The Holidays are coming

The Holidays are coming

Wouldn't a piece of art make a great gift for someone you love this holiday season.

   Every year we all struggle with trying to find gifts you really think the recipient will truly appreciate. We go out of our way to hunt down and search for that perfect gift. Is there a perfect gift? Maybe, but I don't think its that easy to find. Why go through all that trouble when satisfaction could be just a click away.

     How about art? Art can become very personal to the person that receives it. Everytime they glimpse it, it can remind us of emotional context and bring the giver directly to mind. The good feelings they got when the received the gift and all the warm memories they have with you. Art is an excellent gift for anyone.

Art is the only gift you can give someone that is purely from your point of view. Don't give them art they want. Give them art you want and they will like it much better and it will be like giving them a piece of you.

So this holiday season, forget the stale old ties and clothing they might not wear, or knick knacks they will return days later, and get someone a beautifully crafted piece of fine art that will brighten all their days, their home and most of all, enrich their whole lives.

Art Prints available at:

http://dedjezter.deviantart.com/

"Twisted Moonrise"

"Making a Splash"

"Floating through
the Seasons"

"Falling Water"

"Above the Clouds"

Tiger Lily Abstracted

Background roughed in

        This is the process I used to put this painting together. I started by roughing in the background parts. They didn't need to to be very finely detailed because they were all going to have an outline around them that will help define and to help hide the rough lines made in the painting process.

Lily blocked in

        In the second part I added the fine lines separating the backgrounds individual panels and used a fine brush to get the lines as straight as possible. I then blocked in the white background of the Lily itself that will act as a boarder around the flower and started adding the orange over it. This being over the white helps keep the vibrancy of the orange, but because of that, it needed multiple coats of the thin acrylic paint I was using.

Minor details applied

        In this third picture I started to add in the flowers details, like the color changes of the petals and the light orange stripe that goes right down the center of each and used some light glazing to bring more orange into the brown and light orange that I used in the petals of the flowers. I also used a slightly lighter glaze to bring in a little bit of highlights onto the section of each petal where they begin to fold over themselves.


        In the fourth image I Brightened the center stripes and add even more highlight detail to make the petals pop a little more from the background orange as I thought that they were falling into this area of being hard to identify.

More detailing and highlights

        In the final composition I added the last of the highlight details to each of the petals as well as adding in those fine little brownish/black spots that naturally occur in every Tiger Lily. I then added in the stigma by fine lining some bright yellow and then glazing over each with a very light green and another glaze of light orange to give each a little bit of depth and reflected light from the petals. The anthers at the end of each stigma were the last parts added. Starting with black, then brown, then lighter brown as a highlight and finished off with my signature to seal the deal.

     I hope you like it and look forward to reading anything you might have to say about it. Enjoy.

Final finished product "Tiger Lily Abstracted"        by         Joseph Finchum

"TIGER LILY ABSTRACTED"

24" x 18" Acrylic on Canvas Painting

Available for purchase $225

Prints will be made available at a later date.

This is a 16" x 12" Acrylic painting that is brand new.

Painting is a Tiger Lily on an complimentary abstracted background.

1000 VIEW MILESTONE

My little art blog has received a total of 1000 views 

and I would sincerely like to thank everyone that has taken the time to give it a look. It is a long road and a tough struggle to get this thing going, but milestones like this are what keep me going.  Again, a gigantic thank you to everyone.

Morning Doodle during Coffee "Tiger Lily"

The Art of Blatant Theft

         There are far too many people that are pre-programmed to ask for forgiveness after stealing your artwork than there are those that would ask for your permission to use it first.

       Some time ago I was fooling around with the Google reverse image search functions. I fed in about a dozen photos of designs and paintings and around the 13 or 14 one, something happened. It kicked back a whole bunch of results. Here was one of my designs being used without my permission all over the web. There were 28 hits in total. 27 were all one guy that had my design up on different t-shirt sale websites, and one from a university.

      

        First I contacted the websites one by one and started asking them to pull it down. If needed, I emailed them copies of the original pencil sketches, inked drawings, and even linked them to where the exact version of the picture was taken from. Which made it obvious that the design was indeed mine. This was slow going but I eventually got them all pulled, and the guy got banned from all of them. Not that I think that will stop him from doing it again and again and if not with my art, than maybe yours. 

        

        The university was another story altogether. They were adamant about their design being done by their designer who was highly respected and blah blah blah. After much pushing on my part, they eventually asked the designer. He told them they paid only enough to get him to throw something together quick. He grabbed a random image off of an art website that fit the criteria and used it. He admitted his fault and the school stopped using it immediately. They nicely sent me a letter of apology and went about their business in my good standings. Since they were not selling anything with the image on it and not making a profit from its use (A few flyers and banners for their sports team) I did not see any need to pursue further.

        I would suggest that all artists start a quarterly reverse image search of your works and make sure you are not being robbed as well.

        Protecting your intellectual property has always been a difficult task and the Internet has only served to complicate matters. The web has become an unoriginal designer’s one stop shop for endless material to shamelessly ripoff. there is an immensely blurred line between inspiration and theft. Exactly where that line lies is perhaps different for every designer. But for me, it boils down to just being plain wrong. If you can't be a decent creative person with out stealing from someone else... Stop claiming to be a creative person. But then again Pablo Picasso did say that "Good artists copy, great artists steal."

Floating Through the Seasons - Time Lapse Video

"FLOATING THROUGH THE SEASONS"

TIME LAPSE VIDEO

     This is a timelapse video I made of the crafting of this painting. I hope you enjoy seeing the process I use in my paintings and can appreciate the time it takes to make something like this.

Open in YouTube from inside video for best Quality

"Floating Through the Seasons"

Floating through the Seasons    by    Joseph Finchum

"FLOATING THROUGH THE SEASONS"

2 X 24" x 18" Acrylic on Canvas Painting

Available for purchase $500

Prints will be made available at a later date.

This is a 2 x 24" x 18" Acrylic painting that is brand new. 

Painting is a Surreal Landscape that depicts floating islands as they travel aimlessly through the seasonal changes, starting and ending with warm Autumn colors.

I will be adding a Timelapse video of me making this painting tomorrow or the next day so stay tuned for that as well.

All comments are welcome, any opinion appreciated.



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Work in Progress

Floating through the Seasons

Work in Progress

     So I have been working on this new painting for about a week now and was wondering what people might think of the progress so far. It is slowly coming together.

      I have had a small set back as I was trying to make a timelapse video of the work, and the camera I was using decided to crap out on me and I lost the last 2 hours of work that I filmed. It was all work done after this point (pictured) but mostly detail work. I am hoping to use my phone to continue this, but it will take some time to get it all worked out.

      As of right now I have figured out how to set most of it up, Deleted a mass amount of stuff from my phone to make room for footage and am eagerly looking forward to getting back to it.

      Hope you like what you see so far and any comments or questions or suggestions are always welcomed.






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The Long Road to a Career

The Long Road by J. Finchum

     An art career is a long road. You start out on a rocky dirt road, but over time you come to a paved road. The ride gets smoother and you travel on that road for quite awhile. Eventually you come to an unmarked intersection, and whatever road you choose will take your art career in a certain direction.
     
     So you pick a road, and travel down it for awhile, and the scenery is great. Then the small road becomes a highway with a lot of lanes. You start to notice that there are a lot of exits along the way. So you take an exit you think you might like and it takes you to a new highway that goes in a new direction. Sometimes you miss an exit that has great potential, but you're afraid to get lost, so you don't take it. Then sometimes you take the wrong exit and have to find your way back to the highway. The further you get along the choices get harder, and its hard to know which exit to take. Sometimes you get on a great road, and sometimes the road is rough and it just seems like you're going in the wrong direction.

     After awhile you get to the point where you wish you could go back to that first intersection and go the other way with the knowledge you've picked up on your travels.

-Tim Gagnon

Brilliant words

Reflective Sunset

"REFLECTIVE SUNSET"

24" x 18" Oil on Canvas Knife Painting

Available for purchase $150

Prints are available on Fine Art America by following the link in sidebar.

This is a 24" x 18" oil painting that is brand new. Knife painting is a delicate and messy approach at first, but a fun way to get different textures and effects out of the paint.

All comments are welcome, any opinion appreciated. 

The Art of Procrast… Distraction

Squirrel by E H Paulson

I was going to write an entry on the subject of procrastination, at least that was the original intent. I figured I would make a list or something to see if I could find out why I was procrastinating, at what times did I do it more, and were there specific things that I tended to put off more than others.

I started making my list and got distracted. I then realized that I had indeed gotten distracted and went back to my list, until I was once again distracted by something else. So what’s the point?

There are two kinds of people in this world. The first is the kind that can finish lists… Why do we get distracted?

For me, it seems to be entertainment and I am easily entertained. I like movies and television and often keep it on as background noise while doing other things. However, I find myself frequently watching rather than doing. Not to the extent of impeding my life in any way, but enough that I have started to notice that I do it. This is when I realized that I was going about the subject in the wrong text.

I don’t procrastinate… I am just easily distracted. These are obviously two different things. One is a lack of motivation and one is a problem. There just seems to be a little nudge in the back of my mind that pushes me to do other things, but not in a multitasking kind of way. I just grow bored with the things I have at hand, and move on to something else. 

(Okay I’m back, no I wasn't distracted... someone needed help with something)

Now where was I? Oh yeah, I think it has to do with the way I taught myself to paint. I use a wet on wet technique but I do it in layers. One layer, wait until dry, then do another layer some time later. I used to work on multiple paintings at a time and this was a good way of using my time. Now however, I put more effort into a single painting and concentrate on doing the one over doing many. This is where that extra time is coming into play and not being utilized well. I wait for things to dry and sometimes start new projects altogether, forgetting to go back to the other.

So now that I have finished my actual list. I am going to implement some things to try and get myself back on track. I am going to leave the TV off while painting or reading/writing. I am going to go back to a slower version of multiple paintings at once to see if that helps with my time management and see if I can limit how often I am distracted by outside influence.

Do you get easily distracted or do you have a problem with real procrastination? Leave a comment and let me know. I am always looking for new people to share Ideas and tips with. If you like this blog, please feel free to +1, Like, and Share it your friends. No pressure though.

It's Monday on Tuesday

Well I went to the Art Expo in NYC this weekend and I got to see a lot of really well done, well-crafted artwork. However, I did see a lot of what the heck is that artwork as well, but you know what they say, one man’s art is another man’s junk. There were some pretty talented painters exhibiting there as well as some very technical sculptors and their works were simply impressive.

I got to see Tim Gagnon and his artwork in person and being able to see just what the textures and colors look like to the eye as opposed to seeing it on a color monitor, was very much a benefit to his art. I was also glad to see that he sold a few. I also found it interesting that an artist from Maine was being hosted by a gallery ten minutes from where I live on Long Island. It certainly is a Small world.

A few other artists that caught my attention were GehryWelty, whose Geometric paintings are mathematically accurate to a point that they are in the correct perspective no matter what angle they are viewed from, were very impressive. He is also a cinema artist and has worked on movies like Iron Man, Robocop 2014 and Inception to name a few.


Alexis Silk had some amazing free handed glass sculpture that looked extremely delicate and were hanging from large industrial steel hooks giving that sense of their impending breakage.

Beatrice Vangreel Had some cool looking line art works that had a vibrant green color that could accent a wall very nicely.

I was also very happy to see Stan Lee had some work there. He was not in attendance, which was a bummer, but his paintings were in the presence of many fine artists.

There were also two other artists whose names I failed to get, bad Joseph. One had some painted wood pieces that really accented the form and patterns of the wood grain with bold splashes of color and fine lines, while the other did some impressive textured paintings that used the application of the paint in a way I had never seen before and thought was a very interesting technique.

All in all, I would say there were some really talented people there and it was well worth the visit. Maybe I will go again next year, but maybe… just maybe, next year I will be in the show rather than just a patron of the arts.

With that said I am sharing with you a sold painting of my own today. This one sold about a year ago and is actually two paintings on one canvas. I hope you like it. All in all, I would say there were some really talented people there and it was well worth the visit. Maybe I will go again next year, but maybe… just maybe, next year I will be in the show rather than just a patron of the arts.

With that said I am sharing with you a sold painting of my own today. This one sold about a year ago and is actually two paintings on one canvas. I hope you like it.

   Summers Winter By Joseph Finchum  18" x 32" Oil on Canvas

"Summers Winter"

18" x 32" Oil on Canvas

Sold

Prints are available on Fine Art America by following the link in sidebar.

This is a 18" x 32" oil painting that sold a while back. It depicts a mountain landscape with summer colors on one side and winter colors on the other.

All comments are welcome, any opinion appreciated.

Missing a Friday :(

No real Friday post this week as I am getting ready to go to the NYC Art Expo this weekend and wanted to hold off in case something really great presents itself as a topic. But rest assured I will have my normal Monday post or possibly two. Can't wait to see what my favorite YouTube artist Tim Gagnon is bringing to the show. Looking forward to this for a while now.

So if you haven't already seen this blog or if you have but have only glanced at it, this is a great chance to go back and maybe see something you might have missed or wanted to look over again.

I have also added a video to the Social Media Interaction post that delves deeper into how bad Facebook's paid post ads are and why it is a terrible idea to use it.

Hope to hear from a few of you here. Please leave a comment if you do take the time to look over and ponder my previous posts.

Cheers,
Joseph

Visiting the Past Again

This is another look back in time for me. This painting is another one of my first works. It is titled "Lady with Ribbons" or just "Ribbons."

Recreated in Photoshop and Illustrator

Original Painting done 21 years ago

I did this painting just after getting out of high school in 1993. It was one of the first paintings I ever did that was not just a typical landscape and had elements of the abstract and symbolism involved in it. Time unfortunately, has not been fair to this piece. The whites have all faded into a dull yellow and mix into the yellow of the stained glass effect I was going for. It has bad line work and some connections of the ribbons do not line up to the counterparts on the other side. It was painted using liquid watercolor paints, used like acrylics, since I had no knowledge of what I was really doing. I am a self-taught artist and this was one of those times when I was trying to get the feel of paints and how they worked. I didn't know that these paints were even meant to be used with water or that they would not stand the test of time.

In this painting, I was trying to get a feeling of movement and energy. To show that I could use my imagination to bring something to life that was only in my head. To me it represents my first real success with painting as well as my first real defeat in painting. I say it is a defeat only because my mother has always been my biggest fan and she didn't like this one. She just didn't feel it so to speak.

 It is to me, representative of my life at the time that I did it. I was trying to go with the flow and the ribbons were meant to represent that. They flow in and out while twisting around the figure in a tornado of mixed emotions. The woman represents the fact that all my friends were out there with their significant others while I wasn't. Being a bit on the antisocial side I have trouble with relationships and found myself feeling alone a lot of the time. The stained glass effect was depicting my rigidness in life. Unwilling to change myself for better or worse and my inability to put myself out there with my art, something I still struggle with to this day. But the colorful paints are showing that deep down inside there is a warm person that is trying to emerge. To break free of the glass and the ribbons that keeps me locked inside of myself. One day, I will finally shed these things and move on with my life.

Twenty-one years later I find I still feel these ribbons holding me in place but they are certainly becoming looser. I am just now truly finding myself and letting go of the things that have held me back. I often think of revisiting this painting and either doing a recreation using what I have learned over the years, or just re-imagining it all together.

I hope you enjoyed this painting and reading a bit about me and my struggles. After all art can be tormenting to the individual and it is only in overcoming these torments that we can really be free.

What do you think of it? Do you think I should redo it? Should I re-imagine it? I would love to hear from you all. Your opinions and feedback are always appreciated.

Joseph Finchum

Social Media Interaction

How do you interact with other artists on social networking sites?

I have some basic guidelines that I set up for myself. These guidelines are set up in a way that allows me to interact, ask questions, and give critiques to any number of artists and either gather new information or just shoot the breeze from time to time. Both can be just as rewarding if your goal is simple interaction or learning something new. I use these guidelines to not only gain exposure for myself and my artworks to others but to make it simpler to interact with more real people and artists. Because that is what people do, we interact with others, even online. We are social creatures at our core.



My guidelines:

• Never add a +1 or a Like to something that is not by the artist themselves or a promoting service helping the artist get more exposure.
        The reason for this is time management and concentrated efforts. If someone posts a picture of another artists work and doesn't include a link or even their name, then that  person is getting and more likely taking the credit.
  
• Only engage with artists that are willing to engage you back.
        If someone doesn't take the time to interact back, then they might not be worth the effort. This does not count against the occasional poster. Only those who are very active but don't take time to engage with their audience. Why have the social networking account, if you aren't being social.
  
• Never +1, Like, or Share something that is asking or begging to have it made so. If someone is asking me to do these things I immediately get that feeling that that is all they are really interested in... their personal numbers. Facebook can be an exception since they limit your views and numbers so that you will pay them to increase it. Ask away on Facebook.
        I get that numbers can be important and that the rate they go up can be thrilling, but this should not be your main focus. I also, will not add one of these requests to anything I post, mostly because it comes off as needy. Yes I want my numbers to go up, who doesn't, but let's not lose control and become lost.

These are my guidelines, not yours, and yours may vary greatly. Do you have any personal guidelines for promoting yourself and your artwork on social networking sites? What sites are you on and or using? Anything you do or don't do? Any tips or tricks?  Whatever you want to talk about is always open for a good discussion.

Hope to hear from many of you.
Joseph

Edit to add this video: Check it out if you have any questions about Facebook ads.

Making a Splash

It's Monday and so that means I am posting another of my paintings for you all. I hope you like it and that it can bring you just as much joy as it brought me while I was creating it.
This one is a little on the traditional side for me but I still hope you like it.

"Making a Splash"

24" x 18" Oil on Canvas

Available for purchase $200

Prints are available on Fine Art America by following the link in sidebar.

This is a 24" x 18" oil painting is brand new.

All comments are welcome, any opinion appreciated.

Setting Realistic Goals

Being featured in a gallery within a month is not a realistic goal. Could it happen... absolutely, but the chances are slim.

I have been trying to set myself some realistic goals. Ones that will be fulfilled, hopefully in short amounts of time and aren't that far removed from the possibility of completion. Goals should not be monumental but tiny at first. If your initial goals are to hefty, you might not be able to bare the weight of the amount of work needed to reach it.

My first new goal was to establish a presence on social media. I already had some accounts but needed to brand them a bit and make them more coherent. I started by creating a Facebook fan page specific to my fine art works. I edited my profiles on other sites like Twitter and Google Plus to reflect this as well. This goal took less than a few hours to complete and gave me that overall sense of accomplishing something. A great boost if ever there was one.

My second goal had two parts. Create a blog to feature my works and to get my likes on Facebook as well as followers on G+ and Twitter to reach over 25 each. Like I said, small goals. This took about a week and again has given that feeling of getting something done. This is a great motivator for anyone. It helps to know that there are at least a few people out there that like the works I create. A few nice comments and all seems right in the world.

My third goal was a timely task. To keep this blog going for over a month... check and check. As of this post, I have been at this for exactly one month. This was far harder than I thought it would be. I have never been the best communicator, in written or spoken words. I also thought I wouldn't be able to find the subject matter to talk about. Did I indeed have enough to say without creating a blog that just wastes your time as well as my own time with useless trivia and quotes from others or could I actually find it in me to express my personal thoughts on the matter. This has been a great way to get some of my thoughts out and relieve a little stress in the process. Just writing about things has been a thrilling way to both entertain myself and free my thoughts for better things.

So what are your goals, in life, in business, or in your own works of art?
Have you set goals that were just too big to control?
Do you have any stories of goals set and reached?

I look forward to reading your comments.

Sporadic Video Wednesday

This is just a small preview of the painting coming on Monday. I hope you enjoy it.

Wu Wei Tribute

Wu Wei Tribute Misty Mountains

"Misty Mountains"

24" x 108" Ink on Paper Scroll

Available for purchase $NFS

Prints are available on Fine Art America by following the link in sidebar. This is a 24" x 108" ink painting that I did a while back.

These misty mountains gracefully float as if suspended on clouds. Drips and runs created on purpose as a tribute To Wu Wei.

Wu Wei was a professional painter who worked both in and out of the Imperial Court. In fact, he worked at the Imperial Court several times for several Emperors of the Ming Dynasty, having at times withdrawn voluntarily and at times being handed the pink slip by bureaucrats who disliked Wu because of his disdain for “important people.” This may have been due to his background, having come from a literati family that fell on hard times during his childhood. This caused his training to abruptly stop. However, he was a lucky man who attracted the patronage of a wealthy duke in Nanjing that launched his career as a professional painter. - Franklin Tom, East Asian Art Council member

The reason I made this originally was to show as an example of Wu Wei’s style. He was often drunk when he painted and allowed the ink to drip and run as if he didn't care. You could say he was an impressionist ink painter in his later years. He gestured the feelings of object like rocks and trees, rather than making perfect interpretations.

His behavior in these times was seen as highly objectionable but he was basically given a free pass since his artworks were so well loved. The aristocrats of society would have let him do almost anything as long as he kept painting.

"Fear"

"The only thing we have to fear is fear itself."

Franklin D. Roosevelt

Or

"The first duty of man is to conquer fear; he must get rid of it, he cannot act till then."

Thomas Carlyle

Either way you look at it, the idea is always the same. Fear is what you make of it. There is no fear, only an emotional response to perceived danger, but most of the times that we humans feel fear... there is no "real" danger. Real fear is hanging by one arm off of a cliff, Being attacked by a grizzly bear, or waking in your house to find it being engulfed in flames. This is fear that we rarely feel these days. Our new fears stem from social interactions. We call it nervousness. This is a purely learned reaction. One that you the artist are meant to overcome, in your own way and at your own pace. Some will say you have to take the big leap but if you’re like me, you like to wade slowly into the pool and get a feeling for it first, before you can submerge yourself.

Now don't get me wrong. I feel it too. Fear; can at times be as real as it gets. There are all these new things I am trying to implement right now that are scary to me. Who really knows if any of it will pan out, but it is the journey I am taking that makes all the difference. Isn't it? All these new avenues and directions I am learning to access are of course, feeling me with feelings of dread and discomfort. That twitching in your spine that tells you to stop and think about it. That tries to control your actions and sets up the fight or flight response we all get from time to time. Well I am choosing to fight. Or at least give it my best shot.

Things I am trying that are completely new and scary to me.

• Contacting newspapers with a self-written press release and a bio.
  
  
• Looking into outings and other events where artists can sell their works.
  
  
• Approaching galleries and talking with the owners to see if they have any interest in my works.
  
  
• Connecting with restaurant owners about hanging works if they have space available.
  
  
• Engaging with fellow artist and trying to find likeminded people.

For me specifically... I find that anything having to do with public speaking, to be the most troublesome. I don't always do well in situations like that. As well, the mere thought of success can make me a bit anxious. Nobody really wants their existing lifestyle to be greatly altered from comfort to uncomfortable, and that can get a little overwhelming for me personally.  But you have to press on. I will start enter works into contests or maybe even doing live demos one day. Who knows where this can all lead?

We can only be scared if we let fear bother us and fear isn't real. So nothing bothers us.

What if anything scares you about being an artist? Do you, like most artists, feel that you might not be good enough yet? Or think your art just doesn't fit in? Or anything else?

 I welcome all comments and suggestions as to how you might deal with your fears, or success stories of overcoming your own individual fears.

"Art Supplies Contest"

Who doesn't want a chance for free supplies... Free you say?

Well they could be. Artist Tim Gagnon is having a contest and the prize is worth taking a look at. Anyone can enter by going here.

Tim Gagnon Art Supply Giveaways

Sporadic Video Wednesday

This is  a video from the first and only art show I have ever been in. ( I kick in at about the 4:14 mark.) That is soon going to change. I have been putting in a lot of effort lately and have been seeing some positive results from it all.

In this video, it is clearly demonstrated that I don't like being in front of that camera and jumble my words a bit, hey it happens. Public speaking has never been my strong suit.

)

Visiting the Past

       When I revisit this painting, I have a tough time looking at it and all I can see are the glaring mistakes, improper technique, and bad decisions. But to the person that owns it, it's on of their favorite pieces. I can't explain their attachment to it any better than I can explain why someone doesn't like peanut butter.

"Winter Hideaway"  by  Joseph Finchum

What I see is...The streaks in the background sky. The bad perspective, the not so perfect lighting and the muddiness of it all really show the faults I had at the time. There are many bad choices in this painting. Of course there are. I was just starting out and had limited techniques. Mixing colors is a skill you need to master, especially when dealing with oil paints that get mixed with a bit of or a lot of white. Using to much medium can get messy quick and this is a lesson I learned while creating this piece. Leaving to much paint on the brush would lead to either putting too much on the surface or pulling paint directly off the canvas and just smudging the detail. A gleaned a lot of information on layering and blending paints together that I would not have learned otherwise. Looking at it again now, I think I would have went back in and cleaned up a bunch of things just to make it a little crisper. A few more touches of highlights and properly colored shadows wouldn't hurt either.

Can these little mistakes make us better artists overall? Absolutely it can.

With every mistake and every stray mark we make, we can learn something new. Whether that lesson be a negative or a positive one, is all in our point of view. These are the things we as artists have to think about while we are painting and creating. If we become stagnant, we lose direction and focus. We have to own our mistakes and be humbled by them.

So go out today, pick up a brush and make some mistakes, good ones. Let me know if you have ever made a mistake that taught you a valuable lesson. Something stand out that changed the way you have done on every work since. I look forward to your responses.

Personal Style

Joseph Finchum

       All of my life I have been told time and time again, that my artworks lack a sense of personal style. This is something that has always weighed heavy on my mind. I am not really happy unless I am experimenting in one way or another.  Trying to mix things up and see what kind of results I can get. Everything I know about painting and art in general, I have taught myself. I trained myself to use different mediums through trial and error, a pinch of oils, a dab of acrylic, and a splash of watercolor. So I had to ask myself a question. Can a lack of personal style, be a personal style?

I think it can. This I think is what drew me in to the idea of Graphic Design where you would be changing styles with every new project. This fit with me because the way I approach a piece may be different from the techniques of other artists. I don’t just look at the subject or idea and grab my brushes and start painting. I first have to decide what grabs me about the subject. What aspect of the idea is the focal point, and what style of painting will do it the most justice. 

What tools do I want to use is another factor? Do I want to accent soft and subtle brush strokes or do I want to bring out a sharp jagged line of a palette knife? Is a hard sculpted edge needed or a splattering of color? All these thoughts are presented before me and my choices come from these decisions. But wait there’s more…

Influence is something that astonishes me. We can make a list of all our conscious influences, but that will just cover the tip of the iceberg. Our minds think in pictures and we see pictures everywhere. We are bombarded with advertisements containing pictures everywhere we go and look. That ad on the subway wall, a billboard on the side of highway, and even the graffiti on the underpass all have a way of seeping into to the tiny cracks in our minds and branching out to connections. Links we could not conceive of without this intrusion. All this inspiration says a lot about how a piece of art will ebb and flow into the finished product.


Lastly, there is the mood we are in that lends itself to the situation and the specific genre. Feeling happy and playful, we might make something abstract because it the process of creating it is fun. Feeling angry or frustrated and we might want paint a misty and dark in a landscape. It all depends on what is filtering in.


Now, I am not saying that my “personal style” will not change or emerge and come to a full apex someday down the road. For now though, I am happy with where I am. Maybe one day a specific medium or genre will present itself as a major dominant style, but I don’t know if that will be next week or in the next decade. Until then, I want to keep experimenting and have some fun doing what brings me joy and true happiness. I hope you do too.