Anne Emberline has a Certificate in Writing and a Bachelor of Fine Arts in visual arts, with training in drawing and design. She’s been writing and illustrating since she was a kid, and is currently working on the fifth draft of her first novel. Her freelance art and design work can be seen at EmberlineArts.com.
How long have you been producing art and designs?
I started drawing when I was ten years old and have done it pretty consistently since then.
As for graphic design, I started that in high school when I designed and printed my first self-published magazines of my own writing and illustrations.
What do you do to produce blog traffic?
My blog is relatively new so I haven’t hyped it up much yet, but I’ve had some good traffic from Twitter.
In the future, when I’ve got more content up, I’d like to start doing guest posts and maybe some art giveaways on other blogs.
Where were you trained in your skills?
I went to university for visual arts and specialized in drawing and digital art. Even though digital art was a focus at school, I’d say I picked up most of my skill with design software after I graduated.
Being a musician, artist, and writer, I always had a project to promote, so I was designing promo materials for my own projects all the time and gained a lot of expertise with the software along the way.
What’s helped most in improving your art?
Practice!
I wish there was an easier way to get good at drawing, but there isn’t. In my 3rd and 4th years of university, I drew almost every day, which went a long way towards honing my drawing skill. I did life drawing, drawings from photos, drawings from imagination, abstract drawings, conceptual drawings, self-portraits, digital drawings, etc.
Doing all that helped me build a great foundation of technical skill, but it also helped me find my style as an artist.
What are some of your passions?
Reading! A couple months ago, I started keeping a log of all the books I read, and I average about five or six books a month, half novels and half non-fiction. Psychology is one of my favourite topics, particularly anything that involves brain science. I’m a sucker for that!
I’m also really passionate about my other creative pursuits in writing and music. Right now, most of my non-art creative energy is going into the fifth draft of a novel that I’ve been working on almost daily for two years now. You definitely need passion to get through an epic project like that.
You have 60 minutes of spare time, what do you do?
Well, I’m adamant about having lots of empty space in my day to let creative ideas simmer, so if I have 60 minutes of spare time, I’ll probably just sit on the couch with my brain set to “off” and avoid doing anything productive.
Or, if it’s around four or five o’clock, I’ll take a nap! (I recently blogged about how I use naps to fuel my creative work)
To the beginning artist, what advice would you give?
You’re going to make a lot of bad art. Get used to it!
It’s not the end of the world, and it doesn’t mean you’re doomed to make “bad art” forever. It means you’re learning, and the more you can let yourself fail in your art making, the faster you’ll learn. It’s a fact! So go make something awful, figure out why it’s awful, and then make something slightly less awful.
In a nutshell, those are the baby steps to greatness.
Some of Anne’s art & designs…
If you’re interested in showcasing your work and being interviewed on Smart Boy Designs, just contact us here.
Blogger, entrepreneur, digital marketing consultant and recording artist. I make money online and teach others how to do the same.
"You’re such a smart boy!" were his first accolades heard. So, it’s no wonder that this phrase became the title of his business, Smart Boy Designs.