Happy New Year to you all! 2020 has been a wild, intense and difficult journey for so many.
Perception of Time
Personally for me the year flew past. I am amazed with how quickly each week passes, I can't believe 1 year has gone by already. But I have been experiencing this for a few years now, not just in 2020. I think the main reason why was because I managed to dedicate much of my time to my art, study, and overall creative productivity, which helped me to feel elevated during tough periods. In 2018/2019 I was doing a lot of travel, combined with art practice, and this definitely seemed to add to the sense of acceleration of time to my own personal experience. 2020 was a year I was able to fully dedicate myself to art and further study. But even so, I am quite ambitious and set myself many goals both short-term and long-term, and I have high standards for myself. Ultimately I did fall short on some of my targets for the year, even though it was probably my most productive and overall focused and consistent art year I've ever had, very close to the second half of 2019. And I pushed myself to overcome fears, resistances and challenges throughout.
I shall continue on and finish these goals in the first quarter of 2021, and pursue on course to 'levelling up' for the remainder of the year. I hope you do too.
Creative Consciousness Shifts
One of the most rewarding experiences I find with creating is that, you can go into a consciousness shift where you lose all sense and track of time. This happens when you fully immerse yourself in the creative project and enter what is called the 'flow state'. During this time I am most focused and the least likely to be distracted. This is magical in a sense, but also can make you feel like you have less time, or that time is accelerating when you check the time later, and then you wonder where the days, weeks and months went, strangely. But all of it was invested in the process and act of creation, practice and study, and to your benefit.
But during a time when the minds of men and women in the world are chaotic, when there is much anxiety, frustration and uncertainty in the air, when we are constantly being bombarded with fear, and reminded why we should be fearful, we as artists are quite lucky, we can switch that thing off, go upstairs or in another room or out in nature, sit in silence or play some tunes, and completely immerse ourselves in art!
Become a Beacon of Light
I am starting to see that the very act of creating, and the enjoyment that art brings, is both energising and healing, it helps to uplift and recharge us as artists, and it helps to boost our self-esteem and self-confidence, it makes us more of a force to be reckoned with, it enables us to shine brighter within and without, and this is why I think it is essential that in this year ahead in 2021, we make sure we set time for art and creative pursuits when it seems many challenges lie ahead for us all. We need to charge ourselves up, and become our own shining light of creation and vitality for others in our vicinity and online, for those who might be feeling overwhelmed and simply in need for something to cheer themselves up, inspire them, or make them use their own imaginations and prompt them to do something vocational and creative.
Yes there is darkness in the world and in ourselves as human beings on a psychological level, we can't and shouldn't ignore it and banish it into the shadows, sticking our head in the sand and pretending all is fine when it is not, won't make the bad things any better. Ignorance is bliss they say, but only for a while, until the thing being ignored comes to your doorstep. Better to face and weather the storm early. But at the same time, there is also so much love, beauty, mystery and wonder, in humanity and the natural world. And we as artists are the ones to remind the world of that.
So I hope your 2021 is charged with creativity, productivity peace and inner strength. Let’s discover and pursue knowledge about ourselves, our world and all that is going on and what we can do about it. It's time we become more resilient and become our own leaders and positive example to others.
Back to my art, here are my personal top 9 digital artworks from 2020. There was 2 more paintings that were close contenders which didn't make it.
A combination of figurative, environment, illustration, fantasy and animal art! I thoroughly enjoy working on all of them, but figurative work is my favourite!
Here they are individually and up close:
Portrait of A Wolf
Wolves are one of the animals that make an appearance in my art more than others. More on the way!
Portrait Painting Study
A portrait painting for practice.
Ragnar Painting Study
Because I enjoyed the Vikings series and wanted to paint some of the characters for practice. Ragnar was my favourite.
Two Samurai
A conceptual illustration I completed earlier in the year. I started this off with a tiny pencil thumbnail sketch.
Isle of Skye
My painting study of the Fairy Pools on the Isle of Skye. I visited Skye in early 2018.
Isle of lofty Clouds
A fantasy, environment conceptual illustration design based on a story I'm working on, set in the time of Atlantis.
Rocks of The Snowy Peaks
A digital painting illustration inspired by my trip to Patagonia.
N. C. Wyeth - Master Study
Going to include one of my master studies in here from 2020, why not. My study of one of American Illustrator’s, Wyeth's paintings.
Giant Celtic Tree
A piece from imagination. I first designed the Celtic hut with pencil on paper.
My Top 9 Digital Paintings of 2020
So that's it, I hope you appreciated this post and found some value in it.
Cheers to 2021 Artists!
Robbie