Artistic inspiration comes in many forms. Painter Artist Robert Stacy never intended on becoming an artist when he was a teenager, but he eventually arrived at a place in life where being a storyteller seemed like the most worthwhile thing to do with a life.
“You can do anything with a story. You can educate, opinionate, or simply entertain. Art can transcend words and language barriers. I started learning art to tell stories and have occasionally been sidetracked by the enjoyable challenge of mastering the fundamentals and science of art, but in the end, the goal will always be to tell a story.”
Right now, Robert is juggling a lot of project ideas. Technically, having an educational YouTube channel is his main "project". He would love to someday be considered a master educator. In that same vein, he would like to create a channel or video series that uses puppets and fun methods to teach children about complex art fundamentals.
Of course, none of that is remotely enough, so he’s also working to bring original stories to YouTube in the form of motion comics and indie animations. At the moment, most of these projects are constantly being brainstormed and refined.
Robert has worked on some video game and illustrative projects in the past, but it wasn't until he started teaching and interacting more with other artists that he found true enjoyment. YouTube has been infinitely rewarding, simply for having a chance to share in the lives of many other artists. There's nothing better than bringing artists together.
From a creative perspective, Robert’s day looks something like this: He tends to roll out of bed in the late morning and does an art stream on twitch.tv most mornings. It lets him start the day with a little spark of creativity and streaming it makes him feel more accountable to staying focused.
After that, it's a bit of goofing off and falling into the void of the Internet, unless the procrastination train is heading for the cliff... then the productivity might continue after the morning stream. Usually the later afternoons consist of teaching art, either at a local studio where he teaches children, or online where he can give advice to people around the world seeking art answers. It's not until the dead of night when he finds true productivity, as he likes the emptiness of the world at midnight to help him feel creative and work on personal art pieces and videos for YouTube.
For his artistic tools, Robert proclaims:
“Painter has been amazing”
“When I first tried it a long, long time ago, I was pretty overwhelmed by the number of brushes and things. I immediately retreated back to the simplicity of other programs, but eventually I gave it another shot and realized that the interface was much more attuned to my intuitions. Playing around with brushes enough, you eventually find ones you love and they start to influence your style in important ways.”
“Now, I've reached a point where Painter is really essential for me to have a fun and enjoyable workflow.”
Robert’s favorite Painter tools have changed over the years.
“I’m currently addicted to the Acrylic Dry Brush. It contains the ability to add paint and then turn into a very enjoyable blending brush shortly after.”
As for advice for up-and- coming artists, here’s what Robert has to say:
“Most of art is mental. Improving at art is incredibly dependent on your ability to be positive. If you expect to improve, then you will. There's no logical reason you shouldn't expect yourself to improve. Don't fall into mental trappings. Every single day you open your eyes, you have successfully expanded your visual library. Your creative potential has risen and the uniqueness of your visual library means that you will always have something unique to offer the world.”
In order to achieve his artistic dreams, Robert’s technology is super low-key with his hardware. Therefore, he’s tried not to ever care too much about hardware unless it feels like he’s completely stopping him from achieving his goals.
He still uses the same Wacom Intuos 2 he got when he was starting out over 10 years ago. It's 6x8, which doesn't even match the widescreen standard for monitors anymore, but it's never failed him and he feels it doesn't hold back his artistic improvement in any way. In his words, “I'm a PC person, they're cheap and I grew up with them.”
Robert’s current desktop is one that he got on Black Friday for a few hundred bucks maybe 5 years ago. It has a reasonable amount of RAM, which he believes is all that really matters for art anyway.
Learn more about Painter Artist Robert Stacy.
View his tutorials at
https://www.youtube.com/user/sinixdesign
