Help an artist! Answer some questions!

[emalin212]

Hi everyone,

I don't usually post outside the General Setting section. Today's different though. I'm doing some heavy thinking about my art career, and I need your help to figure some things out.

Over the past few weeks, I've discovered the need to truly understand my "target audience" - that is, the people most likely to be interested in my work. Up to this point, all my efforts to build a sustainable career have been random and ineffective. Well I'm tired of flailing around. I want to know exactly who will appreciate my art and dive deep into the world we share.

Thankfully, it wasn't that hard to figure out WHO to talk to. I just had to ask myself who loves the same things I love. And guess what? I thought of y'all here at OA!  I love science, sci-fi, outer space, worldbuilding, and imagining crazy possibilities. So do you! The kind of art I want to make fits right in with all of that. So here I am... and I've got some questions for you.

(1) When you're not here on OA, where do you go on the web?
(2) What are your favorite books, movies, games, and TV shows? 
(3) What magazines and blogs do you read?
(4) What causes do you care about the most?
(5) Who are your favorite artists?
(6) What gets you excited about an art piece?

Answer as many questions as you're comfortable with. And thanks in advance


~~~P.S. Quick warning that my website is down for migration to a new host. So if you want to look at my art for any reason, try here.

[stevebowers]

I like to read science fiction - especially relatively recent, hard SF, but I'm keen on Ursula LeGuin, too. I'm less keen on sci-fi movies - they always seem to get something wrong, and don't start me on Prometheus (or Silent Running).
Forums I like to hang out at include the Straight Dope (always interesting to get some reasonably accurate, skeptical opinions on controversial topics) and the Fortean Times (some crazy stuff out there in the world, which I find inspiring - and fun). For more technical matters Cosmoquest and the Celestia forum are instructive.
Blogs I like include Anders Sandberg's Andart II and Phil Plait's Bad Astronomy.
My favourite mainstream artists include Jan Vermeer, Max Ernst and Henry Moore, among many others. Space/SF artists like David Hardy, Alex Ries and William Black are very good for OA inspiration, but there are many more, including a lot on DeviantArt.

[Rynn]

(1) When you're not here on OA, where do you go on the web?

Reddit and youtube.

(2) What are your favorite books, movies, games, and TV shows?

Been rereading a lot of Stross lately as he has a new book coming out soon. I generally like science fiction/fantasy that's interesting and consistent with its setting rules. Hard/soft doesn't bother me, I want rigour and exploration of one's rules. I don't watch a lot of movies or TV, lets plays and other random videos are my primary visual entertainment.

(3) What magazines and blogs do you read?

They still make magazines!? Charles Stross and P Z Myers are the only regular blogs I read.

(4) What causes do you care about the most?

Social justice, equality, environmentalism.

(5) Who are your favorite artists?

Don't follow art closely enough to know anyone and have a favourite.

(6) What gets you excited about an art piece?

Clarity and the fantastical made mundane. For example: a futuristic city scape with awesome features (greenery everywhere, super tall buildings, robot cars etc) but which is recognisably "every-day".

[stevebowers]

PZ Myers is a favourite of mine, too.

[emalin212]

I like to read science fiction - especially relatively recent, hard SF, but I'm keen on Ursula LeGuin, too. I'm less keen on sci-fi movies - they always seem to get something wrong, and don't start me on Prometheus (or Silent Running).
Forums I like to hang out at include the Straight Dope (always interesting to get some reasonably accurate, skeptical opinions on controversial topics) and the Fortean Times (some crazy stuff out there in the world, which I find inspiring - and fun). For more technical matters Cosmoquest and the Celestia forum are instructive.
Blogs I like include Anders Sandberg's Andart II and Phil Plait's Bad Astronomy.
My favourite mainstream artists include Jan Vermeer, Max Ernst and  Henry Moore, among many others. Space/SF artists like David Hardy, Alex Ries and William Black are very good for OA inspiration, but there are many more, including a lot on DeviantArt.

Oh nice! I checked out everything you mentioned - lots of cool stuff! Do you tend to lurk on the forums you mentioned, or are you a vocal participant?

[emalin212]

(1) When you're not here on OA, where do you go on the web?

Reddit and youtube.

(2) What are your favorite books, movies, games, and TV shows?

Been rereading a lot of Stross lately as he has a new book coming out soon. I generally like science fiction/fantasy that's interesting and consistent with its setting rules. Hard/soft doesn't bother me, I want rigour and exploration of one's rules. I don't watch a lot of movies or TV, lets plays and other random videos are my primary visual entertainment.

(3) What magazines and blogs do you read?

They still make magazines!? Charles Stross and P Z Myers are the only regular blogs I read.

(4) What causes do you care about the most?

Social justice, equality, environmentalism.

(5) Who are your favorite artists?

Don't follow art closely enough to know anyone and have a favourite.

(6) What gets you excited about an art piece?

Clarity and the fantastical made mundane. For example: a futuristic city scape with awesome features (greenery everywhere, super tall buildings, robot cars etc) but which is recognisably "every-day".

Thanks for your answers  Couple follow-up questions:

(1) What subreddits do you frequent the most?
(2) Favorite YouTube channels? (I love Let's Plays myself - I watch Markiplier all the time)

[JohnnyYesterday]

(1) When you're not here on OA, where do you go on the web?
(2) What are your favorite books, movies, games, and TV shows? 
(3) What magazines and blogs do you read?
(4) What causes do you care about the most?
(5) Who are your favorite artists?
(6) What gets you excited about an art piece?

1: I like to keep up with real world science and tech developments, so I read non-fluff sites like MIT Technology Review, Science, and Nature. I browse the Google Patent utility; one of my methods for finding artistic / sci-fi tech inspiration. I used to be a member of a couple of transhumanist groups on Facebook, but they got too damn political and annoyingly flaky in other ways, so I dropped out. I drop by Deviant Art sometimes.

2: Now, I mostly read educational books. I used to read more sci-fi, but I haven't seen anything new that grabbed my interest in probably around five years. The kind of stuff I really enjoy is packed with ideas and cool, e.g. Neal Stephenson's The Diamond Age, Baroque Cycle and Anathem or any of Shirow Masamune's pre-balls-out-pervert work. If a sci-fi movie gets a "fresh" rating on Rotten Tomatoes, odds are I like, or would like it. Hard or soft-SF, I don't care. I don't really care for most "Western" fantasy that isn't humorous. I had to really struggle to get through the Lord of the Rings movies. I can't even imagine the torture the books would be.

3: I used to read K. Eric Drexler's blog, but he hasn't written anything on there in three years. Very smart and thoughtful man. 

4: The development of molecular manufacturing as soon as possible, humanity living in space (all eggs in one basket is a bad idea), non-flaky environmentalism (I'm pro-nuclear energy and pro-GMOs).

5: Syd Mead, Shirow Masamune, Doug Chiang, Jean Giraud, H.R. Giger

6: Real creativity. There are many artists who have great technical skills, but their work is uninspired, it could have been created by anyone with equal or greater skill. For an example, H.R. Giger-aping work is a dime a dozen on Deviant Art. Some of it even looks photorealistic, "better" than Giger's own, thanks to digital tools. Do I care about it? Not a bit.

[radtech497]

(1) When you're not here on OA, where do you go on the web?

YouTube, Google, orbitsimulator.com, various blogs (see below), Speculative Evolution forum

(2) What are your favorite books, movies, games, and TV shows?

2001: A Space Odyssey, Blade Runner, The 13th Floor

 
(3) What magazines and blogs do you read?

Daily Galaxy blog, Centauri Dreams blog, Physics arxiv blog

(4) What causes do you care about the most?

Universal health care, income inequality, climate change

(5) Who are your favorite artists?

Richard Estes (photorealistic painter), Don Dixon (SF painter), MC Escher

(6) What gets you excited about an art piece?

Attention to detail

Radtech497

[Avengium]

(1) When you're not here on OA, where do you go on the web?
(2) What are your favorite books, movies, games, and TV shows?
(3) What magazines and blogs do you read?
(4) What causes do you care about the most?
(5) Who are your favorite artists?
(6) What gets you excited about an art piece?

1. My gmail, things i see on my gmail, the software construct 2, my blog in spanish, my deviantArt, other sites.
2. Books: Isaac Asimov (a lot), Last and First Men and the like, Sci Fi and fantasy books, Movies: usually sci fi or fantasy, but also good movies of any genre. games: rpg, strategy, puzzle, idle/incremental. TV Shows: sci fi or fantasy.
3. Magazines, i don't read usually magazines, but sometimes Nat Geo or other magazines of that type. Blogs: i don't read usually.
4. Equity, understanding, knowledge, climate change, discoveries.
5. A lot of artists on deviantArt, also other artists that draw fantasy and sci fi as MTG and classical artists like MC Escher and others.
6. The feeling the piece transmit when you stare at it. Also the imagination or inspiration that the piece awakes in the viewer.

[rom65536]

(1) When you're not here on OA, where do you go on the web?

Youtube, various content-streaming sites (netflix, etc.) a couple other writers forums in different genres

(2) What are your favorite books, movies, games, and TV shows? 

Books: Good fantasy. Bad sci-fi. Lots of that weird 70s crap that was both good fantasy and bad sci-fi at the same time. I care much more for the story than the props on stage in the story. You can tell the same story in just about any setting if you are both talented enough and try hard enough.
Video games: Well - since the early 1980s when video games made the scene in a big way, I've always been kind of a game loyalist. I find a game I like and play it to death. Highlights include Ladder (Donkey Kong knock-off written for the CP/M operating system back in 1982), Jumpman Junior (C64 expanded Donkey Kong knock-off from 1983) Impossible Mission (C64 puzzle/platformer from 1984) Doom & Doom II (FPS from early to mid 90s) Quake (fps from mid to late 90s) Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance 1 and 2 (PS2 3rd person fantasy action/rpg), the last few years has been Minecraft (digital lego) and the Fallout games (sci-fi action rpg). Since modern times, I tend to gravitate to games with a strong modding community. In college, I wrote several Quake game overhaul mods.

(3) What magazines and blogs do you read?

none
For youtube/vlog content I'm partial to DIY kind of stuff. Everything from blacksmithing to home metal casting to DIY electronics projects, etc. etc.

(4) What causes do you care about the most?

I like long walks on the beach and really want to see World Peace.
Seriously, one of my topics of interest is destroying consumerism and corporate oligarchy through science and self-sufficiency. The end goal would be something like Star Trek's replicators or an OA consumer-grade nanoforge. With that we'd no longer demonize honesty, charity and kindness, and we'd stop (or at least slow down on) rewarding theft, fraud and abuse of others. I believe that if people could have whatever they want, they wouldn't want as much as they already have.

(5) Who are your favorite artists?

Assuming visual media such as painting/drawing for "artist"
Edward Hopper
Neal Adams
John Romita, Jr.
Ron Lim

(6) What gets you excited about an art piece?

As a writer, I'm partial to everything telling a story - and I want that story to be both easy to see and not "beating the audience over the head".  Too blatant and heavy-handed, and it turns into a piece of propaganda or a sermon. Too subtle and it won't find a wide audience. Both Hopper and Adams are masters of this. If you look at Hopper's "Nighthawks" and don't wonder what kind of day the man in the hat that's facing away has had (and don't imagine that he's some sort of private eye unraveling a murder or secret agent that's just had a hard day fighting enemy spies) then there's something wrong with your head. If you don't hear a smooth jazz horn playing softly and imagine that the tired diner worker is a little grumpy and surly, you're missing the point of the piece. And the shockingly over-dressed red headed woman....Damsel in distress? Femme Fatale? Both? Neither? And what the hell is the green thing she's looking at? Supposedly it's a sandwich, but I doubt that.
The other end of this spectrum is Jackson Pollock. His "art" doesn't tell a story...doesn't even suggest a story. "Number 5" it's called? Nah, looks more like "Number 2" to me. 
But what do I know? I'm evidently a Philistine. I've got the physical size for it, I guess. Hell - in my list of four artists, I put one realist and three comic book artists (those guys are good at telling a story with pictures *shrug*)