My mediocre drawing of a chair "I give myself very good advice, but I very seldom follow it."
Alice in Wonderland
As some of you know, I have been an art teacher for years. Every age from 3 to ancient (around my age) has come through my classroom.
There are different ways to approach the teaching of art, but for me the emphasis has to be first on learning to draw. Without this skill, there is no foundation for learning more and the aspiring artist is severely limited in scope of future work. The artist is working with a handicap if unable to draw.
Learning to draw is learning to see. To practice recording the world around you hones skills of observation that are essential to the artist. To study how a flower is put together, or how a building looks as it rises from the street, or the anatomy of a kitten while it sleeps, is to understand how the world around you is constructed. If you draw it, you understand it. If you understand it, you can communicate to your viewer.
I recently found the website of Michael Nobbs www.michaelnobbs.com: a Welsh artist who embraces the habit of making a drawing a day and he inspired me to follow my own good advice and sketch something, anything every day. I always tell my students this, but somehow acted as if I were exempt from following my own advice since I already know how to draw. One thing that I forgot - use it or lose it! My drawings are a little rusty, shall we say, but in the week or so since I've been dragging my little sketchbook around with me, it's gotten easier, even fun!
It is my belief that anyone with the desire and the time to practice can learn to draw. So don't be afraid to make a bad drawing. It's just a sheet of paper.
Great idea and a great practice Jaime! I remember advice of one of my painting teachers, James Gahagan, which was something along the lines of "To become a great painter, paint a lot." Also, along the lines of to become a wine expert, taste a lot of wine!
ReplyDeleteI remember at the Vermont Studio Center, a fellow painter had been given the same advice - a painting a day. They were small and many were similar, but arranged in a grid pattern all over her studio floor were at least a hundred little scraps of canvas, maybe 5" by 8" in size...each a painting a day!
Now, I wonder if you can create a page on your website where people could upload their drawing of the day? Wouldn't that be cool?!
That would be cool, and actually, Michael Nobbs has that page as part of his website. Would you contribute a drawing a day if I can figure out how to get that done?
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