Art – Page 2 – markmagpusao.com

Being a Caricaturist

I was a caricaturist in my early 20s at amusements parks around California. I had knee surgery earlier this year and I needed a job not too labor intensive. So how I stumbled across a caricature stand at the aquarium here in Houston. I just talked with the manager. He told me to bring in some of my work in. I had to make some work and hand them in. I got hired. Truth be told it took me about two weeks to make 2-3 pieces. It took me awhile to get used to making art. It’s weird now I can knock out draw my entire shift and sell retail caricatures from my first day. Just a few things I needed to learn was how the register worked and how to get faster at drawing.

I’ve been working there for about a month now. Some say going back to the same line of work before you joined the military is a step backward. I might say yes. Then I remembered how much fun I had and how much fun I am having now. The only thing that doesn’t equate is the pay. I’ll explain that in a later post. The best part of the job is apparent, I get to draw everyday as a job. As a kid, I thought drawing as an occupation was such a hard job to get. It really isn’t. To live as an artist on your own terms is way harder. There are so many websites like fiver.com or upwork.com that hire designers and artists. Even if we didn’t live in 2019 there are several ways to make income as an artist. I will discuss this further in another post.

Since I started drawing caricatures back in 2004. I knew that I will never be as good as I hope to be. I’m only as good as my last sold drawing. The work never stops. I can always improve. I can always practice. This idea can lead to burn out. I draw at work. Then I go home and draw at home. I fear that I put too much pressure on myself on what other people think of me and my skill as an artist. Especially when I had a bad drawing/ reject. I believe this is associated with the idealogy of a job defines who you are, which I carried with me through most of my life. I don’t think like that anymore.

I had a to draw a lady with burn scars from the chin down to her chest. I don’t know what happened but with something like that. I assume people stare or ask them about them all the time. So I don’t bother. But what does the caricaturist do? Does he A. Leave them out B. Draw them. C. Exaggerated them. I went with B. I drew them. For obvious reasons I didn’t take a picture of the subject or drawing. If I was a better artist I think I would have incorporated it better with the caricature. Imagine living with that everyday. Maybe someday I could draw at the VA or some VFW gig. Just a thought.

I think these posts will be called Caricature Confessions.

PS: I drink while I blog and I probably do one or two edits before I publish. hahaha.

I will try to put the subject and the drawing next to each other when I post again.

Learn to draw

This video came on my Youtube video feed. I feel he should be highlighted for his work and effort. It’s a long video to watch but that doesn’t mean it isn’t insightful. There were times I walked away from the computer and I just listened to the sound. Give it a watch or a listen.

I struggle with what this guy struggled with, learning art. I went to art school too. Volen, the artist in the video, basically wanted to learn about art six years ago. Fast forward to 2019 and he learned so much on his own as described in his video. He goes through his processes, mistakes and failures, and what he learned out of all of it. He explains everything so humbly, as if he was an amateur even though from my perspective he is very good. He knows there is so much to learn still and he came a long way. At the end of the video he explains the trap of Youtube and learning from people on the net. As though he was afraid he was one of those people you shouldn’t listen to. A self conscious statement but a humble one. I think because he comes from a place of not knowing anything about art and then becoming very experienced on his own is very encouraging for others. I believe he should keep posting and inspiring others. The volume and amount of work he has accomplished is very impressive.

I look at Volen’s work and I realize that if I want to become an artist I have to work hard. The problem with that is I still think the path is undefined. I feel like art is so broad that it can’t be taught by just one person. (Can that statement be used for Jiu Jitsu as well?) For example. He just kept taking classes from different online instructors and sources. He kept self correcting his mistakes after. There are so many ways to create a picture. I think art school was such a waste because it was a lot of self discovery, and fixing your own mistakes. It isn’t a black and white test sheet. I feel like that was the conundrum of art school. They want you to grow as an artist while completing assignments. The goal is to learn and grow, not to produce things to grade. The problem is both teacher and student get lost in that dichotomy. Maybe the small schools of atelier got it right. I don’t know I have never been, but I have seen their art and students work. Ateliers are workshops/schools where there are masters teaching apprentices a certain discipline. I sometimes wonder if that will be a better choice than going back to art school.

This was a good video for me because recently I’ve pondering going back to school. I was thinking about going back to art school because I was so close to finishing. No other degree peaks my interest. Maybe English or creative writing. I like hedge my bets. I really enjoy traveling and languages. So maybe I’ll be an English teacher in South Korea or Spain. A reason why I don’t go to an Atelier to learn how to draw and paint. It doesn’t have a degree attached to it. So I can’t use my GI bill. I want to make the most out of every benefit the military offered me.

What I learned from this post. I need to produce more volume. It will be a long road. Although it seems like the journey is well worth it.

Learning Watercolor

One of my year goals is to start painting. There are a lot of bad examples of watercolor on Google. It is a good thing that I always had a few artists in my mind when I think about water color. I really enjoy David Levine and Andrew Wyeth. That’s all the artists I can think about right now. I need to research more on this subject. When I think about watercolor, I think about flowers and vibrant/happy colors representing a picture or something painted to an almost photographic quality. I haven’t seen anything that’s very inspiring within the watercolor community. This is my amateur opinion. What I’m trying to say is I haven’t seen the art that I would like to see within the medium, besides Levine and Wyeth.

What am I doing? I am teaching myself to paint. I have a bunch of water color instructional books, paper, and all of 2019. By the end of the year. I hope to be proficient and confident in the medium, not expert. I would like to do postcards and travel sketches so I can send to friends or possibly make a book. I also want to paint the things I want to see. Like Jiu Jitsu moves, and food.

Here are a few pieces. I made color swatches. (Image above) Why? What’s not explained to a normal person. Is that you can’t just paint straight from the tube, well you can but the color’s intensity tends to be too strong. A David Levine study and my Seattle magnet.

1st painting of the new year. David Levine

More to come.