Steal Like an Artist – 10 Things Nobody Told You About Being Creative is the title of a new book by Austin Kleon.
Kleon examines and shares inspiring advice on how to make (good) art. 140 pages long, it’s a quick and rewarding read.
In the spirit of this book I wish you a productive and inspired 2013.
As Jane Fonda once said, “you always regret what you didn’t do”. So, go ahead and do it, don’t let anything or anyone discourage you. Be inspired – discover and create.
HAPPY NEW YEAR !
I took a short sculpting class over the summer. I chose Intro to Figure Sculpture with Mike Magrath at Gage Academy. The pictures show my very first sculpture produced during the five week class (15 hours). It’s far from perfect but I’m really fascinated with sculpting. It’s a very complex and captivating process – and still so much to learn.
Women Sitting | Clay | 2012
Her face looks a little bit like a figure from Avatar 🙂 unintentional of course, it’s only roughed in. So are hands and feet, for lack of time/skill at the time. I was very busy just getting her posture right – as I said, it’s a very complex process.
I like her back the best.
Enjoying the view.
During spring quarter 2012 at Gage I took a class called Artistic Anatomy. In this class you literally study anatomy as far as it applies to drawing (and consequently also to painting and sculpting). In other words you study the skeleton, muscles, etc. – even hair (direction of hair growth, beard) – you get the idea. However this class was an advanced class for students who already had taken part 1 and part 2 in fall and winter, so I got a little in over my head. It was expected that one already knows most of the anatomy and applies it to life drawing. Thankfully I was not the only one who misjudged the class content and the instructor adjusted his curriculum taking the time at the beginning of each session repeating the material in an abbreviated form and explaining once more the specific parts of the body before we started drawing from the life model.
It was quite a ride, I have to say. The upside is, I tend to work harder when I feel that I’m behind. Also, the instructor did not exactly cut me (or anyone else for that matter) any slack. He was not pleased that he had so many people in class that had not already studied the subject. He was very critical and, without any mercy, took every one of my drawings apart. Sometimes it was hard to take it all in but it helped me to get better. One certainly learns through failure. Towards the end of the quarter I even received an approving nod here or there. During the last session we worked completely independent on a drawing of a man. When the session was over I asked him to tell me what he thought was good or bad about it. He pointed to the knee area of one leg and said, “this area here, that’s actually not bad, well defined,” …and nodding his head in thought, said again, “not bad.” I know that doesn’t sound like much but coming from him (and considering where I had started 12 weeks earlier) it felt really good to hear 🙂
Here are a couple of my drawings/studies from that class: legs, knee, feet, female full body and a portrait.
Following a construction drawing/study of the knee (my knee in the mirror actually).
The next one is one of my favorites. I had a good session that day and although the arms are not that well defined (ran out of time) I was happy with the result.
And last but not least, a portrait.
On June 26th and 27th I posted sculptures of the nose and ear. Here comes the mouth.
As a reminder: the purpose of sculpting parts of the face (in this exercise) is to understand their shape better – the plane breaks, the volume, the relationships of the parts of the face to each other – consequently it helps to become better at drawing (the face). In addition one can practice drawing from the sculptures – drawing from a 3-D model – e.g. the following photos show how the shape of the mouth can create shadows on the face, it also shows the “hills” and “valleys” of this part of the face quite well. You could also draw the feature from different angles – e.g. practicing drawing a foreshortened view etc.
The following photo shows well that it’s really only a sculpture of the mouth. Neighboring features of the mouth are only developed as much as necessary to understand the relationship hence the nose in this sculpture is really a rather undefined lump of plasticine serving as the “boarder” to the north (casting a shadow) and showing that the philtrum groove of the mouth connects to the nose – although it doesn’t show the details of how exactly it connects to the nose as this information is not needed for drawing the mouth.
Today a different kind of art post – I baked a flag cake.
HAPPY 4th of JULY EVERYONE !
I attended a class at Miller School of Art in Georgetown today (which is just south of Seattle). Title of the class was Experimental Painting. Marc (the owner) provides all the material and you have four hours of time to just paint, no restrictions, no limits really – he gave some guidelines what media to use in what order, basically teaching certain techniques – but otherwise you could just let loose – which I enjoyed sooo much. Just letting loose compared to the very concentrated efforts of the drawing instructions in the other classes was a nice change. Here are the two paintings I produced.
Mixed Media on Watercolor Paper | Charcoal, Oil Pastel, Watercolor and Acrylic | 06/2012
The above painting was just pure fun. First you apply any shape you like with charcoal (it leaves the dark shadow-like shapes), then you draw in oil pastel (which pops out in the end), go over it with a layer of watercolor (that’s what you would see as back ground color in this case), paint with acrylic paint on top of it, blow dry the whole thing until the acrylic is half-way “firm” – and finally wash/scrub the whole painting down under running water. The acrylic remnants show up as fine lines here. The abuse the painting took was amazing and the outcome just pure fun.
Mixed Media – Watercolor, Charcoal, Acrylic on Untreated Cotton Cloth | 06/2012
This is the second painting I’ve created. It’s done on drop cloth stapled to a 1/4 inch board (cheap material ! ). First you apply layers of watercolor, then charcoal (hardly visible in this painting) and finally acrylic paint. I really liked the technique (very promising, I will use it in the future for sure) and if I may say so, I am fascinated with the outcome.
Also, did I mention it ? Fun, Fun, Fun !
“An artist’s failures are as valuable as his successes…by misjudging one thing he conforms something else, even if at the time he does not know what that something else is.” – Bridget Riley
That’s a quote from this book:
Geoff Flack, one of the instructors at Gage, recommended it. If you (like pretty much any other artist) ever wondered about yourself as an artist and/or your work – be it writing, music or painting, you name it – you have to read this book. I did, it’s fantastic. In fact I just started reading it for a second time. It’s a quick read (122 pages) and every word is worth reading and thinking about.
“Art is made to disturb. Science reassures. There is only one valuable thing in art; the thing you cannot explain.”
– Georges Braque
My watercolor instructor says if the painting shows “everything” and does not leave room for the viewer to “finish” it it’s a boring painting – to say the least – or may be even a bad one. The Braque quote reminded me of that.
Have a great sunny weekend!
Starting in January (winter quarter) I’ve been taking art classes at Gage Academy in Seattle. One of them was Beginning Drawing. Although I had some crash course in drawing basics by another instructor earlier last year, I signed up for this class in the hope that I could fill in any blanks. Overall I did not learn a lot that I didn’t know already, still it was a good experience and I got more practice. One exercise that we did very early on was a great eye opener regarding space and composition.
The instructor asked us to draw an exciting line and then draw a boring line. The point was to be emotional and spontaneous. Here is what I drew.
Charcoal on paper – guess the exciting line is obvious, the boring line is the little one in the upper right corner. Note not only the wave (or lack thereof) but also the thickness of the line.
He then asked us to draw a line that stays inside the edges of the paper. In doing so we were asked to make it more dramatic, may be using the length of the charcoal (not the tip) or whatever else we could think of to achieve the look of movement and drama.
Charcoal on paper
Next he instructed us to draw another line just like the first one (exciting and lively) but this time going off the edges of the paper at least once.
Charcoal on paper
Now observe how the dynamic of the drawing changes. The drawing where the line goes off the paper seems to be more interactive. It seems to suggest something happening outside the “frame”. Is that fascinating or what? I certainly thought so. I also was very impressed with the fact that one can express so much with a “simple” line. It seems so emotional, deliberate and artful (especially the first one that stays in the “frame”, my personal favorite) and yet it’s just random, coming out of a more or less emotional movement of the arm/body. I was super fascinated with this exercise.
Here's To Express.. :)
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