Fusion Photos 08/21

Exhibition

The End

First things first, thank you all for coming to our exhibition the last three weekends. Together as a team we are happy how it all turned out. 

On Saturday Julia of our artist collective ‘The Impostors’ was taking pictures to capture the best moments during the last night of Fusion. For those of you who have been there, all photos can also be downloaded in the gallery. 

If you are not in agreement with being posted on this site, let us know over our contact form. We will take down the photo immediately.

See you hopefully at our next exhibition!

For more of Julia’s works click here. 

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Photo Gallery

Fusion photos 08/13

Exhibition

A picture is worth a thousand words…

First of all, thank you all for coming to our exhibition the last two weekends. Together as a team we are really excited to share these memories with you. 

On Friday our friend Melissa was taking pictures to capture the mood on the second weekend Fusion. For those of you who have been there, all photos can also be downloaded. 

If you are not in agreement with being posted on this site, let us know over our contact form. We will take down the photo immediately.

See you next weekend at Wienstation!

For more of Melissas works on Instagram click here. 

Photo Gallery

About “The Impostors”

Artist Collective

How it all started

This blog post introduces our artist collective “The Impostors”. We definitely met each other by chance. I know Julian from school times, but we lost contact years ago. Then Julian started building up his artist career and sharing his journey on Instagram. So, art brought us together again and we planned a future collaboration. Julia and I met at my old workplace and I asked her if she wants to come on a meeting with us to experience a new medium. After getting to know each other we started our first project “NEON” (this Dude on the photo) with acrylic colours on canvas. Julia did the pre-sketch and together as a team we did the rest of the painting. This was the beginning of three artists on one canvas. The collective was born, but had not had a name yet. 

Why “The Impostors”?

We did a lot of brainstorming searching for a fresh, creative name. We came across the impostor syndrome, but I don’t know how anymore. This gave us an idea. What if we were the impostors as an ironic way of saying, “Here we are! Look at us! We are young, creative and doing something new.”?

If you’re asking yourself now, “What’s the impostor syndrome?”, here is a short definition. The impostor syndrome refers to “an internal experience of believing that you are not as competent as others perceive you to be.” (verywellmind.com)

 

Neon

Let's introduce ourselves

Julia

Photography has been a part of my life for almost ten years. My eight-month stay in Barcelona was not only the perfect opportunity to revive my love for photography, but also to take my skills to the next level. The undeniable charm of the Catalan province combined with its architecture, made this endeavor very easy for me.

Barcelona provided me with an excellent starting point and I am bursting with drive to expand my knowledge of photography.

Website

Julia

Julian

A driving force, which animates me daily to take the brush in hand, was brought to life by the first lockdown. Painting became my passion, whether I always enjoy it or not.

I currently work with acrylics, soft pastels and graphite. In my choice of subject matter, the current focus is on portraits and streetview.

Website

Julian

Max from maxedrealities

“I am seeking, I am striving, I am in it with all my heart.” – Vincent van Gogh

Becoming an artist is closely connected with self-discovery. It was a process with ups and downs until I realized what art means to me as a person. I started drawing with ink in 2018 and art for me at that time was mainly technical perfection.

After one year, I decided to expand my horizons and started painting with watercolours together with my family. I also practice in oil, acrylic, charcoal, pastels and digital media. Through trial and error, I realised what it means to be an artist: to feel the act of creation passionately and to release one’s creative spirit.

There are also blog posts about the philosophy of maxedrealities, our team and about me. 

Max

“FUSION” Opening Event

Artist CollectiveExhibition

August 6th, 2021 @Wienstation

After a very stressful organisation phase we were really happy that we finished everything for the “FUSION” opening event in time. The DJ was ready, the bar was filled up with more everybody could drink and everything was set to go. We also created “sexy banana bags”, unique, hand-drawn bags with our logo on the one side and funny slogans on the other side – Sexy banana boy on our logo definitely speaks for himself.  

The later it got the more people came to be part of our exhibition opening event. A lot of them even seemed interested in the exhibited art, not only in the cheap drinks and the good music. There was a happy and exuberant mood in the air the whole night. Both, Luana and I, took the chance to socialise a lot with different people to show them maxedrealities. Altogether, it was a successful night for maxedrealities and the whole team. The opening event could not have been better . To celebrate we went to a Techno event by Impulstanz to spend the rest of the night together with our friends. 

If you looking for background information on FUSION, check this out!

Logo

Some impressions of the night

Opening Event

Exhibition “FUSION”

Artist CollectiveExhibition

Every Friday and Saturday from 2021-08-06 to-2021-08-21 @Wienstation (7pm to 4am)

The exhibition “Fusion” is about three creative minds joining their forces on one canvas. Fusion is about three artists working together as the collective “The Impostors”. One painter, one photographer and me coming from pen and ink illustrations. If you want to get to know us better as a group, check this out!

How was the idea of 'Fusion' born?

Before the Covid-19 pandemic became part of our lives I met the owner of the location “Wienstation”. After our initial meeting I sent him my portfolio. He liked way works and accepted me as one of the artists for the next exhibition cycle. Afterwards, the whole planning process had to be postponed due to the pandemic. In the meantime, I met Julia and Julian with whom I founded the artist collective “The Impostors”. 

After the situation with Covid-19 got better I reached out to the gallery owner again. I used the opportunity of my exhibition for our artist collective. We decided to fuse our works into one exhibition together with the works we created as a trio. The owner also agreed on it after we sent him the portfolios of our members. And here we are sharing the experience of having an exhibition together with our friends and visitors. If you’re interested how the opening event of Fusion was going, click here! 

Click here for the Facebook event!

Fusion poster

10 facts about Max

about us

Written by Luana, his better half and the person knowing him best 😉

Today I want to share ten facts with you guys; ten facts about the artist behind maxedrealities; ten facts about Max. 

There’s already a lot of information about Max as an artist in our blog. Therefore today it’s all about Max as a  person, his characteristics and favourite activities. 

So, let’s play Max is…!

  1.  Max is very disciplined when it comes to his work-life balance. No matter how busy our week is, there is always enough time for friends and us at the weekends. We wouldn’t miss the chance to drink a good wine. 
  2.  Max is a very social being and needs social activities to stay mentally healthy and happy. Currently, it is not always easy, but we do our best to find a balance between Corona regulations, staying safe and meeting our friends. That means, we take PCR and antibody tests very often to stay and keep others safe ☺.
  3. Max is a very kind-hearted person and absolutely not materialistic. As long as we can keep our life standard, it is enough for him.  
  4.  Max is self-critical in every activity he does, not only when it comes to drawing.
  5.  Max is an outstandingly funny person and we laugh a lot together. 
  6. Max really enjoys to cook for us when he has free time on the weekends. We love to try out new recipes with local products. 
  7.  Max doesn’t think he is photogenic, but I think he is and force him regularly to do shootings with me.
  8.  Although, Max is sometimes annoyed by our young and really vivacious pug Danny, he loves his smell and kisses. Sometimes it is difficult with such a lively dog in a flat – even if he is small – but it’s also a lot of fun and it never gets boring.  
  9.  Max is the chaotic part of our relationship. In the first time of living together he left a lot of things after using them. Over the years Max has adapted a bit to my organised lifestyle, but I also got used to clearing things away. For me it’s no big deal, but for Max it’s sometimes annoying when things disappear in a sideboard or cupboard.
  10.  Another creative activity of Max besides drawing is experimenting with Blender, a free animation program. Below is a short video animation he made a while ago.

My collection of drawing tutorials

Drawing Tips and Tricks

How to start drawing from the very beginning

It’s not easy to start a new creative activity from scratch and it’s totally normal to search for help on the web. Therefore, I decided to put together my collection of drawing tutorials in one blog post. Everybody needs inspiration and advice when exploring a new medium or technique. You can learn best from those who have their focus exactly on the specific topic you want to practice while watching the tutorials. Therefore, I have a go-to-channel for every medium and special technique. Today, I want to share my collection with you with a special focus on figure drawing and portraits. The most important thing is that you find a channel which suits your preferred way of practicing best. If you are interested in which materials I use, check out my blog post about materials. 

TreePortrait

Alphonso Dunn

Alphonso Dunn is the perfect go-to for beginners. He helped me motivating myself to draw everyday and practice different aspects of ink drawing. On Youtube he offers different videos concerning practicing ink art: from basic shading techniques to anatomy and nature motifs. Additionally, there is a section where he combines ink art with an aquarelle finish. For those who love to have something in their hands, he also published a book accompanied by a workbook. Both are very helpful for starting with pen and ink art, especially when you don‘t know where to start like I did. 

Stan Prokopenko

Stan Prokopenko offers tutorials in the categories anatomy, figure and portrait drawing on Youtube. He explains very well and points out on what you need to take care of. It’s also perfect for experimenting with charcoal pencils. On his website he also sells course packages with extended video material for explanations and practice assignments, but that was not the right learning model for me. However, there is also the possibility to buy a package with photos of a preferred model in all kinds of poses. This is very helpful if you want to practice figure drawing for yourself or need poses for your art projects. There is really for every idea the right pose in this package and it is very affordable. 631 photos cost about 16 dollars. I‘ve never regretted buying it. 

Love Life Drawing

Love Life Drawing is also a Youtube channel for figure and portrait drawing. Additionally, they offer videos concerning finding time to practice and how to overcome self-doubt. All their videos have a very good structure to learn the process of drawing from the very beginning with step-by-step videos. On their website  there are also free tutorials available for specific topics. 

Chommang

Chommang shows you not only how you feel free during drawing, but also how to draw freely without pre-sketch. He further emphasises techniques how to overcome pressure while drawing. Moreover, he explains all kinds of drawing motifs step-by-step, for example figures and portraits with different expressions. Additionally, he offers courses on an online platform, especially for beginners. 

Angel Ganev

Angel Ganev is famous for his digital portraits with this special glow effect. I can really recommend his channel if you want to learn how to draw portraits digitally. In his Youtube tutorials he shows step-by-step how to create portraits with a unique glow finish. In my latest drawings I used his technique to give my hand-drawn ink drawings a digital glow finish. 

Jazza

Jazza is an Australian animator and artist who offers tutorials in a very funny way. He shows his viewers the world of paintings, drawings and animation. There are also speedpainting sessions on his channel. Further, he often posts challenges which are very funny to watch. 

My favourite drawing materials

Drawing Tips and Tricks

Hello guys!

Today I want to introduce you to my favourite materials. From the sketch to the finished drawing I will show you which one of my pens I choose and why. At the end, there will be a short part about digital drawing and the pros and cons about Procreate and the Apple Pencil 2. 

Traditional Drawing

Paper

For figure drawing I prefer having a hard cover A4 sketchbook with big spirals. For white drawings I use high-quality acid-free paper, mostly the smooth heavyweight paper of Daler-Rowner (220 gsm). It is durable and has a very professional look in case you want to sell your originals at some point later in your life. My favourite one is grey toned paper because of the possibility to have special white highlights. I use The Grey Book of Hahnemühle (120gsm) in light grey. 

Sketch

For my sketches I use the Pentel GraphGear 1000 which is the silver pencil on the picture. I tried a few others before, but none of those were that durable and comfortably sitting in the hand. I prefer the 0.5mm lead size, but the pencil is available in lots of other sizes.  The Pentel pencil is made out of brushed steel which lets it appear valuably. A great advantage is that the metal lead sleeve retracts completely to protect lead and sleeve, you only have to press down the pocket clip.

Ink Work

For inking I use pens from Pigma Micron by Sakura. I prefer the 005 size for details and lighter shading. When it comes to darker shading and outlines I use the 01 size. Micron pens have a very smooth ink flow and even the thinnest ones have very durable nibs when you aren’t stippling that often. Pigma Micron has accompanied me on my art journey ever since the first day. 

White Highlights on grey paper

For the highlights in my grey artworks I use the Gelly Roll White pens of Sakura. In the 1980s Sakura was the first brand producing a gel-based ink and invented the gel pen. The Gelly Roll pens have a brilliant white and a very smooth ink flow like all Sakura pens. I normally prefer the 08 medium size for most of my drawings. I can strongly recommend trying out toned paper combined with those white Gelly Roll pens. You can see it in more detail in the picture shown when you click it. 

Materials
Microns & Gelly Roll Pen

Digital Drawing

Why Procreate?

With Procreate you can do everything you can do with Photoshop. The first fundamental difference is the price. Procreate costs only $9.99 (10.99€) and you own it a lifetime. You can download additional brushes from creators on the internet, often for free. With Procreate it is easy to color your drawings or give them a special digital finish. 

Why Apple Pencil 2?

At first I was not convinced that it is worth the price of 124€ (current online price). After one year of use I totally am. The pencil has a very good pressure sensitivity and the angle is also recognised. Although, the iPad is covered with a paper like screen protector, the tip of the pencil is still perfectly fine after one year. 

 How to get the best out of the digital drawing experience on iPad Pro

I can really recommend using a special glove for tablet drawing to make sliding easier by reducing friction. As mentioned before, I use a paper like screen protector on the iPad Pro. This was one of the best decisions, because it feels far more like actual drawing with it. 

I hope that some insights can be useful for you! 

Thanks for reading and greetings from Vienna!

Max

Nobody was born as an artist

Motivation

Hello guys!

Today I want to talk about my personal experience of becoming an artist. I want to share with you what it’s like when I started drawing and decided to post art online. Especially in the beginning there were many setbacks and lack of belief. However, the hardest things were the pressure of social media and the steady comparison with successful and established artists.  

How to begin

First of all, nobody was born as an artist, not even Picasso or Monet. Every human being has to learn how to draw or paint. One has to start the journey of art at some point in life to become an artist. Some would say at that point, “Yeah, that’s true, but Monet and Picasso had talent!” Indeed, that’s maybe true, some of us learn techniques or get the feeling for materials faster than others. But, even if you have all the talent and potential in the world, you need to practice to use your potential. It took me a few years to draw compositions like this one in the picture on the right. So, we all start at the same point with the first lesson of practice. 

At first I was only sketching around on a messy paper during lessons or while I was doing homework. After some time I was at that point where I wanted to get better and learn drawing techniques. I bought some basic drawing books to learn drawing from the beginning. In that books I’ve learned even how to warm up my wrist and fingers for drawing with special exercises on paper. 

The most important thing in the beginning is to practice regularly with a special goal in mind. For example “I want to learn how to draw an apple that looks three-dimensionally”. In addition to that it can be useful to have some kind of personal example, an artist or a style you really like. Instagram is a really good platform for finding artists and inspiration. In the beginning, it is not reprehensible to be guided by the style of another artist until you find your own style. To sum up, always keep in mind, every artist was at the beginning once and faced the same struggles as you do!

Setbacks and artist blocks

On every journey there are setbacks. Sometimes, especially when it’s hot and sunny outside it’s hard to focus on sitting on a table and draw. I tried drawing outside, but I wasn’t feeling comfortable at all with it. There have been also times where I stopped drawing for a while, because there was no motivation, inspiration or I felt blocked. But, after some time there was always the urge to continue and getting better. After an artist block for me the best strategy is to lift off pressure that the first drawing after the block has to be perfect. Even if I have been drawing for years now, after weeks of doing nothing the routine is gone and drawing doesn’t feel that good as it has done before. So, it’s okay to make a mistake or not feel that good about it, the next drawing will be better. Important is getting your routine and motivation back. 

The pressure of social media

As said before, Instagram is a source of inspiration for me and also many art beginners share their work there. After few months of practice and feedback I decided to open an Instagram account for my artworks. This step motivated me to draw regularly, but also put pressure on me. On Instagram you have to engage highly with the community to grow (posting, liking, commenting etc.) But why the pressure to post or like regularly for a community you don’t even know?  The answer is simple and also the reason why Instagram is that successful. Even if you tell yourself, you’re doing Instagram for yourself and for constructive feedback – after some weeks, you don’t anymore. I also told myself I won’t ever evaluate the quality of my drawings on the amount of likes or followers I get – Trust me, you will and it will pressurise and disappoint you! 

I think that the major disadvantage of social media is that the perception of your art is influenced by an algorithm. That realisation took me while. My feelings should depend on an algorithm that decides how many people will see my art? After that thought I changed my approach to social media. I tried to not let the belief in myself change by the reach of a post. I have begun to see Instagram as a community of artists helping and motivating each other. Now I try to have as many interactions with artists, because the exchange about art is fulfilling and not because Instagram likes engagement. So long story short, believe in yourself and not let this feeling be influenced negatively by external factors like social media. 

Comparison with other artists

Comparison is a natural procedure in our mind. Perception functions over comparison with already known things during the process of looking at an object. So even when we do not actively compare things, our mind does. Comparison with other artists is an active process which can be positive or negative for your personal art journey, but it depends on you. On the one hand, comparison with other artists is essential for getting better. For example, if you do a tutorial it’s totally normal that you compare your result to the one shown. Your eye searches for differences or maybe mistakes. By understanding what could be better, you learn. Next time, it will be much better. In this case, comparing has helped you in your art journey. On the other hand, comparison with other artist can also be toxic. It can set you back in finding your own style or lead to doubting in your own skill. 

In my journey this happened when I started comparing with successful artists on Instagram. There was this dominant question in my head, “How can they be so successful with THAT?” I didn’t realised that some styles are more suitable for social media and some are more traditionally artsy. Or that some artists on Instagram are doing social media as a full-time job and post once a day. I really started to believe that I never gonna be an artist, because my growth on Instagram wasn’t fast enough. The realisation that success comes with time and has not to happen on Instagram was a real relief. In the meantime, I tried to focus on my art, my inspiration and technique. I tried to hear on my gut feelings what to draw next, not what is mainstream enough for Instagram. In this way, I found my true style which has remained until today even when I am trying new mediums. 

Calling oneself 'artist'

Finally after long times of struggling, I was ready to call myself an artist. It was just time, nothing changed objectively, my confidence was apparently big enough to take this step. In spite of my confidence, it felt weird the first times somebody asked me what I was doing. Doing art has become more important to me than being a chemistry student. This does not mean that I let my studies slide, but art is currently more important for my whole self-concept. Sounds totally like a cliché, but art has become some kind of a mission for me. Chemistry might be my profession, but doing art is my mission. Ok well, that sounded really clichéd, but that’s what best describes how I feel about chemistry and art. 

To sum up, the journey of art is different for everyone of us. I hope that my experiences may be a useful input for your journey or at least reading was interesting.  

Greetings from Vienna!

Max