All posts tagged: Creative Close-Up

Creative Close-Up: Creating Art On My Terms

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9.24.18 “You can draw…ohhh. Can you do a painting for me?” That’s probably what you get when you mention that you can draw, paint, sketch, you know what I mean. Then when you put a little bit of your work out there, they start to ask if you can do a portrait for them. I can draw, sketch, and paint. I love it because I’m such a creative person and while I’m flattered for people to ask, I just don’t too much like it.  Why? Well, I ask, how big do want the portrait or drawing to be? What do you want it to look like? All these kinds of questions, the ones I hate to ask because I don’t want to step on any toes to hurt feelings. I did accept one from a lady at my church, but this will be the last one for a very long while.   I want to create art on my own terms, without the person asking me about the progress, you know, without nosing in on my …

Creative Close-Up: Ethnic Diversity in Entertainment

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8. 27. 18 Two major films have dominated the box office. Black Panther, which became a massive hit, grossed over $1.3 billion worldwide, breaking numerous box office records including the highest-grossing film by a black director and may I add was the second highest grossing film of 2018 behind Avengers: Infinity War. Then just recently, Crazy Rich Asians top the box office, which grossed $83 million worldwide. I’ve touched on this subject before a few years ago. Remember the Oscars? #OscarsSoWhite? Now that’s beginning to change. That’s great, but there is so much more to do. I’m not going to talk long about it. I’m just touching base because with the slow rise of ethnic diversity. With success of Black Panther and Crazy Rich Asians, I’m at least taking notice, well Hollywood is beginning to take notice. In this…well I should say racial climate, people are beginning to open up to seeing something different on the big screen. An African-American superhero, not only on the big screen, but small with DC’s Black Lightning, and an Asian female lead in …

Creative Close-Up: Artsy Shark

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7. 30. 18 Hello! The weekend went by fast, as always and July is pretty much over. This month’s Close-Up is coming from Artsy Shark. Inspiring Artists to Build Better Businesses, this website inspires artists to create and build their businesses with great tips and workshops. Here are a few posts that can help you get inspired to start your own art business… Credit source: Artsy Shark 6 Steps to More Online Art Sales by Carolyn Edlund     Instagram Story Tips for Artists by Karlie Carpentier Rosin What Artists Must Know about Pricing Consistency     How to Choose the Right Artist Residency by Carolyn Edlund Does Your Art Business Need a Media Kit? by guest blogger Leslie Kell   Hope these encouraging posts put a spring in your creative step. Go to http://www.artsyshark.com for more posts and read about artists that are featured on the webpage. Image source: unknown

Creative Close-Up: Finding & Using Resources

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6. 25. 18   When your an artist, a singer, songwriter, musician, or photographer you think that you’re at the pinnacle of your craft right? In other words, your at the top of your game and feel that you don’t need to further your craft. Not so. We all need fine tuning…kind of like going to the doctor and making sure our bodies are in great condition. Many creative people like to keep going with perfecting their craft. How in the world find and have the time to do it? There many resources, workshops, classes, conferences, you can even go online and find so many videos on painting, playing an instrument, taking photos, and on and on. For an artist like myself, I always try to keep my skills ongoing. I love learning new things and be creative you find ways of styling your artwork. You soon discover new techniques and ways of sketching, painting, watercolor. Same goes for musicians. Even photographers find techniques to create that perfect photo. I’m always on the lookout for …

Creative Close-Up: Kick Your Fears & Have Faith

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May 30 / 18 FEAR noun 1. an unpleasant emotion caused by the belief that someone or something is dangerous, likely to cause pain, or a threat. Fear. What can we say about the word fear? We have fear in a lot of things and for us in the field of creativity its pretty much the same. I don’t know about you or anyone else, but for me, it’s a whole other thing. For years I let fear take over a lot of things in my life. There were times when I let fear hold me back on a few things. For example, I always wanted to try modeling and I did get that chance, but I was too scared. When I think about it now, if I tried it, I wouldn’t be in the most boring job ever. There were reasons I let fear take precedence over my life. I wasn’t good, special, or pretty enough. I would just think I didn’t have what it takes to try even the simplest things. As an …

Creative Close-Up: Taking Time Away From Creativity

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April 24 / 18 Hello! We’re winding down out of April and into May. This is just a short and to the point close-up. There comes a time when you really are not at your creative best. Let’s face it, we are so swamped with our day to day activities, parenting duties, extracurricular activities, and other things, that our mind and body get clogged and run down. We don’t take the time to listen, really listen to our bodies. Then there is social media. Our lives are dictated by what we Tweet, Facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat. Even that takes a toll on our lives. What I’m saying is that there comes a time when we need to just take a step back from our busy lives and take a break. Even an artist, musician, any person in the creative field needs a time to themselves. Let’s recharge ourselves by stepping back from our busy lives, put the phone away for awhile and enjoy some time away from everything, from everyone. You deserve it. We all need to …

Creative Close-Up: Poets.org Presents 12 Poems for Black History Month

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February 26 /18 Good Morning all! The last weekend of this month has passed. Before this month is out, I still have some creative works for Black History Month. Found twelve poems by African-American poets from the website poets.org. They asked twelve contemporary black poets from Tyehlmba Jess, Rowan Ricardo Phillips, to Toi Derricotte to choose one poem to read in the month of February and why. Here are those twelve poems from Gwendolyn Brooks to Langston Hughes. Credit source: poets.org     We Real Cool Gwendolyn Brooks,  1917 – 2000 THE POOL PLAYERS. SEVEN AT THE GOLDEN SHOVEL. We real cool. We Left school. We Lurk late. We Strike straight. We Sing sin. We Thin gin. We Jazz June. We Die soon. From The Bean Eaters by Gwendolyn Brooks, published by Harpers. © 1960 by Gwendolyn Brooks. Used with permission. All rights reserved.     won’t you celebrate with me Lucille Clifton, 1936 – 2010 won’t you celebrate with me what i have shaped into a kind of life? i had no model. born in babylon both nonwhite and woman what …

Creative Close-Up: DC Extended Universe is Not Dead

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January 29 / 18 Question…Is the DC Extended Universe Dead? For some or most people yes, but for those like me, no. Not even. We eagerly waited for Justice League to hit theaters. We were giving the latest superhero film high hopes, but alas, that wasn’t’ the case. I for one like the film. Don’t get me wrong, it had its share of great and funny moments. There were some scenes that we saw in the trailers didn’t make it to the film. Let’s not forget about Henry Cavill‘s CGI disastrous upper lip. My only complaint is how rushed the film was. Zack Snyder had to leave due to a personal tragedy, so Joss Wheadon finished where Snyder left off. Wheadon wrote the screenplay (along with Chris Terrio) for the film. With both director’s visions put together, what we got was a mess.     Justice League grossed $655 million worldwide, while domestically the total was $227 million. These figures are low. I would’ve expected more from both markets, but again, that’s not the case. According …