@PinkNoodle thank you for this great post and thread! I agree and appreciate what you and others have mentioned above.
This title really resonates with me because Iâve always wanted to be an âartistâ but still donât consider myself one, mainly because of some fictional standard and little negative voice in my head telling me âIâm not good enough.â
Postcrossing has reinvigorated me into doing artwork again, trying new styles and mediums, and picking up supplies that I havenât used since I was a teenager. It has been fun and rewarding. Somehow making art for someone else, a total stranger, frees up a lot of my worry about criticism as well. I always hope that my work is appreciated, but really I do it because I like the process. When I draw someoneâs address it is like a creative prompt for me to try and draw something they might like. In the process Iâve discovered so many new things and pushed my boundaries trying to draw/paint things I would never have picked myself.
The real reason I wanted to post was because of this:
I wanted to share my âsecretâ
(although Iâve tried explaining this through messages and sometimes on the postcards themselves). I have fell in love with, and now use extensively is an augmented reality (AR) app on my phone called âDa Vinci Eyeâ
My biggest weakness (as others also comment on above) is getting proportions right. In the past I have used âthe gridâ system to outline artwork Iâm trying to copy, tracing paper/lightboards, and even using projectors to get the rough outline work done before painting murals. These all are okay, but VERY time consuming and difficult when it comes to postcards.
With an AR app. it is amazingly easy to take a photo of anything (even fonts/characters) and âprojectâ an image over the top of your postcard. Then you can scale it perfectly to where you want it and just basically trace out looking through your device. I was a little slow at first as it is kind of weird looking at the tip of your writing instrument through a screen, but with some practice I have found it supper fun and fast. âFastâ being relative to other techniques or even making my own original artwork (very slow form me with many sketches and refinements). I still will often spend 30 minutes to a hour (or more) on a card, but for me this is fun, relaxing, and supper rewarding.
Iâd love to know if anyone else has tried the Vinci Eye: AR Art Projector app, or something similar (I know there are other similar apps). Iâm not affiliated in anyway, but for the price less than five international stamps (think it is only $5 USD) it was totally worth it for me!
The whole topic of referencing or out-right copping other artwork is a whole other sensitive topic that I have mixed feelings on (like trying to give credit to original artists). All I know for sure is that it has leveled up my postcard mail art game significantly!
Some random examples: