Home Art Studio Ideas & Tips

hello I'm professor Lou I'm here with art prof teaching artists Alex Rowe and Lauren Welch welcome to our video today we are talking about five tips for a home art studio because I would guess that a lot of us are working from home right now if you would like to grow as an artist and you can't afford an art class we've got everything you need here our prop to keep you busy critiques and tutorials alright we've got five tips to start out with we're gonna start with tip number one which is a very practical unglamorous tip but very important which is to protect your surfaces Lauren this was your tip so I'm gonna let you introduce this okay well the reason why I think this is so important is because I am the kind of painter that being a very meticulous painter I make the assumption that I'm very clean and that I will never ruin the floor my clothing the walls and I am always wrong and even though I am always wrong I still do it over and over again and it just is something that you don't even want to play with because then otherwise you're stuck like scrubbing the walls or scrubbing the floor or paying someone a lot of money so even if it sounds really dumb always put like a sheet of plastic down or canvas or even newspaper I've used newspaper in a pinch Alex do you cover your surfaces or does your media make that not so necessary yeah it doesn't make it as necessary because watercolor and gouache they're both water soluble and pencil too so yeah I just keep like 409 and Windex and can clean like the glass top desk and like any cheapo plastic or metal stool that I'm using the only thing that is key is like when I lived in an apartment with carpet I I'd have to like lay things down or like you learn really quickly it's like Oh like this doesn't come out so yeah see I always discover that I should protect things after I make a mess like a few years you know I was working a lot with graphite powder and I was not paying attention and graphite powder it's a nightmare it gets on everything and I got it all over the bottom of my hardwood floor on my hardwood floor got like super shiny and slippery and like to this day it's still like that so it's good idea to think about it afterwards it's a very simple concept but I think it's definitely something you want to think about like first rather than way later Lauren is there anything in particular that you think works better as a covering like it's plastic better or is it just grab whatever you have or what it depends on the medium that you're using I think plastic is the one that's like the most for sure like good barrier because then you know like I sometimes work in fluid acrylics and those can weak through like paper or canvas or anything like that but that being said I think I prefer using canvas because it's super cheap it's like really reusable you can dry clean it if you need to and also I do a lot of walking around when I paint and I often will like slip on the plastic especially if it's on like say like a wood floor so it's you know canvas is a little bit more sure you can tape it down and your feet won't slip everywhere and it's yeah that's good cool let's see Denise flinch is saying I've been covering my floors wooden kitchen floors Mariana says my pile of quote work clothes has slowly but surely become bigger than my quote regular clothes yes or do you were an apron or anything like that I should wear an apron it's yeah just kind of you don't choose your work clothes like your work clothes get chosen for you buy what you spill on that those are your new work pants yeah that's so true I actually have designated aprons I have one for sculpture one for printmaking and one for painting it's very organized and thought through in advance for sure okay why are you Vaughn to ten number two which is make it cozy however you guys want to interpret that Lauren you told me that you like having a space that you actually want to spend time in what do you mean by that so as far as being a painter goes I am the kind of person the kind of painter that means all of the creature comforts all laid out or I just won't spend time in the studio things that are specifically really aggravating and ruined my concentration are temperature I need the studio be very warm I cannot work when it's cold and also just having a place to sit I don't I do some of my work standing up but I also have a futon generally in my studio where I can just sit and look at the work and be with the work for a long period of time I find if I don't have these things if they're not there I will be going in and out of the studio all the time I will never give myself a chance to get into a groove same thing with being hungry like I need snacks around and I think that's pretty common for other artists to get to this next in a minute because there's a whole other area for us to cover in terms of students and staying satiated but Alex I was wondering for you do you want your studio to be cozy because I'm actually not like that at all but I want to hear from you first oh yeah I definitely have to like not cozy enough where I feel like I know yeah I guess cozy would be the right word they'd feel like comforting safe like a little nest and yeah I need like a full cup of coffee glass of water and like a little bowl of like almonds or chips or something because if I yeah if I let myself get distracted with getting a snack then I'll I'll never get to work like Laura was saying yeah so I need this yeah yeah like I need it to be oh and it's funny I like it colder I like to be able to wear like a little cardigan and Nestle in and then I can just settle in the groove all day so in other words if you don't have your bowl of almonds you have a good excuse to get up stop working procrastinate and go scrounge in the kitchen first snack yeah and then I get the last the almonds so that I decide to go to the store and then when I'm at the store I get stuff for another thing and then it's yeah Lauren do you have any studio snacks that you have to have on hand oh man yeah almonds are really good I also like peanuts they just like fill you up I love chocolates like M&Ms and things I I go for oh and you always get me dried strawberries which I don't usually have at home but are my favorite of all the favorites because I can pretend feel healthy but they're actually just like Kenny you're just like eating candy basically dried strawberries yeah ace like gummy bears that's pretty much what it is well see about you I'm not like you guys I can't be comfortable in my studio because it's too nice it makes me want to relax and then I'm not in the right mood anymore just like ripple of aqua is saying in the live chat right now I can't be in enough I'd be too distractions of comfort you need to be on my feet active with everything laid out in front of me ready to go no snap distractions oh I don't know guys I am like cleaning up a meal at the end of every single day it's horrible like this is probably why I never post pictures of my desk on Instagram because it's just disgusting but I I feel the same way as ripple of aqua that it can't be a place that I get to cozy in I suppose Clara we've got a couple comments here also about accidentally confusing your Pete water for your drink does anybody have tips on how to foreign sheepish - because I know that is an issue I'm gonna give that one to Alex as the resident gouache and watercolor painter I'm guessing you have been in that situation more than us yeah cuz I like I get awful with it where I like to have two things of water one to like pre wat the brush and then another one that's bigger and cleaner and then the coffee and then the water so there's just there's like a 50/50 chance I'll stick the brush in coffee or water no like I've tried keeping them on different sides it's yeah I have not found something that'll work and I'm at four in all my years I've not found a solution oh except but this ruins the fun if you put your coffee in like a to-go tumbler like a Nalgene or something with like a lid that's the only surefire way yeah I I really agree with that Alex I think like the objects the liquid containers have to be like really different looking like I don't do like the Nalgene thing like I just do like my mug of coffee but I'm I paint water is generally in like either one of those giant like metal tomato cans or in like an old gesso bucket so like I'm not gonna drink out of a gesso bucket see what's all about the containers is that really what it is well I thought it was cute to get like an old coffee pot for my watercolor yeah we have a picture of that let me see if I can find it I think I swear I'm tempted to like pour that into my coffee here it is Oh Alex how can you have that was Oona gun Brody if you like that we're totally missing like I could not have a coffee pot like that in my studio Roberto is saying drink your coffee before painting I actually disagree with that because then I have to go to the bathroom like thirty minutes later but just the same problem as Nina get up and get a snack easily distracted we all are you like professionals who could actually focus and get stuff done it's crazy how hard it is to stay on task at home yeah okay let's move on to tip number three which is to set the mood Lauren how do you set the mood for your home studio oh well I want to put in a plug for art prof podcasts not podcasts I wanted to apologize Spotify we have an art prof music channel on Spotify where we all post our playlists that we listen to oh my god and so I will either put on something like that if I really feel like I can't have any like discussion distractions or sometimes I'll put on like a podcast or something on TV but it has to be like not distracting I can't be too invested in it Alex what about you what do you use to set the mood in the studio podcasts for me are my favorite like especially like like ones where I can learn like their like science or history or true-crime based I love those a lot and I think with podcasts it has that benefit kind of like if another one I like is like not bad TV but you know not not something that'll really get my attention because when it's episodic like that then when it ends it's a good like pulse check for me of like or like okay like that episode of the podcast finish so now I'll like refill the water make another pot of coffee then get back to it you know it's a good break rather than music Alex you've left out the part where you listen to podcasts about infectious diseases because I remember one time you were at my house you're like really upsetting yeah it's so much fun and they've really like blown up since that yeah they got picked up by exactly right Network yeah it's um this podcast will kill you and they're doing a lot on coronavirus if you want to give or about that we got a lot of people telling us about setting the mood Kiba Bell Connie is saying I put my math lectures on well that's a new one I have not heard before Mariana is binge watching our cross very cool we are so into that and ripple of aqua puts on a calming podcast or music later I'm really into it find myself to dance playlist you can jam out to Haley Michele says i rewatch really long Let's Plays that I've seen before and salty person has six different playlists for different emotions so the music can match what you're driving wow that is like super organized I don't know that's not much effort into setting the mood there are also people here like romão who are thinking about things beyond just what we listen to like rain mentions incense which i think is a great idea I love having incense going while I'm working also I think it was ji gonzales is talking about lighting in the studio which makes a huge difference for me gotta have that good lighting if it's crappy lighting then you're just focusing on squinting on the work and not you know actually doing what you need to be doing mm-hmm yeah I was working with my friend Kathy speranza because I was shooting a tutorial of her doing these charcoal drawings and I am so jealous of her studio her studio has like Gothic cathedral natural light from the north it's like the most beautiful heavenly light anything that you set up in her studio looks gorgeous it's like you cannot go wrong in her studio like I dream about having a studio like that Alex what about you do you have any good lighting in your studio what do you have not in my current studio in like my current studio it's all artificial light which is a big bummer like the only spot to get good outdoor light in my apartment is if I put my desk like right in the center of the living room that's the only spot and yeah like I definitely noticed that it's less let's say cozy again then like my previous studio which was right next to a north-facing window and it was just like dream but yeah those little things like definitely help or hinder well you know what I listen to this is not artistic at all I listen to people like Nick Newman and Roberto Blake because they teach me how to use YouTube oh my god I'm always like oh I got to pick up some new tips about how to do YouTube so I guess I'll listen to this while I work on that I don't know I feel like I have the most unromantic set the mood you techne you like to listen to ari Shapiro no but see that's different no no I listen to ari Shapiro who by the way is the host of All Things Considered on NPR I have some time when I cook because that's a very different mindset Lord it's not the same oh I can't add too hard when I'm actually making artwork like I have to listen to something that I can sort of space out a little bit so I don't know for me it's sort of like when I'm in the studio I want to be a little bit distracted but not too distracted I don't know does that make any sense Lord yeah I think it does some people in the chat like Denise flinch are mentioning phones being distracting and there's like some talk about whether the phone is like a good thing or a bad thing to have in the studio I am of the mindset that is kind of a necessary evil I often teii you 'he's my phone to stream music and i also use my phone to take pictures of my work while i'm working to you know track progress or to get like a image of what the work looks like that's not like my eyes like it it pulls out different things in the work so i do find it very distracting but I also find that like I need to have it Alex what about you what do you do with your phone very similar um like yeah I'm either using it for reference photos or I'm using it like Lauren said to get another look at the piece or to look at it in greyscale change music things like that putting my phone in airplane mode though really helps and having - like speakers or headphones or something like that I'm so glad Bluetooth is like not as expensive anymore it's like average so you can like put your phone at least a couple yards away so it's yeah that's that's been helpful to me see I'm not like you guys at all I am so bad about my phone use that now I actually put it in another room preferably a room that's like way on the other side of the house so I actually have to like take a walk to use my phone because I don't I'm on Instagram for like two hours it's terrible like it's such a distraction for me I can't have it around so yeah that's that's my solution because otherwise I just cannot take care of things a little bit better about that but only because there are now so many messages that I'm receiving like electronically cuz everything is done you know through the internet now like I'm getting so many messages like texts emails Instagram messages like phone messages that like I'm kind of like scared to use those apps now so I'll just like totally bypassed them and go straight to like my reference photos but that has never been the case this is the first time that's happened let's see blend in Inc says that they watch bad reality shows on it yeah it's like yeah anybody watching Tiger King I have I was tempted I was gonna start it last night but it was a little late maybe I will tonight alright let's go to tip number four which is let your studio pick the media Alex you're a painter and you've worked in oil paint and all sorts of different materials that some are not so friendly for home art studio so why do you think this is important thinking about your home studio and the media yeah I mean when I first discovered like oil painting in high school like I got in like a little bit of trouble because like I did when like my mom left the house to go to the gym and then she came back home and it smelled like a gas leak in there so yeah like I mean nothing blew up but yeah that's the danger is that you get all those fumes and chemicals in there you have to kind of plan for that stuff yeah that's not a good idea yeah cat Wong who is another teaching artist here at art prof she told me when she was in high school she didn't know any better about the fumes that solvents make for oil painting and she said she was like painting in her bedroom with the windows closed using gamsol which is basically mineral spirits and so the thing about a home studio that I think is tricky for some people is it does pretty dramatically limit what you can do in terms of media sometimes like Lauren you were actually saying some of your peers are having trouble because now they're not in school anymore they don't have these huge sprawling studio spaces and they've really had to downsize right yeah it's such a huge so in my school we have of what I think for New York is pretty enormous studios and I mean comparatively like apartments also in New York are very very tiny so the change in the kind of things even like the size of things that you can do is like so drastic that a lot of students are having a kind of like freeze moment where they feel like they just can't do anything because they have to change their practice so drastically I mean how would you suggest people handle that Lauren because I know it's frustrating when you want to do something but there's just no option because there's no space like in theory I would love to have a gigantic professional printmaking press at my disposal but I just don't and so there's a lot of stuff I cannot do I cannot do line etching at home I can't do lithography or anything like that so what's the solution when that happens born well yeah it depends on what kind of medium you do work in I know for me like right now I'm having the size issue I want to be able to make larger paintings but I can't so I'm doing mostly smaller works a lot of things with like crayons instead of paints or mostly doing a lot a lot a lot of planning like making drawings and thumbnails for future large works that I know they'll have the opportunity to like once I'll get like my studio back I know that I spend like a lot of my time goes into that planning like anyway so I might as well just like jump into my studio and like start on a bunch of paintings rather than like you know basically wasting that time I mean Alex I sort of envy the fact that you work in gouache because it's like wow that's such a easy friendly paint material to work with and it's like nobody paints five foot tall gouache paintings so it's sort of a really ideal situation that you paint and gouache so much I suppose I was gonna say like I was here you guys talked about I was like yeah that sounds like a bummer like no I did personally change from like I did do like in hindsight stupidly large gouache paintings that were like 24 by 36 at some points and now they're much more like traditionally and manageable um I did have the opposite problem or if anyone like wanted me to do a larger commissioned piece like what happens like about two years ago I was like great I have to pretty much brush up on a whole new medium that I haven't used in a while you know but yeah you definitely need to base it off what your studio can accommodate yeah I mean it's a bummer when you can't use the materials that you want to use I get that but I also think that sometimes you'll surprise yourself and you end up doing some really cool things with some pretty humble materials that can be really great I mean I remember many years ago when I was pregnant I couldn't really do a lot of the hazardous stuff that I was doing and I started really actually basically what happened is I stopped painting and I just drew with graphite and crayon and then I sort of never went back right and it's like yeah I could get mad at myself about that but that's just the way things ended up and I sort of think that's okay when life gives you these odd twists and turns that you have to deal with okay let's go to tip number five which is simulate a commute Lauren can you explain this one well Clara you actually gave me that it bikes to simulate a commute I think I mentioned to you I had you know back before I started school I was in a situation where I didn't have any kind of real routine going on like my work schedule is all over the place and I was finding it hard to sit down and focus on painting and you told me to simulate a commute which is where you go and do something either take a walk or go out and get a coffee or just walk to the coffeepot and like get yourself a coffee and like read the paper ritualize the process of going into studio as if you were like as the in the same way you ritualize the process of like going to work and that helps you get into the mindset of you know what you need to do like you focus on what you need to do next Alex do you simulate a commute or do you have your own version of that I like honestly I don't I remember you telling me that back in like in class and then I forgotten it but I want to start doing it again because yeah the only ritual that I have is pretty much like to make a cup of coffee and the way that I make it it gives me like five minutes to like mentally focus on what I'm gonna do next and then just sit down take the sail and then offer like a reward system like if like okay when I work for two hours that I'll be able to do X yeah well I mean I think another twist on tip number five is having some semblance of a routine because I just found because I do work from home a lot that if I don't have a routine I go out of my mind it's just too hard for me to organize like I have noticed that I always do my email communication stuff first thing in the morning because then I get it out of the way and then I always do editing in the after and so it's like I sort of match my mindset with the time of day with the actual work that I'm doing and so whatever your version of that routine or commute is I think is really good to do like for me Lauren I don't go get a cup of coffee I go for a run in the morning because then it gets my blood pumping I feel a lot more wig I take a shower I come back I do my work is just so much better in that way let's see we've got a lot of Commons here Luke K art is saying they move from a large open studio in New Zealand to a small apartment in Taiwan wow that is a really big change about five years ago I paint an oil had to rethink my practice I now use walnut oil to send my paints oh wow that's really cool and Haley Michelle's saying taking figure drawing we have to do it all online it's a weird situation we can't draw figures we had to draw statues actually I'd like to hear from you guys Lauren and Alex if you guys have any solutions for that because there's a lot of art teachers online and Facebook perks saying oh where's a website I can find photos for people to draw from like there's that website I think it's croaky cafe or something where they just have photos you can download or do you guys have another solution for that Alex what about you I was thinking of one that I haven't checked it in a while because it like started to get pretty like monotonous but it was called pose space and again like I haven't checked it in a while but checking on resources to see if there are like catalogue of people with photos taken of them intentionally for artists to draw so they mirror their poses like they're in a studio it looks like people are saying but Lauren you you have well you don't have them now in New York but you've had too little studio mates with you in you yes and they were your models can you explain this yes and actually I think it was Tammy earlier in the chat mentioned she's got to get her space ready she takes her cat and puts it in its space it's little bed is working and that's what I would do yeah I will often draw for my cats land I don't have a model because I think that they're great practice and they're hilarious and I just love them so much that I want drawings of them for myself anyways so um I tend to rather than like looking up videos of people like I try to get as many poses from either like my roommates or myself I'll put like you know a camera timer on and like do whatever like pose I need to to work at war video and that that that's enough for me actually it's funny my daughter's they're 10 and 12 there is one day I think I was working and they were watching a movie or something and I picked up my daughter's sketchbook I said to my husband I'm like where did these monkey drawings come from I'm like they look really good she's like oh well we were watching Animal Planet and so she was just sketching the monkeys like we were watching Animal Planet and I sort of feel like in some ways I would rather draw from a video of monkeys than from a photo of monkeys because for me half the fun of drawing something from life is getting to watch it move and getting to see what its personality is in the movement and so obviously you guys should do whatever works best for you but I think that there's a lot more options out there than I think a lot of us realize so I would definitely check that out quite a bit surin yes kana is saying watching athletes and gymnastic videos are great for doing similar draw yeah oh that's cool and Ray is saying I love my Eskie dog my family will sometimes pose reluctantly but catch one on the phone I can take forever no not if you have cousins or relatives who play video games you guys will have all day to try those figures it's really quite impressive alright guys we hope you'll take some time and explore our prop bug or got lots of cool resources on there for all of you we hope you will subscribe to our Channel and join the arc family and by the way if you have not joined our discord server I highly recommend that you go down to the video description and get the invite link because Lauren we are having some dorky conversations in there and I kind of think you guys might want to be a part of that don't you think oh my god you should you guys should join just to see the meme Prof channel which is just like pictures of Clara's head over Drake's body like you know that that mean I I'm in love I it's it's I just love being on the discord Channel I have so many other things to do in my life and that is where I am yeah so join us there on discord and thank you so much to our top patreon supporters who make everything possible thank you to all of you guys in the chat giving us all your quirky little studio habits it was great to hear from all of you guys stay safe everybody we will see you next time bye

Channel: Art Prof: Create & Critique

Views: 10,673

Rating: 4.9796953 out of 5

Keywords: art advice, art tips and tricks, artist advice, artist motivation, artist motivational speech, artist motivational video, artist professional, tips for art, tips for art beginners, tips for artists, art studio tour, art studio organization, art studio setup, artist studio, artist studio tour, artist studio setup, artist studio ideas, diy home art studio, small home art studio ideas, my home art studio, home art studio, home art studio tour, home art studio ideas

Id: vfadVXSkt4E

Length: 32min 2sec (1922 seconds)

Published: Mon Apr 06 2020