How To Lie Your Way To Creative Art.

I'm going to push the boundaries of political correctness and suggest that you teach yourself how to lie.

Constantly…

…in every piece of art you do.

Yes, I know your mother may have threatened to wash your mouth out with soap for being a liar.

(My mother once did use the soap on me, although it was for uttering an expletive, not for lying.)

BUT…I think your mother will forgive you in this instance, because learning how to lie can make your art better.

More interesting. More successful.

And you don't need to have any qualms about being a liar either.

People love being told lies.
Think of all those celebrity magazines at the checkout stand.

One week their covers scream that Brad and Angelina are cheating on each other. The next week's headlines say they are in a love triangle with President Obama. And the week after that Brad has left Angelina for Kim Kardasian.

Fiction sells.

And besides, learning how to lie successfully can be so much fun! Especially in your art.

I plan on showing you how to become a very good liar in your art, but I'll tell you more about that later.

Right now, look at all the lies the late, great illustrator David Grove told in his painting above. Does it bother you that David didn't paint the actual colors he saw? Do you hate that he lied about how the foliage actually looked? Are you incensed with how he simplified the background?

I doubt it.

The lies are what make this piece of art wonderful.

You should remember that a couple weeks ago I finished a series of blog posts about creating dynamic art. (You can read them here.) In them I didn't call what I was showing you lies; I called it using your imagination and creativity.

The same culprits, just different aliases.

And before you get the idea that learning to lie only applies to paintings, let me dispel that notion for you.

Whether you choose to work in pastels or pencils, learning how to lie successfully is just as important in black and white.

Here is a drawing by David Grove used in one of the many books he illustrated.

Does he show you every detail of every object?

It's his simplifying the elements in this design that make it interesting.

You don't need to see absolutely all of the pistol to know what it is. You don't need to see individual strands of hair on the woman to understand what he's drawn around her head.

You don't need to absolutely identify everything in this composition in order to enjoy it.

See what learning to lie can do for you?

Best Wishes,
Gary Gumble
Founder of BeginningArtist.com
Without art the crudeness of reality would make the world unbearable. (George Bernard Shaw)

P.S.I want to help you become a better liar.

Toward that end I am in the beginning stages of planning some free webinars.

I have some ideas of the things I want to cover in those webinars, but…

What questions do you have that you would love to have answered in such a presentation?

What would you most like to be shown how to do?

Click Here to email your questions to me now, and I'll try to incorporate them into my planning.