Why So Serious? Confessions of an Artist.

In this week's blog post I'm going to talk about being laid back. A thing that's hard for me and I'm sure other artists...I suppose more I'm going to talk about who I am and how to not be like me, haha! If I seem to be rambling I'm kinda high on musical euphoria from the She Is We song "Runaways" so...Yeah. Ha!

K, lets get started!

In the recent weeks, I've been, I guess you can say trying to find myself... And I've noticed that my art mentality with how I approach my art shows who I am deep down. Art shows the soul of a person, if there's anything you cannot hide, it's who you are in visual art. I'm not gonna say the politically correct thing and say I saw beauty and that's what I paint/do. I'm going to say I saw the negatives in my personality. I'm controlling, impatient, want the easy way out, and want to have everything how I want it, where I want it, and I want what I want when I want it, and preferably now. Not the best of traits.

Pen & Cheap Paint

Now I'm not going to say everyone is like me or that's all I am (I'd like to believe I'm nice..at least sometimes! heh..), but doesn't that say a lot about a lot of us? I believe the God given gift of creativity a lot of us use first because it's fun, but then it becomes our slave that we abuse and control, and in our control it starts to control us, we have to have it a certain way and we will not expand. We won't go beyond “how it has to be”. We make our own boxes and refuse to get out of them. I believe this goes in to all of life and we really shouldn't do that to ourselves, we have enough people in this world trying to put us in a box, trying to take who we are away from us, we shouldn't have to worry about our own selves doing it to us as well.



How have I overcome this? I haven't yet really but I have done somethings that I never do just to try and break out of the cage I've put myself in. For one, I didn't worry about what art supplies I'm using I just had fun with it which to be honest, was hard. I hardly ever have fun with anything, I'm rather serious. Or I just doodled with a pen and played with the cheapest watercolors I have, which are from Dollar Tree. I allowed myself to express without being my own drill sergeant. Another way I have broken out a bit was I drew things I never draw and I used photo reference (which for most of my life I have refused to do, I feel it's cheating) and taught myself how to draw something myself. There was a lot of specifics but I allowed myself to fail (something I rarely do). Often times I draw what I know because I know I'll do it well, or I'll be admired for my talent. But I actually broke away from what I know and I have to admit I'm very proud of my results, they came out great in the end (at least for my own personal standards).

It took me failing 14 times trying to draw a deer to finally get this result. Perfect? Maybe not but it's better than how I started

I suppose to close, don't do whatever you do for blood, do it for fun. I know I have judged people and get irritated with them who take things that don't mean anything too seriously and to be honest there are somethings in life that ARE meaningless and I don't see why a person has to blow a gasket over it. I look at that like wow that's just retarded and immature; But if I were honest, I do the same thing, maybe not with the same things that I get irritated over people with, but I do it.

Free-flowing lineart, not controlling watercolor but letting it flow.

So the question I pose to all of you who read this...Are you serious over your artwork? If so, why so serious? There's a time for professionalism and a time to relax. And of course if you are being paid for something or something like that, do a good job, use all of your resources and work hard. But if art is what you love, relax and enjoy it, you only live once so enjoy what you love. And in that sense, enjoy who you love, with their flaws and perfections. Many who read this are not Christians, but even if you're not Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 talks about life poetically. If you want to read it, you can go here, if not that's fine, I don't make people read things they don't want to.


To fully end, have fun, enjoy what you have, your past doesn't define you, and your expression should be done out of love and joy and also your pain inside, expose yourself, you don't have to show anyone those pieces if you don't want to but you will feel better. Don't be stiff. And this applies to whatever you love, not just art.

So, why so serious? Pick up a pen and have fun, have no plan and make something beautiful. The world is waiting to see, and so am I.


Thank you for reading my ramblings.


God bless,


~ Firefly

Some Drawings I've Done Over The Past Few Months

Okay I know the middle or early week would have been better but I'm a lazy jerk and never got the nerve to actually write a decent article so we get these pieces of artwork instead. I'm sorryyyy!!!

Okay here we go, some of these are going to be mentioned in future posts. I'll say a little about some of the artworks. And yeah...it'll explain itself.


Monochrome inked with brown pen and colored with watercolor.

Sunflower with bees, colored with sharpies and colored pencils, on mixed media paper the background is watercolor and the outlines are with inking pens and a sharpie fine tipped marker.

These first two are done on printer cardstock using Prismacolor multi-liners and Sharpies to color. (The light blue from the dress is a Prismacolor marker [I only have 3 of those]).

This next one is I believe the first drawing I've ever colored not in monotone while having the outlines in brown. Colored using watercolor, crayola markers and soft pastels on mixed media paper.

I was watching Jake Parker videos while drawing these from photo reference. I didn't aim for realism just a likeness of the different leaves. The top row left to right: Oak, Ash - Botton Row Left to Right: Maple, Birch.
Colored pencil, pen, soft pastel on sketch paper.

A pen drawing using color inking pens and IDentipens all from Sakura brand.

Opaque watercolor painting on mixed media paper.

Colored pencil drawing on watercolor paper with a watercolor background.

I have drawn more but I think that's enough for now.

I hope you enjoyed these drawings, if you did please +1 on google plus and show other people.
Thank you!


~ God Bless~

~ Firefly

Art Bullies

I was originally going to have this weeks blog be about something totally different but there has been a problem going on over the weekend in the art world that I think I should talk about instead, Art Bullies.

So you might ask, what is an “art bully”?
An art bully is a person who because they cannot in their mind do art, don't understand the value of it, or just love to attack it because it's a very personal expression of one's self thus hurting that person. Basically it's a person who would rather put people down then lift them up and using their art as a way to do it.


I want to say, don't be this person.

YouTube Artists Collective Artist This Session (This is from their facebook I have no rights to this image)

This weekend a bunch of videos have dropped for the Youtube Artists Collective (YTAC ), a group of artists who have their viewers vote on a theme and they all paint/draw/create artworks based on that theme in each of their art styles and then sell them to the public (those who voted and those who did not). They at first started an auction but people made it hell for them, bidding but not actually paying playing cat and mouse games. Did some maybe honestly want to buy but couldn't? Probably, but as a general rule don't do this to an artist. Most artists love their artworks almost like a child and to sell it is a hard thing, and to know that it's worth money to a person means a lot to them. So to bid (sometimes even under the starting price) is an insult and a heartbreak. So after all the cat and mouse games they decided this time they will sell in their online art stores instead, first come first serve. This is where the idiotic happenings started this time around.

Lovely Baylee (she's blonde now)

A specific artist named Baylee Jae has been picked on, told how her art isn't worth what she wants for it, and scolded for her price because either they can't afford it or because she doesn't draw dragons (her picture was a dragon) that much that it should be worth less because it's not her “thing”. Okay, I can rant for a couple hours on this whole logic but I'll keep it short.


If you can't afford an art piece, too bad.
If you want it and can afford it buy it.
If it's not worth that much to you keep it to yourself or try selling your child and tell me how it feels.

Baylee's Dragon

Art is worth what a person will pay for it not what you think it's worth. I personally think Picasso's art is trash, but that's my opinion, other people will pay thousands for his work. And that's okay, they like it and it's worth it to them. Baylee's art work in my opinion is beautiful and she deserves what she asked for it. Making art isn't like being in a factory where you mass produce books for a larger market. It's worth time, energy, creativity, emotions, love, and heart. All things that you can't buy in reality. And besides that, when you see a painting for $250, which for her was approx $25 p/h, you're not even paying per hour because it took her a life time to learn what she knows now so in reality you're not paying her still what the painting is worth.


For her though, money isn't everything. She and her art colleagues aren't doing this totally for money, it's so you can have something they made from their hearts, and we can all create together to make beauty in a world that can at times be very ugly. If you can't appreciate that then buzz off.


Do I like every picture Baylee, or the others have made? No, but that doesn't mean their art is bad it still took all the things I said above to make. It just means a piece's subject matter wasn't something I liked, was interested in or believed in. And that's okay. My opinion really does not count, if they love it it's their concern. You can't judge a person because they want to be treated what their worth, and respected. God will judge you and them and most likely you'll be on the bad side of that judgment.


In closing, if you want an artwork but can't afford it, instead of taring a person down because you can't afford it, stop. If you truly love the artwork respect the artist enough to not insult their worth. If you wanna be lighthearted about it saying “Aww I can't afford this” that's one thing, but “OMG Y U HAVE IT SO HIGH I CAN'T AFFORD THIS MAKE IT CHEAPER SO I CAN BUY IT!!!!!” that's childish and immature. If you want to buy something in the future, save money now and by the time they have another one you can buy it. So in the future, for the sake of all other artists who have had this happen, be and encourager not a discourager.




Oh, and I believe Baylee finally sold her Dragon. Props to the person who understood it was worth it.

Also to the imbecils who made her weekend a mess and made her depressed, good work! I hope you feel big inside knowing you made person upset because you had to attack her and something she loves. Beware, one day you will love something and it will be attacked and before you cry remember you did it to a person and were so cowardly you didn't even do it to her face but behind a screen.


Thanks for reading.


~ God Bless ~




~ Firefly




If you're interested in the YTAC you can find their page here: https://www.facebook.com/youtubeartistscollective/


Note: I am not affiliated with them, I just enjoy watching them paint and draw.