Working as an artist can suck the fun out of drawing and mean illustrating in your spare time can seem like a chore. Here eight-time Hugo award-wining artist Bob Eggleton shares his tips for creating art for your own enjoyment.
Hone your illustration skills with these 100 amazing tutorials (opens in new tab)
01. Challenge yourself
I create a painting a day. My inspiration was my friend and Rhode Island School of Design professor Nick Jainschigg. Nick had decided he wanted to get back to his painting roots and embarked upon a project that required him to complete one painting each day. I was inspired by his results, and I wanted to renew my acquaintance with oils as I had fallen out of the practice of using them.
02. Mix it up
I love working in all types of media but I think it's important not to get stuck in one particular way of working. Variety enables you to see and render something, sometimes quite prosaic, in new perspectives. New viewpoints will make you a better artist because observation is the important thing for keeping your visions fresh.
03. Make it routine
The great thing about doing one painting a day (and I admit that deadlines and travel made things sporadic of late) is that you force yourself to start and finish a complete small painting. Results could be a success or a failure. It doesn't matter, it's purely a learning curve – one you are willing to share with the public.
Here (opens in new tab) are a couple of selections from my blog. Above A Misty Shore is one of my castles. I painted this image very quickly – maybe in an hour – just working from an image in my mind (what we'd imagine them to look like) rather than an actual castle.
Words: Bob Eggleton (opens in new tab)
Eight times the winner of the Hugo Award for Best Professional Artist, Bob Eggleton has worked on films such as Godzilla, Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius and The Ant Bully. This article originally appeared in ImagineFX (opens in new tab) issue 18.
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