Why Winter Is the Ultimate Season to Elevate Your Art

[@RobbieAllenArtist]

What art medium are you focusing on this winter? Watercolour, oil, digital, gouache, pencil, or something else? Let’s share our Winter Arc plans below! ✍🏻

[@silentobserver888]

A True art bro

[@RobbieAllenArtist]

Appreciate it, mate! What are you working on this winter?

[@silentobserver888]

@@RobbieAllenArtist Im working on my composition and physical sketching. Gestures, poses, and with digital im going to work on actually learning digital paint. Im most comfortable working with pencil and line work, also pen and ink has become one of my recent favorite mediums which im still learning to master. I switch between physical and digital but im most comfortable still with physical drawing. I think its the tablet and the glass surface which lacks a resistance but ive been learning to adapt.

[@RobbieAllenArtist]

​@@silentobserver888 Goals! I love that. You've got a few things you're working on there, which is great. Plenty of fuel to keep yourself moving forward this Winter! This means that if you get a little bit bored in one area, you can just switch mediums or subject matter and continue with practice. I personally find switching between traditional sketching and painting to digital drawing and painting very enjoyable. It helps keep things fresh and even more interesting. I find it also aids me with overall art productivity. Even the transition from pencil to ink and back is great fun :) And composition is a huge and deeply fascinating topic! Who or what are you learning from currently for that? I'm also doing weekly gesture drawing sessions, but keeping them digital currently. Not on an ipad though, I'm still using a Wacom tablet and staring at my laptop screen. Are you taking part in a life drawing class for your gestures? Stay focused, and keep it up :)

[@silentobserver888]

@ I have never taken a life drawing class! Though I would like to someday! Also I’m reading a book called Master artist series: Composition! I purchased last year around $250 in various art books from fundamentals to color and light to pen and ink to composition and I have some anatomy books as well and things on creature design and I got a my own little library consisting of these art educational books to self teach. It’s in an investment in myself. At the age I’m at there was some opportunities taken from me when I was younger so I never had a chance to fully get my art education due to some particular circumstances. Now I’m 33, and started my own indie publishing company. I’ve been world building for 15 years and going to publish my own fantasy series and after that a sci fi series. I want to put my own illustrations inside my novels and then do my own concept art books for world building purposes to sell too. I’m working with the narrator from the video game Disco Elysium and he will be narrating my fantasy series. It’s been a journey.

[@RobbieAllenArtist]

@@silentobserver888 Fair enough! If you like drawing figures, I highly recommend trying it if you can, it's one of my favourite art activities, along with plein air painting! I'm going to have to look that book up on composition. Art books are well worth the investment I think. I always want to buy more before I've even read or even opened others that I already own! I have to fix that, haha. That's so good that you've got your own library collection :) Excellent, and well done for starting your own indie publishing company! I love the fantasy genre, always have since I was young. I loved looking at Frank Frazetta's work, but at the time, I couldn't afford a book, so I downloaded lots of Frazetta paintings and drawing images online, and saved them to a folder that I could flick through for inspiration! When you say you've been world building for 15 years, do you mean as a concept artist, or as an illustrator? I imagine as a concept artist, as you want to make your own books. Great idea to have your own art to back up and compliment your storytelling and writing for your own novels. I bet having a project like that will be very rewarding to complete, publish, and unleash into the world! So will your fantasy series be animated? Sounds very exciting. I'll have to look up the game Disco Elysium!

[@DeusEx328]

Excellent video mate! Just in time. I’m locking in this Winter to improve my overall fundamental knowledge and skills. I want that sense of confidence that comes from hours of practice again. It’s something I’ve lost, I can feel it when I try to put pencil to paper. I want to eradicate that feeling by virtue of being well versed and practiced. Then carrying that energy into my compositions and projects. Look forward to more content.

[@RobbieAllenArtist]

Thank you mate, really appreciate it :) That sounds like a solid move. It's always good to sharpen fundamentals, no matter where we are currently at on our art journeys! It's just as important for the pros as the aspiring. Is there a particular area of fundamentals that you'll be focusing on, such as anatomy, perspective, values, or composition, or will it be a general fundamental level-up? I imagine composition will be part of it, if not the center of your attention as you mentioned it there towards the end. And I know exactly that feeling of confidence and accomplishment that you're talking about. It really does come from showing up and sticking to your own word, just that little bit of practice every day so it's not some enormous and daunting task, and once you get started and ignite that flame, it's easier to continue on for longer. As a result, you'll get better! Keep track of your progress, make yourself a plan for the rest of Winter, tick off pages read, pages sketched, videos watched, and knowledge and advice implemented. Celebrating the little victories along the way, helps you go a long way ;) Go for it, and allow your own momentum to build once again! 🙌🏻

[@anjaniesamuel1720]

We dont have snow down here in the Caribbean but im willing to pick up some of my unfinished pieces

[@RobbieAllenArtist]

I love that! I'd love to spend a few days in the Caribbean right now :) 🌴What unfinished piece do you want to pick up next? And in what medium?

[@maripassos9464]

ok but here is summer

[@RobbieAllenArtist]

Nice! Where in the world are you based?