Artspiration – Carve & Draw

Botanical Art

As an artist who is mostly inspired by Nature and all of her creations, I’ve always had a bit of an interest in botanical art. Every now and then I try my hand at doing something botanical. Can’t say I’m all that great at it, especially since I’m doing it using the pointillism technique but I try. From what I’ve seen most botanical art pieces are done using watercolors or ink washes, mediums that just boggle my mind, yet make for some rather vivid and life like visuals. Pointillism is a bit of a departure in regards to techniques used for the art and is more so seen on the textbook scientific end of illustrating plants. Either way, it still makes for some good art.
Here are a few artists who I follow on Instagram that create some rather wonderful works of botanical artistry that are inspiring and delightful. 😀

Darren Sleep – @artyplantsman

Seinjeong Lee – @4lee5

Lauren Boles – @laurenbolesart

Media Jamshidi – @mediajamshidi

Beautiful and Bizarre Little Things

Like small works of art, well here’s another lovely artist for this blog’s artspiration collection: Naoto Hattori.

I’ve been following Hattori for some time now and his work has always been a great reminder that amazing art can come in small sizes.

Naoto Hattori is a Japanese artist who paints these wonderfully surrealistic acrylic paintings of floating heads, imaginative creatures and adorable one-eyed kittens. Many pieces of his work are smaller than 6×6, which have often given me inspiration in doing my artist card drawings. Not so much in subject matter but rather to serve as an example that an artist doesn’t have to go out and create work that can cover one whole side of a museum in order to create great art. Such large pieces are impressive indeed but as the saying goes “Great things come in small sizes” too or my personal favorite “It’s the little things that count.” So here’s another mark on the scoreboard for lovers and creators of small works of art. 😊

A Little Kick Start

It takes a while to reach a sense of harmony with the ebb and flow of one’s own creative energy without panicking during moments of receding before it washes up on you again. In other words, since my last drawing, Red Crown, I’ve done nothing. I’ve been out of it frankly but for the first time I’m not freaking out about. I’m getting better at knowing that this is how I function and contrary to the current mojo of our times, it’s impossible to stay in a constant state of high productivity. Productivity books be damned, creativity NEEDS moments of incubation. In Nature winter calls us to these moments and I am no longer afraid to heed her call. So I’ve done nothing since my last post but watch anime and had my mind twisted by Park Chan Wook’s “The Handmaiden”. (I’m actually still recovering from that.)

Anyhoo, now that almost a week has gone by I feel myself a stirring yet needing a little boost. Viewing the work of others is one way I help myself get a kick start. So following are the works of four lovely female artists whose work I would like to share since they often inspire me. Some I’ve been keeping tabs on for a few years now and some are new comers to my personal list of inspirational artists. Their work can be described as ethereal, emotive, sensual and surreal. Matter of fact, you may even see some of their influence in my own work such as with my drawing “Maybe”. 😊

Sketchbook Art

When I got back into drawing after a long hiatus, I initially started off working in sketchbooks, particularly Moleskines. At the time I had it in mind that this would be my main medium. I envisioned myself creating my own sketchbook picture book of amazing pointillism drawings that would later expand into printed volumes to fill a bookshelf. It was an ambitious idea.

Well, things change.

I just so happened to stumble upon these delightful little things called artist cards and fell in love. Immediately I found the cards to be easily mobile which was great for when I did any traveling but still wanted to get some drawing done. Add to that they’re easy to mount and with the size of matte board that I use it’s relatively easy to find a frame for them. To top it off the idea of creating these wonderful works of art at such a small size, I found both challenging, fascinating and a bit against the grain. In a culture where we tend to try to do everything big, going in the opposite direction is liberating and less exhausting. There’s something about art that is small but draws you in that creates a certain quiet intimacy that I never really felt while looking at a larger than life painting. So I made a complete switch to artist cards and haven’t looked back.

The thought of presenting a well worn Moleskine full of completed pen and ink gems is still a lovely idea to me so here are a few sources of inspiration from artists who have done just that. 😊

Some Pen and Ink Inspiration

I’m always on the look out for contemporary pen and ink artists, whether widely known or relatively obscure. I discovered the following two pen and ink artist on Instagram just recently and they have come to be my current source of inspiration in getting better at pointillism/stippling as well as just pen and ink art overall.

Xavier Casalta is a French artist who uses stippling to create a variety of amazing drawings, from botanical art, portraits to signs and lettering. You can view more of his work on his website at: http://casaltaxavier.com

Philip Harris is a freelance illustrator in the UK who creates editorial, packaging and book illustrations using dip pens and technical pens. He tackles a variety of subject matter from landscapes and animals to portraits and flora. You can view more of his work on his website at: http://philipharrisillustration.co.uk