We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Belinda Del Pesco. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Belinda below.
Belinda, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today How did you learn to do what you do? Knowing what you know now, what could you have done to speed up your learning process? What skills do you think were most essential? What obstacles stood in the way of learning more?
I started making art as a youngster – doodling in the margins of homework, and sketching in notebooks because it made me feel calm and focused. I loved art classes in high school, and dreamed about becoming an artist, but I was encouraged to pursue a career with a regular paycheck instead.
In the early years of internet access, after work, I found artists sharing their art and their process on blogs. By then, I had taken weekend workshops in various forms of printmaking and watercolor painting, and I experimented on weekends. In 2005, I started an art blog, and used the need to post something as incentive to make more work, and photograph the process of my experiments.
The online artist community grew exponentially, and I reveled in the newfound friendships with other artist bloggers around the world. Art-making experiments and the Daily Painting movement was evolving, art supplies were being tested, and group challenges were launching – all within a global network of fellow artists sharing approaches and results. Learning was accelerated because of the blogosphere. It was like a giant, living message board of creative fellowship, and I loved every minute of it.
I started a YouTube channel with hopes for teaching more in-depth methods in printmaking and watercolor painting. The notion that I could help an art teacher in South America instruct a class of 30 students on how to make monotype prints from a recycled plastic food containers without the need for a press was incredibly rewarding, I was lit with enthusiasm to share more. I love the feeling of learning and absorbing some new approach to making art, and then turning around to share it with others. Fill the well, and then water the garden.
If I could turn back time, I would have started sooner. I’d tell my younger self to squelch the fear, trust the lure of creativity, and focus on the process more than the end results. Oftentimes, I wasn’t sure I should post what I made, even though each blog entry was about *how* I made it to share method details. If I didn’t like the end result, I’d talk myself out of posting about it because the art wasn’t “good enough”. In retrospect, I see how important it is to share all the art – failures too – so you’re not relaying to other artists that the highlight reel of perfection (often seen on social media these days) is your true artists’ experience. We all stumble, and it should be a badge of truth that we’re striving to improve. I think seeing other artists’ battles helps us feel not so alone when we’re having a hard time in the studio.
The most important skills I’ve leaned on so far are curiosity – to understand the supplies, methods and nuances of various art making methods. I’m not afraid to experiment. And the skill of noticing – which I think all artists have naturally. Paying attention to the visuals around us, whether we’re actively creating or not – is building muscle memory to really see things – like the way weeds cast a frilly shadow across a sidewalk, or how the color of the sky has a different value when it’s reflected in a puddle. We take that information with us whenever we grab an art supply, so it’s important to notice deliberately.
I also lean hard into fear wrangling. I can talk myself under the table with discouragement. I pay attention to the messaging I play on repeat in my own head, so I can wrestle it to the floor, and lock it in a trunk while I’m making art. Sometimes, artists just have to get out of their own way, and go make something.
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.
My name is Belinda Del Pesco, and I’m a printmaker, watercolor painter, blogger and YouTuber. I use my blog and YouTube channel to share tutorials on various art-making methods related to watercolors and printmaking (linocut, monotype, collagraph, drypoint, gelli plate, mokulito, silk aquatint, etc.). I also write about the challenges of being an adult beginner, making more time to make art more often, and various books, art supplies and resources I’ve found that are helpful in my own creative journey.
My artwork is representational and impressionistic, and most of my subjects are inspired by candid images of my family, and friends and the rooms I’ve lived in. Figurative genre scenes (figures reading, napping, lounging in a sunny room with a friend), roomscapes (afternoon light leaving geometric patterns across hallways and chairs), and still life (tilted angles of sunny windowsills, and bud vases of flowers on reflective kitchen tiles) are my favorite subjects, with occasional landscapes here and there.
As soon as I finish a print edition or a watercolor, I list the art in my Etsy Shop, write a blog post about it, and each post is distributed to subscribers the next day. If the art-making process was filmed in my studio, I edit the footage and narrate it to explain supplies and methods. The video is uploaded on my YouTube channel, and subscribers there are notified of a new art demo.
I share new blog posts and tutorial videos on my Instagram and Facebook accounts, where I enjoy the dialog between artists in the comments. I manage two lively print Groups on Facebook – one called All About Monotype Printmaking, and another titled All About Collagraph Printmaking Group. Members share their latest print projects, and compare notes on inks, papers, and process.
Have any books or other resources had a big impact on you?
When I was in High School, dreaming about becoming an artist while pursuing a Not-an-Artist career path, I wrote a letter to an illustrator I adored. I asked her for advice to a beginner who was trying to get better at art. She wrote back and said I should leave no stone unturned in my pursuit of art making methods, understanding business for artists, experimenting with art styles, artist marketing and to continue gathering advise from other artists further up the path than I would be at various stages of my journey. I took that to heart, and have been a student of art making, art marketing and art mentoring ever since. Here are some of the blogs, podcasts and resources I frequently dive into:
Austin Kleon is an artist and writer (Steal Like an Artist, and Show Your Work) who publishes a great blog of inspired links and thoughtful resources related to being a creative. https://austinkleon.com/
Pat Flynn is an author, writer and podcaster who specializes in passive income; the ability to generate income in the background of your professional endeavors. I’ve listened to his podcast Smart Passive Income for years. His blog is a great place to start if the concept of generating affiliate income is new to you: https://www.smartpassiveincome.com/guide/affiliate-marketing-strategies/
A self-paced video course is great, and a weekend workshop is better, but I think mentorship is the best of all. Mastrius is a Canadian company aligning skilled artists with students in a live video mentoring program. Every month, an artist mentor does a live demo, or creates assignments and hosts critiques or directs art-related discussions with a group of no more than 8 attendees for two hours. The same group and their mentor artist meet over and over again, every month. The program is as much relationship building as it is an art mentoring program, and I think their approach is so different with a live, hands on, small-group approach. I also like that the monthly meetings help balance the alone time of creating in a studio. Check them out: https://www.mastrius.com/
Managing an email list and sending out newsletters (or blog posts) to your list is an essential part of running a business as an artist. This article outlines why an email list is wiser than relying on social media: https://makersbusinesstoolkit.com/why-artists-and-makers-must-have-an-email-list-in-2023/ and in this blog post, I’ve shared five tips for the content of your newsletter here” https://www.belindadelpesco.com/5-tips-for-your-artist-newsletter.html/
What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?
My favorite aspect about being an artist is that I’ll never retire, I’m never bored, and I have a secret weapon to reduce stress, fretfulness or sorrow. As long as I have eyes and hands, I’ll be making something. Every hour of every day – even when it’s filled with non-art life To-Do’s, I’m harvesting details that will find places in my art. Feelings, experiences, colors, scenery, a gesture, or a conversation will all eventually become fodder for art-making. I’ve simplified access and set up to create drawings and watercolors from supplies in a tote bag that I can pull out on the couch, while traveling, or during a visit with a friend. I enjoy the balance of alone-time to create, and then connection-time to share. I plan to keep fostering that balance for as long as I’m able.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.belindadelpesco.com/
- Instagram: https://instagram.com/bdelpesco
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/belinda.delpesco
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/belindadelpesco/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/user/bdelpesco
- Other: https://www.facebook.com/groups/MonotypePrintmaking
Image Credits
All photos are Copyright Belinda Del Pesco 2023