Category Archives: Blogging

Angry Art

Not the kind that you make when angry, but the kind that makes you angry. Specifically, your own.

This is the first rendition of my brand-new, never-seen-before, Mid Week Post! This new kind of post will feature art that I have worked on since my last website update. Along with the art, there will be content – quality content – that will range from lessons learned to WIPs to bad jokes. Well, bad art jokes, anyway.

Actually, I don’t know any jokes, except the one about the penguin in the bathtub, and nobody buy my sister thinks it’s funny.

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This week’s featured art made me mad. You know the kind – you painted what you planned to paint, but it looks horrible and makes you want to run screaming from the room tearing your hair out because you don’t know why you hate it. Usually this is remedied by leaning the painting against the wall (paint side in) and trying to forget about it for a day or two. That, plus the helpful eyes of others, usually show you the problem. Fixing it may be easy or hard or impossible, but if you can figure out what is wrong with it, at least you can call it a learning experience instead of a total failure.

The Ugly Chickadee:

Ugly Chickadee

The bird and composition aren’t too bad, but those leaves! AARGH! My sister accurately referred to them “flying yam-aliens.” I wanted leaves, not sweet potatoes. So I did the wall thing and got advice on WetCanvas, and tried to fix it:

Better Chickadee

Not brilliant, but I don’t hate it anymore. I just mildly dislike it. I learned from it, and hope someone will buy it. What more could I ask for? Some paintings sell, but the artist never having learned a thing…

Art Blogging

If you’ve come here looking for my art, please go to www.meglyman.com or click the “Meg Lyman Illustration” link on the sidebar. This URL is now my blog!

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I began “An Ode to Art and Beer” with a few specific goals in mind. First, to rate beer – for anyone who drinks it. Second, to discuss art – for anyone who loves how-tos, WIPs, and lessons learned. There are so many “art bloggers” out there whose sole focus is showing artwork. It’s a great venue to keep collectors and fans up-to-date about what you have on the easel, and to sell art. However, I focus my blog on the process of making art, not the end result.

I’m on a journey of learning. My successes and setbacks as an artist are being recorded with the hope that someone will find the information useful in their own journey. My “Links” section contains the blogs of other artists whose goals are similar – they aren’t just there for the end result. That said, I would like to post more often than weekly, but time is precious. So I’m considering throwing in some completed artwork posts during the week, and continuing with the beer and “lessons learned” posts on the weekends.

My desire for constructive criticism also gave me an idea: to set up a website for all of us artists who want to improve, where we could get valuable critiques and do the same for others. That’d be the sole purpose of the site. If any of you readers are interested in participating in a site like that, please comment & let me know.

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With new the freedom of hosting my own blog, I’m also looking into making money with it. It will come in the form of Sponsored Links, so that whenever I talk about a particular product, I’ll link to a site where you can buy it. I have a “Meg Recommends” link on the sidebar that with have all past product links. For example, dickblick.com has an affiliates program, and if a reader buys a product after clicking the link on my blog, I get a small cut. So, if you want to buy something at dickblick.com, doing so through CrashOctopus.com pays me. (bwahaha!) If you do, I’ll bake cookies for you.

CrashOctopus

Welcome to CrashOctopus.com! This is the new site of the CrashOctopus Blog, which I ported over from Blogger. It contains all the archives and comments from Blogger.

This URL used to be redirected to my website, so if you’re looking for the art, please change your bookmark to www.meglyman.com. You can also get there by clicking the “Meg Lyman Illustration” link on the sidebar.

Thanks!

Meg (The Management)

An Ode to Art and Beer

Beer. No, not just beer. I have to be more specific. Dark beer? Hmm… Slightly better.

The imbibish part of this blog will focus on said beverage. I cannot stand the light-colored swill that passes for beer in this country. N and I drink (and rate) only beers that have the words “stout,” “porter,” or “dark” in the title and are chocolaty-brown in color. My snooty beer preference I blame entirely on my dad, who thoroughly enjoys dark beers. He also enjoys just about any kind of food put in front of him, and never met a piece of pie he didn’t like, and I blame those traits on him, too.

So, beer. N and I buy a new kind every time we visit the Beverage Resort (complete with a waterfall and plastic tropical trees), and their selection changes every time. Each new beer gets a 1 (bad) to 10 (kickass) rating from me and from Nathan, and a brief description, if we aren’t too beer-ed up to remember it. Generally, we don’t get toasted on this stuff – it’s too good to waste by forgetting. And we bring this ranking to you, for your enjoyment of fine dark beer, and to help us remember what we’ve tried and what we’d rather not buy ever again.

The other half of the blog: art. I have recently discovered that I desperately want to explore the world of art as it exists beyond backgroundless pencil drawings. Within the last 6 months or so, I’ve bought paper, board, claybord, gouache, paintbrushes, palettes, canvases, and pastels, to name a few, in an attempt to explore the world of color. Henceforth come my mis-adventurous relationship with art, put down in electrons to help both you and me. Here’s to my ability to make horrible art mistakes so you don’t have to.