{"id":79995,"date":"2018-02-28T13:32:36","date_gmt":"2018-02-28T20:32:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ndf-blog.nextdayflyers.com\/blog\/?p=79995"},"modified":"2026-08-14T16:15:46","modified_gmt":"2026-08-14T23:15:46","slug":"abel-arts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nextdayflyers.com\/blog\/abel-arts\/","title":{"rendered":"Quick-Fire Questions: Abel Arts"},"content":{"rendered":"
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It\u2019s not unusual for artists to draw inspiration from nature.\u00a0Erik Abel of Abel Arts<\/a>\u00a0is no exception. But Erik\u2019s strength lies in how he executes his vision. Erik\u2019s artwork is so laid back (which is a stark contrast from his daily life).<\/p>\n<\/div>\"Abel

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Let\u2019s take a look at the Abel Arts and the talent behind it all.<\/p>\n<\/div>

\nIt All Started With a Quarter\n<\/h2>
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Erik\u2019s story began in middle school where he sold copies of his drawings to classmates for a quarter each. He would then go on to paint surfboards, illustrate a children\u2019s book, start a mural business, and give tattoos from his kitchen.<\/p>\n

Now living in a small beach town on the Oregon coast, he continues to create works of art. He has designed skateboard and snowboard graphics as well as logos and illustrations for several companies.<\/p>\n<\/div>\"Abel

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Today, Erik focuses more on projects that let him use his own style of painting.<\/p>\n<\/div>

\nIn Touch With Nature\n<\/h2>
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Every artist has his muse. With Erik, that will always be nature. As he puts it:<\/p>\n<\/div>

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\u201cNature is the best teacher and best source of inspiration. I\u2019ve never been interested in painting or drawing man-made stuff. I don\u2019t like looking at it so I don\u2019t paint it. Simple terms.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\"Abel

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If you browse through Abel Arts\u2019 library, you\u2019ll find how in touch with nature Erik\u2019s artworks truly are. He even goes a step further and supports environmental nonprofits when he can. Every piece is an absolute pleasure to look at.<\/p>\n<\/div>

\nQuick-Fire Questions for Abel Arts\n<\/h2>
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I envy people like Erik Abel. As you\u2019ll see throughout the course of this interview, the man has a real love for what he does. Unfortunately, that\u2019s not true for everyone. Life has its way of getting in the way of our passion.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s get to know Erik a little more.<\/p>\n<\/div>

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What\u2019s your main goal as an artist? What do you hope to achieve?<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>

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\u201cMy ultimate goal as an artist is to have the freedom and time to truly explore my artistic whims and inspirations without the pressure or stress of having to make money from it.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\"Abel

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\u201cAnother goal that I continue to achieve is to be able to use my art to raise awareness and money for causes I believe in. I\u2019ve collaborated with a lot of environmental nonprofits over the years but want to continue to do a lot more.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>

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What would a typical day be like for you?<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>

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\u201cMy typical day starts by dragging myself out of bed way too early to deal with my 1.5-year-old boy. He\u2019s exhausting to live with and has easily cut my sleep and art production in half. I\u2019m kinda going crazy. But he\u2019s hilarious so we keep him around. :)\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMy wife and I juggle him in the mornings depending who has more to do. I usually do my emails and graphics projects in the first half of the day and then try to paint in the afternoon or evening when most stuff is off my plate and I can focus on the art.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\"Abel

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\u201cWe decided to only pack and ship orders once a week to help us stay sane. If the waves are good I\u2019ll surf. I try not to paint late into the night anymore because that 5 or 6 AM wake up cry is very real\u2026 but I feel around midnight is always when the magic starts to happen\u2026 so I\u2019m kinda missing out on that now.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\"Abel

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Walk us through your creative process. Do you have a vision right away or do you make it up as you go along?<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>

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\u201cMy paintings and my design\/illustration work start in the same place, in my sketchbooks. It\u2019s the fastest way for me to flesh out a lot of ideas at once and figure out what has legs or not.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\"Abel

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\u201cI don\u2019t fine-tune my sketches for paintings too much because part of the fun with painting is to just see what happens and work out some of the problems as you go along. Whenever I over-sketch and have all the colors worked out, the actual painting isn\u2019t as much fun.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>

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What are some of the issues you come across while doing your art and how do you overcome them?<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>

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\u201cBeing a full-time artist is full of issues. Managing the business side of things is always difficult because it pulls you away from doing what you love in the studio. Luckily my wife helps out a lot with that stuff so I can focus on creating the work.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\"Abel

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\u201cAnother big issue is compromising your art. At this point, I consider myself a commercial artist\u2026 it\u2019s the only way I can trick myself into being OK with sometimes creating art or design work that is for the market and not truly what I\u2019d like to make.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been carving out bits of time to create for myself lately and it\u2019s a really healthy outlet.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>

\nAdvice for Rookie Artists\n<\/h2>
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Erik Abel has lots of practical advice for new artists. Notice the emphasis on Instagram. Times are changing and artists need to get on board with social media to help with exposure.<\/p>\n<\/div>\"Abel

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What advice can you give artists who are just starting out?<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>

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\u201cI can\u2019t even imagine starting my art career with apps like Instagram available. That would have been an amazing tool. It has proven very valuable to our business. Any artist starting out should put a lot of time and energy into creating a following on Instagram and sharing their work.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>

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\nPut a lot of time and energy into creating a following on Instagram - Erik Abel, Abel Arts\n<\/h3>\n<\/div>
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\u201cThe other advice I give young artists is this: try a lot of different mediums. Try a lot of styles. Find out what jives with you and develop a unique style from there. Make lots of work and don\u2019t be afraid to show it. Put it out there. It will be crappy when you look back on it in a year or 2. Who cares. Email companies, meet with galleries, do free work that will get you exposure.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\"Abel

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\u201cA big thing for me was being able to know my way around the computer and Adobe design programs. Graphic design work has been a gold mine for me and even with artists who don\u2019t want to go down that computer design road and just want to focus on painting, you will be ahead of the game if you can edit your own art images, build and edit your own website, show cards, business cards, flyers, all that stuff.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>

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\nBe ahead of the game. Edit your own art images. Business cards, flyers, all that stuff.\n<\/h3>\n<\/div>
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\n \n \n\t\n\n\n\n\"Abel\n<\/div>

\nAbel Arts and NextDayFlyers\n<\/h2>
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We\u2019re so happy to have worked with Erik Abel in printing his postcards. His designs looked amazing on postcards. I asked Erik what he uses his postcards for and his overall experience working with NextDayFlyers.<\/p>\n<\/div>

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Your postcards turned out amazing. What do you use your postcards for?<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>

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\u201cWe have a few different uses for our postcards. I handwrite a thank you note on the back of them and include one in every order. It has all my contact info, website, and social media handles on it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI can also use the same ones to place on tables at art shows or other little events.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\"postcard

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Erik Abel uses his postcards to write thank you notes.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>

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How did you find your experience working with NextDayFlyers?<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>

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\u201cNextDayFlyers is always great quality and great price. Super easy website interface and they have all the templates you need to get going.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>

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De<\/em>sign and\u00a0<\/em>print your own postcards today<\/a>! Go to\u00a0NextDayFlyers<\/a>\u00a0to get started.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>

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\nNextDayFlyers is always great quality and great price. - Erik Abel, Abel Arts\n<\/h3>\n<\/div>
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Is there anything you\u2019d like to share with our readers?<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>

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\u201cThanks for reading. If you enjoy the art, drop me a line or say \u2018hi\u2019 on Instagram at\u00a0@abelarts<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

You can also find Abel Arts on\u00a0Facebook<\/a>. Erik also sells merchandise (his hats look amazing!) in his\u00a0online shop<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/section><\/main>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Erik Abel of Abel Arts shares his story and graphic design tips in this installment of NextDayFlyers\u2019 Quick-Fire Questions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":61,"featured_media":79964,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_breakdance_hide_in_design_set":false,"_breakdance_tags":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4128],"tags":[3924],"class_list":["post-79995","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business-highlights","tag-postcards"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextdayflyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79995","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextdayflyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextdayflyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextdayflyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/61"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextdayflyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=79995"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextdayflyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79995\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":85147,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextdayflyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79995\/revisions\/85147"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextdayflyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/79964"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextdayflyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=79995"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextdayflyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=79995"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextdayflyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=79995"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}