Prior to the recent Art-Crawl-induced hiatus, it seemed like a lot of the posts here were starting to sound a bit redundant. You’ve also, no doubt, noticed the tapering off of new work – or at least a new postings. Today’s post will address both those issues and mark a slight shift in direction for this blog.
Don’t worry, there’s art below – ! Feel free to scroll on down, if you’re not feeling wordy right now.
This blog was conceived, two years ago, as a means of spurring myself to create art on a regular basis. I had gone for almost ten years without creating anything prior to that. The idea was that an audience – even a perceived audience, given the naturally slow ramping-up of followers – would make me feel accountable for creating and posting new artwork less sporadically. It would also function as a forum for feedback, and – I’ll admit it – an ego boost.
Finally, there was a layer of public service indended. By showing the nuts and bolts and struggles behind the hits and the misses, the hope was that other artists and aspiring ones would come to understand that the difficulties are normal. You are not alone. Persevere.
The ‘problem’ is that I’ve been a little too successful; on one account, at least. I’m now making art on a fairly regular basis without needing the public praise and approval. Some of this work is just for fun, and just for me… and that’s why you don’t see it here. It’s nice to have a no-pressure environment in which to create sometimes. I’ll probably talk a little more about this in another post, soon.
Other paintings have been done on the complete other end of the spectrum: work that is explicitely for other people. During the art crawl I did on-the-spot portraits, for instance. Unfortunately, I didn’t have a camera with me, and ended up without pictures to post.
That’s where things stand. With all the variety of creative outlets clicking right now, but maybe less work to post, this blog is going to focus a little more on IDEAS. Hopefully, the real people amongst the 600+ followers of Gabriel Garbow | Artworks will join in and make this a conversation.
Ask questions.
Leave comments.
It’ll be fun.
For now, a peek at an abandoned project. A couple weeks went into the prep work, but it just never gelled. I was going to do a series of illustrations for Irish folk tales to pitch to a local Irish coffee shop. Maybe some day…
The first is an initial pencil sketch. The second started as another pencil sketch, scanned and colored as a test in Photoshop. The third is a preliminary watercolor study, but I wasn’t able to find a painting technique that fit my vision, and came to realize that the composition of the scene itself is also a bit bland.
There’s always next time, right?
Gabriel Garbow | Artworks 
My personal preference of the three pictures is the middle one, Gabriel, merely due to the bold colours. I think a series of pictures in that style would look stunning on a wall of a coffee shop.
Change is good. Change is in the air at the moment, so going with the flow is good as well!
Looking forward to see how you move your blog forward, but I’ve always enjoyed your tips and pointers with regards to your creations in the past as well (and the creations themselves!)
Thanks, Tom. I’ll keep it up with the tips and such…. just also giving myself permission to get a little more opinionated. And I may pick up that fairy tale series again, just using a slightly differenet approach.
Let me know if there’s anything else you want to hear ‘discussed’ on these pages…
Glad to learn more about your reason for blogging and how it has worked out for you. Thanks for making it real. Keep us posted!
I will do. Thank you, Carol. What else would you like to hear about in coming weeks?