Nina Denning

Media use and identity

Posted on 4 July, 2016  in CIU110

For animation I use plenty of different media for research, inspiration and creation. The ones I use the most particularly are my Wacom Tablet, different art-based websites and art related books.

As art is tied in neatly with animation, its important to get a strong hold on the concept. Focusing on traditional art, they say the artist is only as good as their tools, though I don’t believe this is entirely true, I do believe that some decent art supplies definitely helps. There’s no need to go out buying the most expensive 2B pencil in office works because you’ll just end up disappointed that it does the exact same thing a 20c pencil does from Kmart, in saying this I like to buy my pencils in a variety pack (HB, H8, H7, 2B, 4B etc.) from a good brand such a steadler, this way you know they’re going to shade better together. Since I’m a leadhead, lead pencils are my favourite traditional art medium, I use them for sketching, shading and “colouring” (black and white ironically).

A few of my drawings done in pencil.

As for digital art, I use my Wacom tablet; although I appreciate traditional art and all its avenues, I’ve come to realise the potential of digital art and how it’s used in the modern world, along with its relation to my practise. After struggling for a long while using Gimp with a mouse or trackpad to create art I realised it was time to upgrade with a Wacom and Creative Cloud. This media device has definitely helped me expand the variety of different artistic directions I can take and broaden my knowledge of creative mediums.

Some of my incomplete digital artworks.

 

When im deciding what I want to draw or paint ill usually start by doing some solid researching, this starts off as being just for inspiration and mental stimulation but it ends up being a very good tool for referencing. For example; if I wanted to create a dragon I may want to know the best way to design the horns or wings, ill find a dozen different approaches other artists have taken then nail it down to my chosen few, where I can combine my favourite aspects of each in my own unique design. This is how I use the internet as a media, Id usually go on a website such as Deviantart, artstation or even pinterest to gather a range of different recourses to refer to when designing, I specifically have a few favourite artists I go to:

Artists tag names from Devientart.com 

When its time to start the creative process ill often need some sort of support when trying new things on my software such as online tutorials, though no information from the web beats learning from a book. Books are a media I rely heavily upon, especially for digital and traditional art, Ill read the same book over and over to further my skills and learn from other peoples art-styles. I also like seeing the progression of the the art from basic sketches to lineart to the finished product. Some of my favourite books for this are:

Books on digital art i have.