Some graffiti artists work on paper.
It may not be obvious on first glance but most of the pictures, especially the landscape, in this video are created using spray paint.
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Posts tagged as:
art
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As the regulars among you will have noticed. I have changed my layout and started promoting my art.
Both are things I’ve been dreaming about.
Changing my layout for months. Promoting my art for years. 
Layout
To see my new layout there’s no alternative to visiting my site.
But in short I have cleaned it up.
I’ve created a basic layout that showcases my art without all the clutter to encourage people to visit other pages.
If you are interested you’ll find the tag cloud, categories and history of this site on the “archive” page.
Promoting
How to promote my drawings. Or even, if I should promote my drawings is something that I’ve been doubting for years.
If I compare my work to that of people like Van Gogh or Rembrandt how would I even dare to promote my drawings.
But an article by Seth Godin (he advises entrepreneurs) pointed me in the right direction.
A shoe salesman only has to prove that his shoes are better then those of his competitor.
My job is a little more complicated.
I don’t have to prove to you that my art is better then that of other artist.
I have to get you to buy art.
That job turns out to be far more challenging then you would think.
Everybody who reads this site regularly knows that they need art.
That is why they read this site.
The problem is that they don’t know how much art they should buy.
It’s easy when you are very rich.
Someone like Bill Gates buys art as an investment and gets to enjoy it to.
But what about us regular people?
How much art do we need?
Godin advises to just take an arbitrary figure. Something you can maintain.
So I’m assuming that you are a about the same as me. I have my good months and my bad months. But I could spend 1% of my income on art and enjoy it without having the feeling that I’m robbing myself of something else.
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I feel trapped.
My job is boring and pointless.
My favorite bar is about to go belly up (although the owner still doesn’t know it).
I have hardly any friends.
I hardly ever talk to the kind of people I like to talk with.
I’ve got to get out of here.
Being autistic I’m told that I lack the skills that are necessary to find a new job.
Maybe so. But you never really know until you’ve tried, do you.
So I decided that even if I don’t find a job I should try. If only because you always learn something from trying.
On Monsterboard I found the question “Where do you want to be in five years?”
Thinking about that I realized that’s one of my problems.
I’m only 47 yrs and I live in the past. (We all do at the sheltered workplace.)
I’m always thinking about what went wrong. What aspects of my autism lead me to the place I’ve ended up.
But that’s a dead end.
Knowing how I got here will never help me to get on.
Not with my life.
And not with my art.
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This morning I realized that by there very nature artists must be very self centered people.
I was thinking about this drawing I was going to do that wouldn’t be very nice. Actually I was quite curtain that I wouldn’t like the drawing. And that you would have a hard time finding someone who did.
So why do the drawing?
Mostly because it is something I’ve got to get out of the way. It’s the drawing I’ve been working towards for the last year or so.
I did one that look a bit like it a few months ago. But then I didn’t dare to do it the right way. I rushed through it and didn’t like the result.
This time the result is almost what I wanted it to be.
I started slow and deliberate. And then increased my speed. By the last quarter I thought I knew what the result would be and changed technique. Which didn’t turn out so good.
But overall it’s more or less the picture I had in mind.
Finish and start
While I was drawing it I realized something else about the term “artist”.
I’ve finally earned the right to call myself an artist.
When I started this blog 2.5 years ago I thought that an artist was somebody who produced beautiful pictures. And since that was what I was trying to do I thought I could use that title.
(And besides “artist learning to draw” sound a lot better then “Dutch guy learning to draw”. Doesn’t it.)
But you don’t have to be an artist to produce nice pictures. Anybody can produce nice picture. Give a monkey a camera and he can produce nice picture.
Even worse: Give an elephant a paint brush and he can produce nice pictures.
And it isn’t even about producing nice pictures.
I don’t like a lot of contemporary art.
Even a lot of famous art works are an acquired taste. Like these paintings by Mondrain.
Being an artist is about development of your medium.
While doing this drawing I realized that I want to spend the next few weeks, maybe months, exploring the interaction between (color) pencils and paper.
Different colors feel different while they scratch or glide over the paper. Different kinds of paper feel different.
And of course using different techniques causes various feelings.
I don’t know if this is going to lead to interesting drawings. But it should lead to interesting experiences.
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Yesterday I got a comment from some art teacher telling me that I had done something wrong in my Up side down drawing. (I didn’t actually understand what he was going on about).
He told me that he had been an art teacher for 10 years and that if I had been one of his students he would have made me do the exercise again.
This was the second time. Last year I also had some art teacher writing pages of comment about boring exercises she thought I should do.
So to every art teacher reading this. Let me teach you a little lesson about teaching art:
You have it within your power to instill a love of art in your pupils.
If you do, the rest of your teachings really don’t matter. Your pupils will be engaged in art for the rest of their lives. If you might have forgotten something they will pick it up at some point.
On the other hand.
You also have it within your power to instill a hatred of art in your pupils.
If you do, it still doesn’t matter what you further teach them because they will try their hardest to forget it as soon as possible…
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Due to the pain and lack of energy that are the result of my broken hip I’m forced to postpone the 4th edition of the Art Showcase.
If recovery goes the way my surgeon predicts (until now he isn’t doing a good job 
) I will be able to publish the 4th edition of the Art Showcase on the 26th of March.
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I walk on the Red Carpet of the Universe
To Converse between time and space,
Looking for a place to be free, a place that I see, what separates you from me.
I overcome my fears, facing them head on,
against every challenge I try to stay strong,
Sprinting I leap, hit the wall as I flow,
Then vault forwards to the ground below,
Leaping from rail to rail, the presents irrelevant,
So my eyes focus on the future, and determine the environment.
I hit the path with graceful pace,
beast the rail sweat dripping from my face.
I hit the bollard, and fly through the air,
an explosion of movement, wind streaming through my hair.
My surroundings are a blur, so my senses must sharpen,
I tunnel my vision, everything else begins to darken.
As I hit the landing, my feet must compensate,
Weight distributions instinctive, theres no need to hesitate.
My breathes are deep, and my heart pumps fast,
Flushing my body with blood and oxygen to last.
My muscles contract as they take the strain,
Bounding over walls, this is how I train.
To become Agile, Flexible, Fast and Strong,
Worthy of the 3RUN family, for which I belong.
While the average guy lives an elaborate lie,
The fear in my eyes will never fortify.
The adrenaline in my bloodstream is evident,
And all my other feelings are rendered irrelevant.
As I make my next movement of which Ive planned in advance
I mime the precision leaving nothing to chance
Tepid and unwavering my balance commands me
A hero of stature as Im expressing to be
Something and someone much more than the norm
Im a cannon exploding the eye of the storm
Stained walls appear hear where others marks have been made
A map of movement like an atlas has now been outlaid
I can use these footprints to inspire me to improve
To spur me on, on my quest to move.
Its a sign that I too belong to this place
After all Ive left marks you can still see my trace.
My face contorts as I brace to leap,
energy flows through my body from my head to my feet.
I drive my body off of the wall,
and float for that moment, time seems to stall.
Coming back to my senses, my feet meet the ground,
I tuck to a roll barely making a sound.
I round a corner, coming out in a stride,
Forcing myself on, leaping with pride.
I wanna stop just for a second, say it straight from the heart,
Life is a lesson, from the day you are born to the day we depart.
Family is the most important thing, so hold them near,
Life is too short to live it in fear.
Be positive, helpful, kind and curtious,
Stress is of the devil, stay calm, never furious.
Such things arent important, they cannot impress,
How many people you bless, is how you truly measure success.
My skin may tare and the flesh may be seen
But the adrenaline pumps strong and my muscles stay keen
Fibres explode with every contraction
This is my life, the fatal attraction
No questioning the universe, this is just part of my plot,
And as George Bernard Shaw said:
You see things and say why? But dream things that never were and say why not?
Afterall, Pain is temporary, Quitting is forever.
Lance Armstrong told me this, As far as Im concerned Never say Never
My training is my life, it is my catlyst,
Its why I work hard and tend to persist.
I hit the wall where graffiti enthrals the once bare
Like it I hit it with intensive art flair
The art of the movement as prominent as the wall
Started out the same as nothing at all
It strange how such beauty could not once be there
I feel blessed in myself that I have something too share
I carve my own path like huskies in the snow
Leading a track for others to follow
Although the path I lead may not just be mine
I encourage others to find there own in due time
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One week of silence
My regular readers must have thought I fell of the the face of the earth because I stopped posting after the second edition of the Art Showcase blog carnival.
I didn’t. Actually you could say that I fell on the face of the earth. On Tuesday the 25e of November we had some local patches of ice on bridges and bicycle roads. On route to my work, about ten meters from my home, I hit such a spot. I even though I recognized what was wrong it was too late to react to it. My bike and right leg went one way and my left leg went the other way. A second later I lay on my back on the ground and the pain in my left leg told me that something was very wrong.
I was rushed to the hospital and, after an examination, told that my hip was broken and that I would be operated upon to put some screws in the bone. By 11.00 AM (only 4 hours after the accident) I was brought to the operating theater and the bone of my leg was set.
After that they told me that it was only a question of rehabilitating for a few days. The nurse told me that I would most probable be sent home the next Friday.
When they told me that I thought that would be not nearly enough time to learn to walk again. But in highensite it’s clear that it might have been true if they had taken into account that I’m autistic.
I told every doctor and every nurse I talked to but they seem to think that it was not very important.
So at first they had my practice walking with crutches. Which was less then successful. I nearly fell flat on my back. Then they had my practicing with a walker. Which worked a little better.
I could have learned to use the walker and I can learn to walk again. But not simultaneous.
It was only by Monday morning that I realized what was going wrong and suggested that I would be given a rollator. After that walking became a lot easier. Or rather less difficult.
I’ve been told that it will take only 2 or 3 months to learn to walk again.
Henk’s art showcase
The regulars will have noticed that I started posting pictures and pictures of paintings without any text.
Early November I thought it might be a good idea. So I tried it for a few days on a blogger blog and then moved it to this blog. Only I never stopped posting pictures to the blogger blog.
The thing is that I find hundreds of pictures and paintings a day. Of course most aren’t beautiful or interesting enough to post. But I’m still left with far more pictures then I could post here.
Thinking about my readers it dawned on me that it wouldn’t be much use to subscribe to the RSS feed of both blogs if I post the same kind of pictures to both of them.
I’ve been thinking about the difference between the two blogs.
Henk’s art showcase is going to be kind of cosy. I’ll be selection pictures and paintings for there beauty and for the feeling of normality and cosiness. Most paintings and pictures will be of landscapes and buildings. Maybe some people.
See me draw on the other hand will stay the main outlet of my thoughts and feelings.
The pictures and paintings I’ll be posting here will be selected more on what I find interesting then on beauty. Although they can be beautiful. They will be different. Different in the way they are painted or the kind of subject the artists choose.
For a while I thought that I would stop drawing. I even put my drawing box away and was thinking about changing the name of this blog. But I’m getting some new ideas I want to try.
This afternoon I got my drawing box back out and tomorrow I’m going to draw again.
Let’s see where this takes me.
This afternoon I found out that I’m on the 11the place of Twitters with most followers for the Netherlands. That’s nice.
Of course it would be much nicer if I were to reach the first place for the Netherlands. So I would very much appreciate it if you would be willing to follow me on twitter.
If you do you’ll get several things. First you’ll get a listing of all the articles I post on this site. Second you’ll get at least one post a day from Henk’s art showcase. Usually the last post of the day so you can find the others by clicking throught to the older posts.
There’s also a bonus you’ll will only get to see it you subscribe to Twitter. Ones in a while I find a site or a Flickr set with so many beautiful or interesting pictures or paintings that it would be a waste to post only one or two on See me draw or Henk’s art showcase.
I’ll post those sites or Flickr sets only to Twitter.
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