zazzle items, I use crayon and pastels. These are done usually on 8x11 20lb bright white, 8x11 60lb bright white, or 8x11 60lb pastel coloured papers.

What do I prefer? Depends on what I am drawing and the end result I am trying to achieve.



If you are wondering what specifically I use, brand names, colors, etc., I am building another lens to list those on:

Nope.

Well, if you are here, and I am not doing anything, and you bring your own supplies (have a set of markers and crayons or color pencils with you) and you have a couple of hours to sit down and draw, than, yea, sometimes I do give on the spot impromptu art instruction lessons.

My method of teaching art, is to sit down and draw. You can follow along and do what I do or not, your choice. I will slow down my drawing (I'm a bit of a speed draw-er) so you can follow along.

The thing is, I only show others how to do the animals and pet spot illustrations that I do for greeting cards. If you are interested in my fashion design art or my Twighlight Manor book illustrations, than, no. Why? Because drawing humans and humanoids creatures is not something you can do from just watching me. You'll want to do a detailed study of human anatomy and biology first... which I did. You'll also want to take a course in fashion design, remember too, that I took a college course in this. Unlike my animal and nature art, my fashion and Twighlight Manor art, is something that took me several years to learn how to do, and it's not something that you'd be able to pick up from a one hour sitting with me.



I am considering writing a book on how-to draw using my methods, so maybe in the future you'll be able to take lessons from me that way, but for now, your only hope is a chance meeting with me at a local library, should you be there the same time I am.

Depends on what the picture is and what medium I am using.

My fastest drawn pictures are the ones I do of Etiole, which are drawn with a liquid eyeliner pen, and brushed over with a glaze of nail polish and eye shadow. (See the one shown here --->.) These super delicate drawings must be stored in a controlled environment to ensure that the makeup used to draw them does not mold. These from start to finish take less than 10 minutes to draw, mostly because they are pictures of my beloved Etiole, whom I have drawn hundreds of pictures of.

The pet spot illustrations (seen on the buttons and magnets shown throughout this lens) are scribbled out with crayons, and finished with a wash of watercolor, than touched up with magic markers. The whole thing from start to finish takes less than 30 minutes to complete.

Pastel art takes about the same amount of time as crayon art, though it is much messier and leaves greasy stains on my hands and everything I touch, so I use this medium least of all.

The large detailed pictures like EelKat the Black Bobcat and The Twighlight Manor, (both shown earlier on this lens, scroll back up to see them) each took about 3 hours to draw, using only a Pilot razor point pen.

My fashion drawings and most of the Twighlight Manor character drawings, take about 45 minutes to draw and color, longer for the more detailed ones and the ones with multiple characters in the picture. These are drawn in pen and graphite, than colored in with a mixture of color pencil, crayon, gel pen, glitter glue, and magic marker.

My watercolor art is not strictly watercolors, but usually is a color pencil drawing, than traced over in crayon, and finally painted over with a wash of watercolor, and is in effect, actually me drawing a picture on top of another picture, and than painting a third picture on top of that, and thus takes twice as long to complete, averaging 2 or 3 hours per picture. My Purple Irises, Love Flamingos, and Pastel Rooster (all shown on this lens) are all examples of this type of art.

Actual paintings can take up to 3 weeks, because I have to wait for the paint to dry in layers and can not paint the entire picture straight through.

I would say that the best way to learn to do the type of art I do, would be to follow the same basic path I took to get where I am today. Granted you can't do everything I have done, and events that happened in my life have effected my art, just as events that have happened in your life will effect your art.

To follow the path I took, I would recommend that you buy the same art books I bought, and than read and study those books, and use them as I did, to teach yourself how to be an artist. Uhm . . . buying ALL the art books I have, may not be something you'd really want to attempt to do though, as I own a private library collection, with more than 10,000 books in it, and about 200 of those books are art books. I have a rather massive collection, and I did sort of throw myself full force into these books and read every bit of text and test out every example of step-by-step drawing and painting instructions AND most importantly, I DID NOT learn to draw and paint over night. It took me 30 years to get to where I am now, and in those 30 years my art style is constantly evolving and changing.

Oh... lots and lots and lots of them! To many too list here on this lens, so I'm making a separate lens just for that. I have a huge collection of art books, and I'd recommend all of them, cause I use them myself.

On this list, however I am not including EVERYTHING I own, but rather the art instruction books that I used the most and the ones which had the most impact on how I developed my own style, as these are the ones that would be the most important to someone wishing to develop a style similar to mine.

A common comment I get about my art, is that the colors seem to pop off the page. It's the first thing anyone ever notices is that I use very bright colors, very unnatural and bright colors. I am constantly asked, what I used to achieve these bright colors. My answer usually sets folks back. They are both stunned and shocked, by the secret to the colors in my art.

My answer: Crayola crayons.

I am never without my Crayola Big Box. Yes, the famous yellow box beloved and coveted by kindergarten children everywhere for it's 96 colors of crayons.

I buy a new Crayola Big Box every year, wither I need a new one or not. All of my drawings and paintings, get touch ups with crayons. Either a layer of crayon goes on first or an outline of crayon is drawn on after, either way, it's the touches of crayon that gives my art the "glow" of color.

I can answer that with a link straight to their website!

Well that's easy: Keno Don Rosa and Rumiko Takahashi. Any body who knows me, knows I idolize both of them. They are both comic book illustrators. Don Rosa illustrates Disney comics while Rumiko Takahashi illustrates manga.

Here is one of Rumiko Takahashi's drawings --->

I also like Giorgio Cavazzano, Erte, Thierry Mugler, Greg Hildebrant, Brian Froud, Quentin Blake, Charles E. Burchfield, Salvador Dali, M. C. Escher, William Van Horn, Carl Barks, Romano Scarpa, and Claude Monet.