Art Critic

Three Hundred Sixty Seventh Post: Art Critic

So I posted a little animation on Constructor’s Corner. I realize that it is far from looking professional. However that is not the point. I admit I am not a great artist, but I like drawing and am trying to improve my skills. There are many reasons to do art. This time it is just for enjoyment.

Often people are afraid to show their work with worries that it will look bad compared to other’s work. But that goes against what art is. While it is nice to admire good artist and enjoy their work, there are just many joys of creating your own. If you want to keep it a personal work that is fine, but sometimes it is just fun to share it no matter the quality. Remember others will see different things in your work. Maybe someone will see a quality that was overlooked.

In highschool my experience with art was difficult. The teacher was very talented. But when it came to grading my work I usually got a C no matter how good of quality it was. However, he did give me more time to finish a kite project. I had used most of the balsa wood making a spider web kite. Others needed the wood so they took it apart. I made a much smaller kite. I put tissue paper on it and model airplane gloss. Over the gloss I added a coat of black spray paint. (There are some cool results mixing spray paint and tissue paper. It makes it hard and smother.) I was told my kite looked like the Batmobile. Well the kite had to fly. Mine broke upon hitting the wind. Guess what I got? I got a C.

When joining the Army Reserves they give me three job openings to choose from: 2 that are for a cook and 1 that is an artist or Multimedia Illustrator. I choose Illustrator also known as 25M. I had wondered how the Army had determined my job. Obviously they hadn’t talked to my highschool art teacher.

During my 25M training, I must admit I learned a lot. It is very helpful to have an instructor standing over you with tips and critics on what you are doing correctly. It is because of this training I became a good drafter and occasional sketcher. But I think drawing helped me in one other area and that is math (mostly geometry). When you look at an object the sizes of the object change depending on what angle you are looking at them. And don’t forget drawing is all about proportions and proportion is one of the most important element of math. Does drawing apply to calculus. Yes. Think of all the graphs. Where it helped me was finding the volume of a 3D shape revolved around the x or y axis. I’ve been told people are usually good at either math and art. However even though my art skills are not high, I would not have passed my math or drafting classes had it not been for the training as 25M.

May the Creative Force be with You