The Essential Art of Sport - No2
Welcome to the Essential Art of Sport - A place where we interview a selection of talented Sports Artists across the globe.
We are so pleased to welcome our second Artist to the Essential Art of Sport, Clare Gardner. We stumbled across Clare's quality work when we opened our Twitter account and she was one of the first Artists we followed (thankfully she followed back) and we asked if she would like to be featured. The rest is history...
Thank you very much Clare for taking part, hope you all enjoy.
Personal Information
Q. Your Name?
A. Clare Gardner
Q. Are there any other Artist names you go by?
A. Clarescustoms
Q. Website?
A. My Twitter and Instagram are both @clarescustoms
Q. Favourite Sports Team or Athlete?
A. Liverpool FC
Q. How many years have you been an Artist / how long in Sports Art?
A. I have been an artist since I left school but I started doing sports-related art over the past 3 years.
You as an Artist
Q. What type of Sports art do you specialize in creating?
A. Most of my sports art is primarily colour pencil portraits of footballers old and new. I like to try different mediums like acrylic paints or watercolour sometimes but I think my drawings are definitely the most popular.
Q. How would you describe your painting style and what are the types of techniques you use as an Artist?
A. My style of drawing is photorealism,I try to do my portraits as realistic and detailed as possible. I build up layers of colour pencil and I use a technique called burnishing where I blend the pencils together to give a glossy effect.
Q. Are there any techniques you want to incorporate into your future work or would like to learn?
A. I would love to learn how to paint professionally with oil paints.
Q. What is the biggest (in dimensions) piece of art you have created and what was it for?
A. The biggest piece I’ve done was a mural I did outside my sons’ primary school. It’s a painting of a circus and it’s the full length of the building, It took me 6 weeks to complete. I did it about 15 years ago and it’s still there now!
Q. Which piece of art are you most proud of creating and why?
A. I’m most proud of a portrait I did of Klopp and Jordan Henderson,it was a moment from the champions league final and I think I captured the emotion from the moment.
Q. Your favorite materials for creating art? What’s in your armory? (canvas, paper, types of paint, pencil, charcoal etc)?
A. My favourite materials are waxed-based pencils, I use Fabre castell polychromo’s on pastel paper for my portraits.
Q. What is the one art-related object/tool that you could not do without?
A. I love to use white gel pens for the highlights, these make my drawings come to life so I definitely can’t do without them.
Influence and Vision
Q. Do you remember your first sale? What was the item and how did it make you feel?
A. My first proper sale was a painting I did of Tupac when I was 15. I sold it to someone in Belgium and I was over the moon someone has actually bought my artwork.
Q. Which Artist/s inspires you and why (Sport or non-sport related)?
A. There are some amazing football artists on Twitter that inspire me every day. There is one who stands out called Kristin and her portraits are unbelievable.
Q. Could you describe what your dream commission would be?
A. I’d love to be asked to do a commission for a football manager or one of the athletes. That would be amazing!
Q. What advice would you give to an existing artist if they were looking at creating pieces in Sports Art for the first time?
A. My advice would be to find your own unique style so your artwork is instantly recognisable. I’ve learned that art doesn’t have to be perfect but if you capture the emotion of the moment it will tell a story and relate to people.
We would like to thank Clare Gardner for her time and being part of the Essential Art of Sport. Want to be featured? Drop us a line.
Pdi Sports Art Admin