There is really no one out there on your computer, in your
community, or in the strata of heaven than can make you draw. YOU have
to make YOU want to draw. THEN the teacher will appear. Drawing is a
demanding skill. It takes some doing, but, will the will to learn and a
good instructor, you can do it. Drawing is very rewarding as a personal
expressive experience.
I teach art classes, online and in my own studio. A lot of people want to learn how to draw, or improve their skills. Drawing, I think, is our basic connection with explaining ourselves visually. It is the seduction of the line, the expression between the lead in the pencil and our souls. Drawing is an explanation of explaining ourselves in a simple, direct manner-like writing but visual. And that is where our ideas of writing and drawing part company. We pretty much all know how to write and put our ideas down. But drawing requires a different brain communication-not necessary the idea box in our brain that supplies us with worded content, but our eyes. If we can link with our eyes, and put ideas aside for a minute, we can begin to see a world that we can translate to a flat canvas or sketchbook, sculpture or a new art form.
Students that want to draw are seduced by the simplicity of it all, the pencil or pen meeting the paper. This is the magic beginning. Just a line on paper will produce that, but if we can look very carefully at that line and see what it really is we have a go with beginning to draw. The line. What is it? Is it a road, a map, a profile, a boundary between two souls? Is it a swirl of light, the hard edge of a rooftop or wall? So when the line is made-this is the time to look and interpret. This is the skill to learn.
Anyone can learn to draw. I teach drawing exercises to beginning students, those that often say "I can't draw a stick figure!" or "I've never drawn anything in my life!" They are amazed that from this simple act of doodling, they are creating a drawing. They are inspired to go on with learning drawing skills. We then investigate the dynamics of line and do exercises: scribbling, describing and profiling shapes, symbols and icons and shading to create the volume that light and shadow describes.
Within three or four weeks, drawing students reach a point where they are familiar and confident with their drawing skills. Then comes the challenge of seeing skills. Students now have to learn how to really see what they are looking at. This requires seeing the world flat-so the image can be translated to a two-dimensional surface-a sketchbook page or a canvas.
A grid works well for learning that "seeing flat" skill. This is an old skill that was developed during the Renaissance, centuries ago. A sheet of Plexiglas with a drawn grid on it is placed in front of subject matter, usually a simple still life. Seeing the objects through a grid helps students see the subject matter one square at a time. The students draw what they see through the grid and are they're drawings are very accurate!
Practice drawing with a grid leads to seeing flat. The goal, if the student wants to continue their drawing skills, is to see everything flat-to automatically be able to throw the grid in front of whatever is seen. In time, the grid is part of innate perception and this is the basic skill that artists have accomplished.
We think that because we are an accountant, a nurse, an airline pilot, a sales associate working in a big box store, that we can never make a drawing that will inspire us to make another inspirational drawing. But, it is entirely possible! That creative part of our brain is ready, willing and able to accept the mission!
I teach art classes, online and in my own studio. A lot of people want to learn how to draw, or improve their skills. Drawing, I think, is our basic connection with explaining ourselves visually. It is the seduction of the line, the expression between the lead in the pencil and our souls. Drawing is an explanation of explaining ourselves in a simple, direct manner-like writing but visual. And that is where our ideas of writing and drawing part company. We pretty much all know how to write and put our ideas down. But drawing requires a different brain communication-not necessary the idea box in our brain that supplies us with worded content, but our eyes. If we can link with our eyes, and put ideas aside for a minute, we can begin to see a world that we can translate to a flat canvas or sketchbook, sculpture or a new art form.
Students that want to draw are seduced by the simplicity of it all, the pencil or pen meeting the paper. This is the magic beginning. Just a line on paper will produce that, but if we can look very carefully at that line and see what it really is we have a go with beginning to draw. The line. What is it? Is it a road, a map, a profile, a boundary between two souls? Is it a swirl of light, the hard edge of a rooftop or wall? So when the line is made-this is the time to look and interpret. This is the skill to learn.
Anyone can learn to draw. I teach drawing exercises to beginning students, those that often say "I can't draw a stick figure!" or "I've never drawn anything in my life!" They are amazed that from this simple act of doodling, they are creating a drawing. They are inspired to go on with learning drawing skills. We then investigate the dynamics of line and do exercises: scribbling, describing and profiling shapes, symbols and icons and shading to create the volume that light and shadow describes.
Within three or four weeks, drawing students reach a point where they are familiar and confident with their drawing skills. Then comes the challenge of seeing skills. Students now have to learn how to really see what they are looking at. This requires seeing the world flat-so the image can be translated to a two-dimensional surface-a sketchbook page or a canvas.
A grid works well for learning that "seeing flat" skill. This is an old skill that was developed during the Renaissance, centuries ago. A sheet of Plexiglas with a drawn grid on it is placed in front of subject matter, usually a simple still life. Seeing the objects through a grid helps students see the subject matter one square at a time. The students draw what they see through the grid and are they're drawings are very accurate!
Practice drawing with a grid leads to seeing flat. The goal, if the student wants to continue their drawing skills, is to see everything flat-to automatically be able to throw the grid in front of whatever is seen. In time, the grid is part of innate perception and this is the basic skill that artists have accomplished.
We think that because we are an accountant, a nurse, an airline pilot, a sales associate working in a big box store, that we can never make a drawing that will inspire us to make another inspirational drawing. But, it is entirely possible! That creative part of our brain is ready, willing and able to accept the mission!
Lois' website offering free online art classes and many art
resources, includes a gallery of her own paintings and pastels, as well
as her videos demonstrating a wide variety of skills and techniques in
the lessons: http://www.free-online-art-classes.com
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