2013-05-25T05:41:13-07:00 http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/ Lussumo Vanilla & Feed Publisher http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=9680&Focus=287845#Comment_287845 2011-03-23T20:31:53-07:00 2013-05-25T05:41:13-07:00 Rootfireember http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/account.php?u=1551

Okay, so over at Bleeding Cool, people are whinging about Ryan Ottley Burning old art of his that he doesn't want to see ever again, and embarrasses him, as he's grown as an artist since the time he ...

Bleeding Cool, people are whinging about Ryan Ottley Burning old art of his that he doesn't want to see ever again, and embarrasses him, as he's grown as an artist since the time he drew it, and all he sees when he looks at it is GAHHH NEWBMISTAKES, and he thinks it looks like shit.

My questions are these:
Artists, do you ever destroy old work, sketches, drawings, things that are torn, embarrassing, etc? If so, how do you do it? Fire? Paper shredder?
Or do you give it away, or just keep it?

How do you deal with excess and sub-par art?]]> http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=9680&Focus=287852#Comment_287852 2011-03-23T21:28:12-07:00 2013-05-25T05:41:13-07:00 William Joseph Dunn http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/account.php?u=2798

I'm constantly destroying my artwork. occasionally one of my studio mates might stop me from destroying a piece because they want it. I only agree to let them have it if I never see it again and that ...

http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=9680&Focus=287860#Comment_287860 2011-03-23T22:54:17-07:00 2013-05-25T05:41:13-07:00 rough night http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/account.php?u=2694

Conveniently, a flood took out about half my art school work, and while I was throwing out the unrecoverable stuff, I also chucked the... unrecoverable stuff. My previous method had been to tuck it ...

http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=9680&Focus=287867#Comment_287867 2011-03-24T01:14:47-07:00 2013-05-25T05:41:13-07:00 lazarus corporation http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/account.php?u=630

When I finished my art degree I dumped all my artwork from the 3 years in a skip (as did several other of my fellow graduates). I continue to destroy work that I don't think is up to standard - ...

I continue to destroy work that I don't think is up to standard - whether that's because of what I perceive of as technical failings in the works, or merely because it fails to resonate with me (a more intangible quality).]]> http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=9680&Focus=287879#Comment_287879 2011-03-24T06:16:51-07:00 2013-05-25T05:41:13-07:00 Bradley W. Schenck http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/account.php?u=1134

I burned a large watercolor once. It was a commission, and I wasn't happy with it but I couldn't seem to start on a new version while the first one still existed. So I took it out and laid it in ...

So I took it out and laid it in the driveway and set it on fire. It was really interesting - even beautiful - to watch, because it just slowly smoldered away, the colors turning to greyish pastels as the ash grew out across the paper. It all held together until it had all turned to pigmented ash, and then a breeze came up and blew it away. So it's not like I recommend you rush out and do that, but it was quite the experience.]]> http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=9680&Focus=287880#Comment_287880 2011-03-24T06:27:02-07:00 2013-05-25T05:41:13-07:00 struthersneil http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/account.php?u=3770

I still find awful, awful sketch books from the early to mid 2000's...well anything prior to 2009 really...and unless I can salvage the paper the books get torn into bits and pulped with washing-up ...

My big concern now is that as I mostly work digitally and a lot of my work makes it online I don't have that same control over work that I suddenly realise is awful. A couple of years ago I had to murder my 2004-era DeviantArt account because it was just so very horrible--and I had no idea those accounts were so hard to kill.]]> http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=9680&Focus=287890#Comment_287890 2011-03-24T07:55:03-07:00 2013-05-25T05:41:13-07:00 Neila http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/account.php?u=5582

I have trouble throwing stuff out, so I have little stacks and piles of old art (personally I think it verges on Hording D: ). Every once in a while when I clean I will tear up and throw away some ...

http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=9680&Focus=287904#Comment_287904 2011-03-24T09:42:20-07:00 2013-05-25T05:41:13-07:00 Greasemonkey http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/account.php?u=4625

I never destroy my old work. Seeing stuff that's not up to my current standards is a nice reminder that my skills have grown and developed over the years.

http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=9680&Focus=287909#Comment_287909 2011-03-24T10:17:58-07:00 2013-05-25T05:41:13-07:00 Spike3185 http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/account.php?u=6572

I rip up and throw away my old art almost every time I find some. About the only way a piece of mine lasts more than a few years is if it's not in my posession anymore or if I forgot it exists. A ...

http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=9680&Focus=287911#Comment_287911 2011-03-24T10:41:36-07:00 2011-03-24T10:46:13-07:00 Rooth http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/account.php?u=6217

My wife (who is also a painter/illustrator) and I moved to larger apartment 5 months ago, and to do so we had to get rid of a ton of old art. We purged 10+ years of artwork that had been ...

We purged 10+ years of artwork that had been overwhelming our living space in an almost Hoarder-esque fashion. She Roothlessly (ha!) pitched her stuff- lock stock and barrel - into the bin before we moved, keeping only a few canvases (mainly to salvage the canvas and frames).
I was more sentimental about my stuff (MENTAL being the key part of that word,in hind sight) and spent many hours sorting thru every scrap, sketchbook, page, napkin, notebook, thousands upon thousands of large drawings and still life studies from college.... there was no end to it. Tons of it had to go.
Two weekend ago I was asked by my folks to sort thru my art stuff from college that had collected in their basement years ago. And there again I went thru every page and trashed 90 percent of it.

It was a good thing to do, I photographed some of what I couldn't keep... but looking back I sort of wish I had taken the same road my wife did and just pitched (or burned) the whole lot. She seemed very freed by the act, while I spent hours sorting and saying good bye.

It's funny, but the stuff that I kept (about two big binders worth) was mostly stuff from before art college. Lost of high school notebooks, and even some stuff from when I was in grade school... seeing that stuff lit me right up, and I had to keep it all.
Going thru my stuff from college though - life drawings, media studies, still life work, object drawing and technical construction drawings/lessons - none of them really gave me a charge of any kind, and didn't do much but remind me of how hard I worked as I honed my craft in those days, but it didn't give me much of a charge.
I dunno who that young Mike Rooth kid from before he went to art college was, but that cat could draw (or dreamed that he could anyway) ;)]]> http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=9680&Focus=287917#Comment_287917 2011-03-24T11:25:20-07:00 2013-05-25T05:41:13-07:00 Greasemonkey http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/account.php?u=4625

I'm not prolific at all. Some of my larger paintings have taken me hundreds of hours over a period of up to eighteen months to complete, mostly due to my hyper-obsessive filling in of detail with a ...

http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=9680&Focus=287921#Comment_287921 2011-03-24T12:13:06-07:00 2013-05-25T05:41:13-07:00 Red Scratch http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/account.php?u=9024

I don't paint, but I burn writings. Overly emotional and unthought out pieces, stories or descriptions that I can't see having any sort of positive effect for readers. They're either purged on the ...

http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=9680&Focus=287924#Comment_287924 2011-03-24T12:49:53-07:00 2013-05-25T05:41:13-07:00 offtandiscord http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/account.php?u=1628

A lot of my old instrument-creations I tend to strip for parts and turn into other things. I'm far too much of a recylcing/reusing person to get rid of things that could possibly be useful someday. ...

http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=9680&Focus=287941#Comment_287941 2011-03-24T15:20:40-07:00 2011-03-25T11:42:00-07:00 JECole http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/account.php?u=7834

I keep every single bad piece of writing and artwork I create. I'm of the firm belief that you learn as much from a mistake than you do from a success, and that you need to keep your bad work close ...

Edited to add
I only ever destroyed my artwork once. I was sixteen and i had given up drawing because of the comments of several morons who opinions i held in high regard. One Saturday afternoon I collected every single piece of art i had created up until that point and burnt it in huge bonfire in my garden. I didn't pick a pencil to create a piece of artwork for another six years.

I've come deeply regret that decision.]]> http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=9680&Focus=287948#Comment_287948 2011-03-24T17:14:18-07:00 2013-05-25T05:41:13-07:00 Aurora Borealis http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/account.php?u=5514

Destroy? I do and I don't. At some point I threw out or destroyed most art I did as a kid, a decision I highly regret now for I actually had a truckload of interesting concepts in there (and ...

I do and I don't.

At some point I threw out or destroyed most art I did as a kid, a decision I highly regret now for I actually had a truckload of interesting concepts in there (and the few surviving bits give me greater understanding of how my current stuff evolved), and the part I most regret is the old comics. I'd really give a lot to be able to see the Ghostbusters comic I did (which was all in colored markers with tiny stick figure black marker drawn team of ten or twenty ghost catchers shooting red rays as green and blue ghosts floating in air... and destroying them rather than catching) and that's just one of them.

On the other hand I don't have any special attachment to the art itself. I draw on cheapest paper and after the pages are scanned in for inking, I just toss them around from corner to corner in loose piles of dogeared sheets.]]> http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=9680&Focus=287950#Comment_287950 2011-03-24T17:20:56-07:00 2013-05-25T05:41:13-07:00 Rantz http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/account.php?u=360

When I finished art school/university, I took 90% of the work I had done over the four years (including 14+ large canvases, minimum size 5' x 3' upwards to 14' x 8') made a huge cairn in the middle ...

Partly because I wanted to 'purge' the past, having a clean start (since I was driving to LA the next day), partly because I didn't have space for storage, and partly because I was a pretentious little fucker. Only 3 pieces from that period survived... I look at them now and think "good god, what a miserable fucker I was"]]> http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=9680&Focus=287952#Comment_287952 2011-03-24T17:32:47-07:00 2013-05-25T05:41:13-07:00 vandalhandle http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/account.php?u=4586

when working my floor becomes a mass or concepts/sketches/doodles, i dump whatever i don't feel was part of the evolution of the piece, i love process and keep stuff at different stages incse i want ...

i like to see where i started and i post most of what i do on on online gallery and the good stuff goes into the portfolio, i'm not ashamed of my begins, it's nice to see how i've changed and approch things differently but this is gonna vary depending on the artist, if ryan ottley wants to destroy his work let him.]]> http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=9680&Focus=287956#Comment_287956 2011-03-24T17:47:14-07:00 2013-05-25T05:41:13-07:00 mercurialblonde http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/account.php?u=2444

Hmm...I actually post all of my old stuff to the internet, and plan to keep doing so--so that as I get better you can see my progression and growth as an artist. That's me. Why hide it? I like ...

http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=9680&Focus=287960#Comment_287960 2011-03-24T19:40:09-07:00 2013-05-25T05:41:13-07:00 city creed http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/account.php?u=4530

I think it's bad to destroy information, period. Unless it's information that needs to be destroyed. However shitty you feel like your omgn00b works are, you should never eliminate the possibility ...

Unless it's information that needs to be destroyed.
However shitty you feel like your omgn00b works are, you should never eliminate the possibility that they can still teach you something.]]> http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=9680&Focus=287974#Comment_287974 2011-03-25T00:12:53-07:00 2013-05-25T05:41:13-07:00 glukkake http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/account.php?u=1693

I always feel that my old works had good ideas, but were just executed poorly. I keep them around in the filing cabinet as things I should go back to when I'm much smarter about how to render them. ...

Otherwise, I'd probably just put them in the recycling bin and be done with them.

Because of this attachment to the preciousness of ideas, when I was much much younger, I used to toy with the idea of taking everything I'd done and worked for and simply destroying them. Just to see what I would do without them to fall back on. Would I just spend so much time trying to recreate them or go forward with new ideas and completely disregard the past as a lost thing?

Then I got too busy for such wankery and became a hoarding hermit who lives in a house made of filled up sketchbooks.]]> http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=9680&Focus=288251#Comment_288251 2011-03-26T22:53:24-07:00 2013-05-25T05:41:13-07:00 mojokingbee http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/account.php?u=9538

Out of curiosity, I started keeping count of my sketchbooks 5 years ago and I've so far used 95 books. I haven't kept them all as most of the early one's I've either thrown away or given to the ...

http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=9680&Focus=291506#Comment_291506 2011-04-22T09:05:23-07:00 2013-05-25T05:41:13-07:00 Philip http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/account.php?u=8794

I've made art that was so personal I couldn't NOT destroy it. As a general rule though, I keep everything around in piles and folders, there's always something in there that resonates with me, or ...

Mind you if I think it's crap after I've amde it, it's gone. (And I haven't had to buya fresh canvas/or materials for a looong time, plenty left to paint over.)]]> http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=9680&Focus=291508#Comment_291508 2011-04-22T09:54:23-07:00 2013-05-25T05:41:13-07:00 Don Garvey http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/account.php?u=10250

Keep everything. I really regret not caring for the sketch-pads and such from my college/high-school days. When I was young, I spent a ton of time drawing Wolverine and Han Solo and whatnot, and I ...

http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=9680&Focus=291514#Comment_291514 2011-04-22T10:34:51-07:00 2013-05-25T05:41:13-07:00 sseloske http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/account.php?u=6141

I destroy it by pitching it in the garbage. I get paranoid and feel panic and purge everything. It's totally insane, but there you have it.

http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=9680&Focus=291594#Comment_291594 2011-04-23T03:32:42-07:00 2013-05-25T05:41:13-07:00 oddbill http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/account.php?u=4272

I cannot make anything new after a certain mass of old output has accumulated in my space. The old stuff just sits there, inert, holding me in stasis. I have to destroy it if I can't otherwise ...

I think it is healthy as an artist to have a certain level of contempt for your own past output. It isn't really yours if you can't destroy it, and why should anyone else care about art you make that isn't somehow your own?]]> http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=9680&Focus=291597#Comment_291597 2011-04-23T04:43:20-07:00 2013-05-25T05:41:13-07:00 William George http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/account.php?u=7366

I trash old comics. It was a thing of the moment and unless somehow money can be made off of it, I see no point in having it around past it's usefulness. I've kept old films simply as a backup for ...

I've kept old films simply as a backup for the digital files/]]> http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=9680&Focus=291667#Comment_291667 2011-04-23T17:29:17-07:00 2013-05-25T05:41:13-07:00 Andrew_H http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/account.php?u=10271

I cannibalize stuff. It's not exactly old drawings, but I made a performance video where I hacked all my hair off. I kept the hair and sealed it with wax into a jar. That eventually becaem exhibited ...

It's not exactly old drawings, but I made a performance video where I hacked all my hair off. I kept the hair and sealed it with wax into a jar. That eventually becaem exhibited as an artwork itslef and has since tunred up in other things - just htere in the backround, on an altar or something.
Other things get cut into bits and used ascollage style works that gradually take shape over lengthy periods of time.

I'm a hoarder, yes.]]> http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=9680&Focus=291678#Comment_291678 2011-04-23T20:10:46-07:00 2011-04-23T20:13:41-07:00 HEY APATHY! http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/account.php?u=9019

@ Greasemonkey - with a size 00000 brush you're nuts by the way did you ever manage to repair the one the movers destroyed for you, if so how? I've done a lot drawings as street performance and ...

with a size 00000 brush you're nuts by the way did you ever manage to repair the one the movers destroyed for you, if so how?

I've done a lot drawings as street performance and have left many of them on site for a fate undecided. Also in the old days (2005) I was pulling up sidewalk bricks for paper weights and duct taping my work to well, anything. Most of these drawings that didn't sell immediately were abandonded & naturally disintegrated ...



also had a box full of my entire life's (age 8- 14) work including comics, 100's of scribbles, my Mcfarlane Swipes and a book of coverart/scripts for a 36 issue series that my mother destroyed because I'd left one of about 5 drawings I did using a Sears underwear catalogue as reference visible near the top of the box. yep a whole crate destroyed because of a couple dirty drawings and a catholic mom]]> http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=9680&Focus=291682#Comment_291682 2011-04-23T20:22:41-07:00 2013-05-25T05:41:13-07:00 trini_naenae http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/account.php?u=183

I am appalling precious and rarely throw things away. Occasionally I lose things and sometimes find them later. Fortunately, most of the stuff I do doesn't take much space. Unfortunately, I haven't ...

http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=9680&Focus=291683#Comment_291683 2011-04-23T20:26:49-07:00 2013-05-25T05:41:13-07:00 Morac http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/account.php?u=10266

Pretty much everything I do these days is digital and tiny (as far as file size goes). So there's really no need, and given the amount of crap I've got on my computer I am unlikely to come across old ...

http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=9680&Focus=291829#Comment_291829 2011-04-25T05:35:53-07:00 2011-04-25T08:16:40-07:00 Greasemonkey http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/account.php?u=4625

@Hey Apathy - I only use a size 00000 for the fine detail. The larger areas and coarser details, I use 000 or 0000. I haven't repaired the damaged work. Still waiting for an insurance claim to ...

I haven't repaired the damaged work. Still waiting for an insurance claim to come through, then I'm going to either sew in a new patch of canvas and restretch on a new frame, or cut off the damaged bottom section altogether and just restretch the top half as a 4'x3'.

Are you exhibiting your stuff downtown now the weather's warmer?]]> http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/comments.php?DiscussionID=9680&Focus=291830#Comment_291830 2011-04-25T06:13:34-07:00 2011-04-25T06:15:08-07:00 Gregory Giordano http://freakangels.com/whitechapel/account.php?u=1545

I recycle-bin lots of drawings and sketches that are drawn poorly- regularly I scan some for "idea archiving". Recently, I got a shredder and have this kooky idea to make new paper from ...