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*pixieface (description of the art shown on the left)* I suppose I should offer some brief sort of explanation for this painting. Or at least try! I'm not certain if I can tell you where it began, or where the idea came from... what I shall say is this: I'm working on theory and practice of painting - improving my skills and adjusting the way I think about an image, and therefore the way I work on it. All the ways I worked in the past split my image into character and background, or lineart and colour, or any number of other ways of splitting a single thought in to several, unconnected pieces. This is only helped by the ease of using multiple layers in programs like Corel Painter and Adobe Photoshop. My theory is that an image, a painting particularly, ought to be a single and coherent thought. I can't add background after I've finished painting a character, and I shouldn't, more to the point. Even if I can pull it off successfully, the image loses coherence - it is several thoughts, seperated by disconnection. What I'm looking for is a coherent whole. A single, united thought, complete in my mind on conception, and developed as a whole, each part at the same rate. Beginning with colour blocks and layout, each colour affecting and informing it's neighbours... as if you reach back and grab the complete thing as a whole piece, and slowly bring it forward until your thought is expressed. This all stems from the perpetual idea that digital art can sometimes lose a certain life that traditional art can appear to have, most obviously in the transition between pencil and ink, or between ink and colour... from sketch to finish, something is lost. Or perhaps never gained? The way I am trying to work here is, although digital, always worked on one layer, as one thought, without sketch or stages - one thought, that should retain the life and passion you see in a pencil sketch. It should not lose that coherence, that single thought, in the polishing. That's the idea anyway. Something like that. I wish I could express it properly! I am beginning to truly love painting. And better, I am beginning to truly love my painting, for the first time in my life. It's a wonderful feeling! *JsunDmint comments* Amazing work of art. And your theory is very inspirational. I can feel exactly what you mean. I shall keep this in mind for my next work of art. Say, have you considered bringing out the Mini logo on this and sending it to the company? I think it's an excellent add image and could make you some big bucks! *pixieface comments* Heh! Okay, I'm blushing. XD Your comment is excessively nice... and thank you! I'm not sure my rambling explanation makes much sense, but I'm feeling my way forward as a painter and trying to make sense of it myself... and I figure I'm on the sharp end of my own knowledge - everything I'm discovering these days seems to be a lot of fun. I don't know if that sounds weird, or arrogant. I hope not. I guess what I mean is, I've hit a stage where I'm done feeling like I've gotta improve basic skills (well, not so much) and the things I'm improving now are more... vague. Interesting. No, I'm not making sense. Sorry. XD I know how I feel about it, but not how to express it. Yet. Maybe sometime in the future. Nah, I've not thought about showing this to Mini yet... but I might, now that you suggest it. I wonder what they'd say? I suppose it's worth a try! (Thanks for giving me the confidence to believe it might be possible!) *JsunDmint comments* I think perhaps it's not so much that I make excessively nice comments, I think it's because I find myself on the same brainwave as you are. I've always done pencils for as long as I can remember and I've been painting alot recently and just discovering so many interesting things. It's like I can feel my work getting better and better almost in leaps between paintings but I definately don't want to think of it as arrogance ya know. I'm just having so much fun with the discoveries. I really did like the way you put your thoughts into words though. I'm not sure if I couldn't gotten the same point across but it definately spoke to me. I'm sure Mini will be extremely happy to get your painting. You could probably find the advertising or marketing contact on their website... I've found similar things with other companies. Good luck with that! I'm happy to hear you'll give it a go! *pixieface comments* I've emailed their customer service department to see who would be the best to contact. We'll see if anything comes of it, eh... I guess if anything does, I owe you! As for the art thing. Hmm... okay, well, I'm gonna put any pretence at humility aside for a moment and really speak my mind. Maybe you'll empathise with what I'm saying. In the beginning, it was all about finished product. I produced what I thought I should, and what was popular, and didn't measure up even then. I sucked at anatomy and character and everything I wanted to express fell short, and even then I kept on pushing, kept on trying, worked harder at it. Somewhere in all that I hit a wall, and was forced to re-evaluate everything I was doing - how I approached art, what I made art about, and what the hell I was actually doing. What was I doing? What did I want to do in the future? What inspired me? In the middle, there was a weird crossover point where I got very confused about the lot of it, and tried to make sense of what I was doing. I tried to inject meaning where there was none. I'd gotten past wondering how the hell to draw an arm, and now I was asking why the fuck I was drawing an arm at all... Dark times, in the middle bit. Wasn't sure what the hell I was doing. I think this is the point at which every artist figures out a direction and runs with it - figures out what their art means to them, and what they want to express with it, in the long run. (I'm sure there are better words to describe that feeling, but they're lost to me right now). And then I got out the other side. Went off in a direction, and haven't looked back. I sometimes wonder if I've gone a bit fine art (I started out as a comics artist) but I don't really care any more... 'cause I'm having so much fun with it; everything I discover now isn't about content or subject, because I can do that - if I wanna do it, I can make it happen - it's about translation, and about using art as a language. It's about what I can do with materials and colour and shade and moving that one step onwards to be a story. Images can be stories, and they can be ideas, and they can say so much... so much more than the anatomy or the colour theory they contain. BLAH. OKay, I talk far too much. And I still don't make sense. But I'm groping towards what I understand, and talking it out helps. I'm sorry, I'll go away now. *JsunDmint comments* Nice go on the email I love your writing. I do very much empathise with you. Although my path has been slightly different, there's been the same sort of traps along the way and ruts I'd find myself toiling along in. For me though, I think I didn't have to fight as hard to get on the track I am now. You see, I found myself drawing for a period of time and then taking long breaks spanning months in which I didn't draw at all. The military did that to me, taking my time away. But when I came back to drawing each time, I was refreshed, starting knew with the knowledge of everything I'd learned along the way. Most of the time, the audience, people I shared my work with were just real life buds who would just tell me they like my stuff no matter the subject matter. I've sort of had the liberty to do whatever I wanted but haven't always applied myself enough. Since August this year though, I've been just having the time of my life working with my art because I feel like I'm nearer than ever to telling my story, and sharing my fantasy world. It feels good to be able to appreciate your own art as a means of expressing yourself. "Any work of art must first of all tell a story." - Robert Frost said that. feels good to be on the same brainwave as him? I've enjoyed out discussion taking place here on your mini cowboy Perhaps I could get permission to post it on my website somewhere if you don't mind. It's a nice view of artist's feelings and discovery *pixieface comments* Yeah, this is exactly how I feel about it too! I think I've always been a storyteller before I was an artist... I've been writing since I was eleven, and only drawing since I was nineteen... and my friends have informed me I'm never more alive than when I'm talking about story. *grins* I'm probably just a bit weird, though. But isn't it nice to be able to finally start expressing the inner fantasy world and showing it to other people, how it actually appears, without it getting lost in translation in the middle? That's a satisfying feeling! And yeah, you're more than welcome to post this discussion anywhere you like. Link me, though, I wanna see! XD