Use Your Resources!

Since I was late last weak I'm posting early this week. And this week we are talking about using your resources. If you are a struggling artist money is always tight so make the best of what you got. If you need art supplies or a drawing table got to garage sales. I've found my drawing table , canvases and other supplies dirt cheap. Also look for sales at the art stores. Hold out for the sales if possible. Now for other resources there is the internet. It maybe your most powerful tool. Go to Youtube,deviant art, digital webbing, etc... All these are valuable tools that will help you. Youtube you can learn just about anything from so use it a lot. Deviant Art and Digital Webbing are great places to connect with artist and maybe land some freelance jobs? Also facebook and twitter are must too. They are great tools for circulating your work and there are lots of pro's on both sites. If your lucky and you ask nicely they may give you some hot pointers to make your art do a 180. But don't abuse them! these guys have jobs and have a million things on their plate so if they don't answer you question the first time give them a few weeks and ask again. Most artist are willing to help out if they see your message and they aren't swamped. I have actually gotten some great tips in my time which I will share some on a later post. Also a library of books is a good thing to have. At first see what your local library has but eventually the good ones you'll want at your finger tips. A few books I recommend are the Will Eisner drawing books, The Wizard Magazine how to draw series ( these are out of print and hard to find search for a good deal don't over pay for these),How to Draw Comics the Marvel Way, A bridgman's Anatomy book, and a perspective book. All these are great books and search for them used and get them cheap. Try ebay or Amazon. Remember your a struggling artist and you don't have much money. Also these books apply mostly to comics but they are good for any artist to check out. Also use  reference as much as possible. I use to hate using reference. I felt like I was cheating but now that I'm older i realize how the hell else am I gonna know how to draw something besides looking at it. Draw from life if possible. If you need to draw cereal grab a box. If you need to draw a car take a pic of the car. If you need to draw a woman with big boobies see if you can take a life drawing class or if all else fails ask some friends if you can draw them. My point is use reference if at all possible and eventually somethings you will just know how to draw. Well that's all for this week. Tune in next week for more advise from " A Struggling Artist."