Videos

Nicole's Art Journey Videos:

Here Nicole shares her art journey YouTube video series in four parts:

Part One charts her art journey which started in 2015. Nicole takes you through how and when she made her first piece of artwork — a coloured pencil drawing, which is revealed at the end of the video. She suggests ways of approaching your first piece of artwork so that procrastination doesn't restrict you.

Part Two takes you through how Nicole used a self-directed approach in three ways in which to document her art journey. These include digital audio recordings, keeping a notebook of art research, study and reading, and keeping an art journal for generic notes, tips and tricks. She also shares a study tip-taster lesson.

Part Three's theme is 'commitment' — 2018 was the year Nicole made a conscious decision to focus on her art with intentions — a plan, and a strategy. She made a total of 46 pieces of artwork using acrylic, watercolour and ink, gouache, and oil pastels. 

Between June — September,  Nicole curated a series of 10 of those pieces of artwork into: Centre Stage: Women of Colour Portraiture. You can see those pieces on the Art Blog's Gallery page.

In 2018, Nicole also curated another 10 pieces of artwork into: Impressions Abstract Realism Portraiture. Her aim with this series was to combine abstract and realist elements to create energy in the pieces, along with a colour scheme that captures the essence and mood of realism. She shares one piece from each of the two artwork series at the end of the video.

Nicole also discusses three main benefits of an artist website:

• No barrier between the artist and the masses;
• Shows you are serious about your art and you care about how your art is presented/curated;
• Potential to achieve a level of recognition is vast — a single image can receive from 100s to 1000s of views in a very short time frame.

Nicole also talks about Instagram and shares three main benefits for artists.

Part four is the final video of Nicole's art journey. The theme is blogging. If you've been thinking about starting a blog, Nicole shares tips to help. The year 2019 was the busiest and most eclectic yet. She wasn't planning for that at all — it's just the way things happened. Some art activities were self-directed — visiting art fairs, galleries and exhibitions, trying digital art, and invitations to showcase her art. A real mixed bag!