Stealing People's ideas

Artists steal from each other all the time.

I love looking at other artists work to get ideas. Sometimes I copy part, or all, of a painting or drawing so I can learn how artists better than me do things.  This type of stuff no one sees but me, but it's in my brain somewhere.

Other times I look at other artists just to get inspired. Ask, how do they draw, expressions, wrinkles, shoes, or compose a picture?

PJ Lynch, and artist I am often inspired by, had a really great example on his blog a while back called "Inspired by Dulac".  I really enjoy seeing how he incorporated another artists way of using space into his image.

When I created the Little Match Girl, and Cinderella illustrations I wanted it to be an exercise on using space the way Lisbeth Zwerger does. She creates paintings with beautiful areas of empty space. I really enjoyed working that way and hope I can incorporate more of that in my work in the future. Here is a link to an interview she gave about her art.

How are you inspired by other artists?



The winner of last week's giveaway is...
... Camilla!
(winner was chosen completely at random by drawing numbers from a bowl)
please email me at illustration(at)manelleoliphant(dot)com with your name and mailing address, and I will send you your prize 

So if you didn't win there is one more chance. (once you have won you are no longer eligible to enter again but feel free to spread the word. ;)
Or, if you don't want to wait check out my print shop or card shop to get your own Manelle art right away.

Here is what you can win.

Three illustrated art prints. They are printed on Epson Velvet fin art paper and signed by me.
They are in two sizes one 5.75x8.5 and two 13x8.5 prints.  (not standard frame sizes)

To enter this contest here is what you need to do.

1. Comment below before Midnight MST on January 2, 2012 (p.s Happy New Year)

You can comment anything but if you need a jump start I'd love to hear about ways art inspires you in any way.

2. Tweet or Facebook status a link back to this blog post.

I'll announce the winner next Thursday.
Good luck everyone. 


Love this art? Buy Prints or Cards and Gifts illustrated by Manelle.

Real life people get logged away & giveaway four

Artists get ideas from people in the real world. They do it all the time.

The other day I was sitting my car at a stop light and a man walked across the street in front of me. He had no chin, a giant nose, a skinny neck, and a comb over. He was drowning in his sweat shirt and had this way of walking that reminded me of a pigeon.

It was awesome. 

Since I was driving I couldn't pull out my sketchbook right then, but I logged him away in my brain for ... something later on.

Yesterday I drew him at the movies.

Observation is a great way to get ideas.


The winner of last week's giveaway is...
... J-Dawg!
(winner was chosen completely at random by drawing numbers from a bowl)
please email me at illustration(at)manelleoliphant(dot)com with your name and mailing address, and I will send you your prize 

Now if you didn't win no worries.
There are two more giveaways to go.

If you don't want to wait check out my print shop or card shop to get your own Manelle art right away. (once you have won you are no longer eligible to enter again but feel free to spread the word. ;)

Here is what you can win.

Three illustrated art prints. They are printed on Epson Velvet fin art paper and signed by me.
They are in two sizes one 5.75x8.5 and two 13x8.5 prints.  (not standard frame sizes)

To enter this contest here is what you need to do.

1. Comment below before Midnight MST on December 26, 2011 (p.s. Merry Christmas!)

You can comment anything but if you need a jump start I'd love to hear about any of your people watching experiences, or if there is any art in my portfolio that you would like to see as a print I'd love to hear that too.

2. Tweet or Facebook status a link back to this blog post.

I'll announce the winner next Thursday.
Good luck everyone. 


Love this art? Buy Prints or Cards and Gifts illustrated by Manelle.

Giveaway Three

The winner of this week's giveaway is...
... blue65829
(winner was chosen completely at random by drawing numbers from a bowl)
contact me at illustration(at)manelleoliphant(dot)com with your name and mailing address, and I will send you your prize 

Thanks for all your comments about fairy tales I'm excited to read and maybe illustrate some of them. 

Now if you didn't win, no worries.
There are three more giveaways to go or you can check out my print shop or card shop to get your own Manelle art right away. (once you have won you are no longer eligible to enter again but feel free to spread the word. ;)

Here is what you can win.

Three illustrated art prints. They are printed on Epson Velvet fin art paper and signed by me.
They are in two sizes one 5.75x8.5 and two 13x8.5 prints.  (not standard frame sizes)

To enter this contest here is what you need to do.

1. Comment below before Midnight MST on December 19, 2011
You can comment anything but if you need a jump start I'd love to hear your best way of getting ideas, (here is my post with some thoughts about it) or if there is any art in my portfolio that you would like to see as a print,

2. Tweet or Facebook status a link back to this blog post.

I'll announce the winner next Thursday.
Good luck everyone. 


Love this art? Buy Prints or Cards and Gifts illustrated by Manelle.

Do you know where this idea came from?

Lots of time people want to know where ideas for things like art, music, writing, and the empire state building, come from.

The answer is everywhere.
But that isn't really what you want to know so... I'll tell you how I got the idea for this illustration:

It started  out with me thinking about putting more emotion in my art.

Some artists I think are brilliant at it this and I want to be better.
Pascal Campion and
James Abbott McNeill Whistler (painted "whistler's mother")
are a couple examples.

I also want to be brilliant at it, thus I was pondering on it.
(I think most ideas start with pondering about stuff)

This led me to thinking about trying to paint memories. One of the paintings I did at this time was Girl's Night Out.  Which started from a memory of my and some friends eating out for dinner.

Then one morning I got in my car and saw this:

(I may have been driving and taking pictures at the same time. But I'm fine no accidents or anything close. No worries)

And that is basically it. Snowy misty morning + thinking about memories = girls walking home from school.

And now you know where that idea came from.
The End

Check out my weekly Print Giveaway.
Love this art? Buy Prints or Cards and Gifts illustrated by Manelle.

My Sketchbook Idea Generator + Winners + Giveaway 2

Sometimes I feel like drawing but end up just staring at a blank page.

My solution?

THE SKETCHBOOK IDEA GENERATOR

This idea started at a workshop I attended about a year ago with Priscilla Burris. She had a everyone randomly write down an animal and an emotion which we then had to draw. I got an "ecstatic pig".

I enjoyed the exercise, and after some thought on it I came up with my Sketchbook Idea Generator.
I started out making some lists in a word program under the categories of: Person, Action/Emotion, Time, and Place.
This is what I came up with. (if you want to try it, feel free to print the jpg)

As you can see, some of the people aren't actually people, and things range from general to really specific. I did that on purpose

After that I printed the list, cut the words into little paper pieces and put them in envelopes in the back pocket of my sketchbook.

Now if I'm stumped on what to draw. I just pull out the envelopes, pick some papers randomly out of them, and sketch away.

I usually pick one from the person category, and anywhere from one to all of the other categories, but you can do any combo that you want.

With some of my 20 min sketches this week I've gotten: Edwardian + Cat + Car

Teenage girl + Dragon + a Snowy place

And
Clown + Sad +1700's

I'll be at it on my Sketch blog all month long so check back often to see what other ideas are generated.
You can also give it a whirl yourself. I'd love to hear about your experiences.

Now for the moment you might have been waiting for, last weeks Giveaway winner is:
# 3 Dashbo!
(winner was chosen completely at random by drawing numbers from a bowl)
contact me and I will get you your prize. 

Now if you didn't win, no worries.
There are still four more giveaways to try your typing fingers at or you can check out my print shop or card shop to get your own Manelle art right away. (once you have won you are no longer eligible to enter again)

Here is what you can win.

Three illustrated art prints. They are printed on Epson Velvet fin art paper and signed by me.
They are in two sizes one 5.75x8.5 and two 13x8.5 prints.  (not standard frame sizes)

To enter this contest here is what you need to do.

1. Comment below before Midnight MST on December 12, 2011
Tell me one or all of these things: what your favorite fairy tale is,
or if there is any art in my portfolio that you would like to see as a print,
or if you try out the "generator" I'd love a link to see your sketches.

2. Tweet or Facebook status a link back to this blog post.

I'll announce the winner next Thursday.
Good luck everyone.

Introducing... new stuff, and giving things away.

Hello my friends.
I've been pondering (probably not what you've been pondering pinky) about what to do with my blog, and I've come up with something.

The plan is this:
My new sketch blog is now here on tumblr. I will be posting on it at least 4 times a week until otherwise noted.  My sketch theme for December is "my sketchbook idea generator".

What does that mean you ask? I'll let you know next Thursday, here on Manelle Oliphant Illustration.

In Fact, I will be posting on this blog on every Thursday, also until otherwise noted.

BUT THAT'S NOT ALL (I know the all caps are annoying but sometimes I just can't help it)

I also want to introduce to you my new card shop and print shop. And to celebrate the fun I'm having my first ever blog giveaway.

(I kinda love giveaways, even though I've never won anything.)

Here is what you can win.

Yes it's true, three whole signed Manelle Oliphant Illustration prints. They are in two sizes one 5.75x8.5 and two 13x8.5 prints.  (not standard frame sizes, nor are they the new and improved prints you can find in the shop.)

To enter here is what you have to do.
1. Comment on this post before midnight on Monday December 5)
2. Tweet or Facebook status a link to this blog post.

Easy!

Then I'll pick the winner randomly by putting your comment number in a hat. Then we'll have some kind of email get together where in get some into and mail the prints. (awesome!)

I'll announce the winner next Thursday here on this blog.

Ok one more thing.
I just happen to have more than one of those lovely little prints up there so I'm planning on having this give away each week for the next five. So if you keep checking back you have five chances to win. (Why not make it big, we are launching a whole new thing here?)

AND NOW THAT'S ALL for today. Don't forget to check out the shops (cards, prints), my new sketch blog , and start commenting.