Mark spent the years from 1991 to 2000 teaching Art to secondary age students from 12 to 18 years old. He found the experience invaluble. He soon found that young people needed encouragement and guidance in seeking ideas for creating artwork. The need to look at the environment for ideas became important. Ideas are already imbedded in people’s own psyche, inspiration becomes the analyst. The camera and sketchbook become the means of collecting the resources: the stimulated imagination will do the rest.

With the advent of digital photography and digital art software, the means of creativity are boundless. Simple and apparently uninspiring objects and places can be the basis upon which ideas can be developed. A student’s interest, hobby or pastime provides enough stimulus for any project.

It does not involve vast sums of money to take artwork creation into the digital field; much can be achieved with pages of a sketchbook being scanned into a computer, using graphic manipulation software to develop the ideas. The prints from such a simple exercise can be used to work with traditional media of pencils and paint.

Mark has included a page called resources to explain what equipment he uses in his own work. Follow the link