Spring season is giving space to summer. We bathe ourselves in light. We walk through spring and summer days very aware of nature’s beauty. This is the most inspiring time of the year, at least for me. It is not only because the nature is so ready to bless us with so much visual abundance, but also because the energy is so vivid and at its highest point: the energy of growth and fulfillment. Every view is framed by grapevines and has flowers scattered over it.
The magic energy
We should capture some of this sparkling energy and preserve it for cool fall and winter nights. I do capture such energy in my art. I love including floral elements in my paintings, whether tiny or large. I believe we suffer from too materialistic life style and we are too obsessed with profits and material gains. That leads to imbalance. Mental side and soul should be loved at least as much as the physical body which gets all attention.
Feeding our soul
Art feeds our soul. You enter an art studio and you will be right away embraced by something uplifting and mysterious. Painting consists of paints, lines, shapes and light rays. How could they possibly take one to another world? They can since we implement ideas, thoughts, concepts and energy along with visible things in a painting. Art crosses the limits of visible and invisible and easily passes the restrictions of reality. I think that makes pursuing art such a worthy experience.
Is painting ever finished?
It is great to look at a finished artwork. I dare to say that the process of creation surpasses the savoring art by the viewer. To be able to create feels like an endless journey to satisfaction. Is a painting ever finished, though? The truth is that sometimes I continue mentally working on some painting even after it has been sold. These ideas will find reflection in my next paintings.
Moving to my new art studio
As I am packing up my studio again, I was just snapping a few pictures of the recent and not that recent paintings. I do sometimes forget how much art I have created and it is nice to refresh my memory here and there. Paintings are sold over time, but what remains is the reality of being able to create beauty.
Enjoy and visit
My new studio will have more space, indoors and outdoors on 2 levels. It will be a great place to create new art and to enjoy the previous paintings. Thankfully, it is a very close move, 7 minutes by foot and 5 minutes by car. Enjoy the images of paintings and visit my new studio! If you are somewhere not that far from Ajax, Ontario, stop by! It is summer, travelling is easy and fun.
We are born with the ability to draw, but we lose it as we grow up and get older. Many schools disregard manual drawing as unnecessary in the age of coding, digital art and devices that can do everything.
Sometimes, we lose our ability to draw when one compares their drawing with the best possible drawings on the internet and decides that they will never be able to do such a drawing. Therefore, it is easy to give up what did not even get a chance to unfold.
We forget that it is not what some internet sites will tell you: draw like a master in one day. For some unknown reason, it is believed that art does not take numerous hours of practicing and numerous attempts to improve our own results. Nobody becomes a master in one day.
Who can learn drawing?
Most people who have managed to learn manual writing shouldn’t have any problem with drawing also. In order to be able to just look at something and draw it, you must practice. It will not happen right away, and it will not happen on its own.
In fact, to acquire ability to draw, you must exercise your ability to see at first. If you want to see things artistically, you also need to know what to look for and what to pay attention to. We lose our ability to notice things, as well as our ability to maintain focus when we are always distracted by presence and interference of devises.
Don’t be perfectionist
Cravings for perfection can be irresistible; therefore, many people take credits for a drawing which they have simply traced from a photo or printout, reproduced on a larger scale using grid, display on a wall, or photo editing software. I would still suggest: learn manual drawing and don’t depend on devices. Be driven by just the desire to capture your subject.
Drawing is a base for any more or less realistic painting. Painting is drawing with a brush.
What is important when you start drawing?
Draw big: that is the most important part when starting drawing.
Choose big size paper. For beginners, 12 x 16 in (30.5 x 41 cm) is a good size, later go up to 20 x 24 in (51 x 61 cm) or create value drawings as big as your painting is. Even with smaller size paper, draw your subject large. Small things do not allow implementing much of what is important: values, shadows, direction of light and contrast.
In order to show something special that your subject has, you have to stay away from tiny things. Large drawing has also more impact. It is simply much more effective and noticeable.
Best subjects
The absolutely best way to learn about values, shadows, direction of light, contrast, size and shape relationships is starting with still life. Still life can consist of anything: your favorite things, toys, souvenirs, beauty products, food, fruit, vegetables, flowers, dishes, books, clothes, hats, gloves, glasses, interior items and so on. Use your imagination and set up something you like and find interesting.
Fragments of landscape are great. If you are a beginner, choose just a small part of a view.
Buildings and structures are one more extraordinary great thing to draw. They are everywhere, no need to stress out looking for something which is out of your reach. Add fences, fence posts, doors, steps, windows and so on. Perspective is a very important part of such drawings. It is nothing very difficult, but there are things you simply need to know.
Flowers are always easy to find and get, therefore they suit well as subject.
Portrait and figure drawing require a model. Model can be not always available. Reproducing photos does not really make one an artist who can draw human faces and figures, but as a learning exercise it is still fine.
How to start drawing?
We start with exploring our subject visually. We try to look at our subject at least 3 times longer every time than at our paper. Gradually, your hand will do what you want it to do.
At first, we mark up the space with approximate sizes and place approximate shapes.
Try not using eraser until you have established the main shapes and are about to define details.
We always go from abstract to definite and from distant to close, as well as from back to the front if it is a large piece or shows perspective.
Work simultaneously at all parts of drawing until every single part has obtained some definition. Step back and decide what’s to stay, what needs more work and what has to be erased. Clean up unnecessary lines, correct the wrong ones.
How to bring your drawing to a completion stage you want or need
Drawing serves many different purposes.
Drawing as a reminding sketch
Drawing as a reminding sketch is the simplest way to recall view, landscape or interesting detail. For such drawing, only the main lines, shapes and values will do.
Two point perspective drawing
Value drawing for transfer
I have many hundreds of large size value drawingsand sketches. My models can sometimes go bad, such as fruit, vegetables or flowers. For watercolor, we do not want to damage the watercolor paper, and therefore, we improvise and test everything on another (preferably, half transparent) paper. When the subject is complex, or when the potential painting consists of many parts, or these parts must be aligned in a certain accurate way, for instance, in perspective drawing of buildings, street views or complex structures, value drawing is much better reference than any photography.
Such value drawings and sketches can be left unfinished because some parts do not need much work and you can do it directly in painting. We only define more these parts which might be difficult to remember due to unusual shadow play or shape and line relationship.
Drawing practice pieces
To create a quick manual drawing, does not take much time or effort. Focus on something interesting, rather fragment than the entire view or subject. We sometimes want to see whether some part of drawing or painting will work or not. Therefore, we do sketches and drawings of some parts only. That is simply a good practice also. Such drawing can be finished and worked out, or we can leave it at a sketch level.
My drawing of spring lilies for watercolor painting
Standalone drawing as art
Drawing as art which will be potentially framed and hang onto wall or placed in portfolio will require the most time. It will include all aspects of painting, plus line work, nice shadows, strong and zero values, and everything in the middle. It will have good contrast, interesting relationships between parts and more. We will use soft eraser and sometimes stump to spread out graphite dust and create smooth, even coverage of dark areas. We will also use different pencils with different softness grades.
My drawing for watercolor painting, here daffodils, see painting in other posts
My drawings
I usually don’t create just drawings because I probably love color too much. I have many value drawings and sketches, and some are really worked out quite well. I keep them in large 1 meter x 60 cm folders. I can always re-use whatever I like or consider suitable. My drawings are usually large and very large, attached images are up to 51 x 61 cm or 20 x 24 in and larger.
I don’t mind spending time on a manual drawing because that works like a plan for painting. While you draw, you can figure out all accents and contrasts, as well as see how and if your concept even works. I will eventually turn some drawings into paintings.
Any of these drawings might become paintings, this one is 22 x 29 inches ( 56 x 74 cm)
Everybody can draw
We can draw before we can speak. We can draw even if we cannot speak or express ourselves in writing. We can still draw and recreate memories when everything else is gone from our mind.
Research confirmed that people, who had lost big part of their cognitive function and memory, could clearly remember what they had been drawing many years ago: places, events, occasions and people. They test this at University of Waterloo,, Canada. Researchers also advise people to draw and paint their adventures and life experiences because they will never forget what they created artistically.
Don’t wait: start manual drawing today! I simply would love that everybody experiences the huge pleasure we gain from simply drawing and sketching. Register for my art classes: Registration for art classes
You can expect a lot of learning; a lot of practicing and you will definitely find out something which you did not know before if you would like to paint with me. I take a lot of pride in boosting one’s creativity as opposed to mechanical copying and using paint without any knowledge. Along with nature watercolor and acrylic painting, fall art classes will be an ongoing journey into creativity and hopefully result in some students mastering watercolor.
Nature art: a wonderful opportunity
Our eyes best notice what is around us if we focus, pay attention and observe. Fall colors are intense and make any composition look impressive. We have created numerous fall watercolors before, and they always came out nice. Acrylic definitely is a very suitable medium for depicting fall scenes, especially with grey and blue colors of sky.
Democratic nature of art
This season, fall art classes are designed to better suit teens between 10 and 14 years, and the evening group is for any age adults and youth. Teens from 15 years can join it also. Art is very democratic: one works on their own canvas or paper, and nobody cares whether you have experience or not. Art classes are for learning. If you have never painted before, give this skill some time to develop.
Online versus live art classes
When you are sitting on one side of screen, nobody can check or see how exactly you are applying advice or tip. In a live class, the instructor can see right away whether the paint is too wet, too dry, student uses too little of paint or there is way too much of it. The instructor can see right away who understood the technique and who is struggling with it. Full article:
Inese’s Creative Artspace studio moved to South Ajax at the beginning of August. It is a beautiful place with indoor and outdoor painting opportunities. Its location is perfect since it is quite central, but offers fantastic nature all around. I hope you will sign up and enjoy our fall art classes.
Schedule, registration and more info about art classes: Sign up here
Drawing and watercolor painting take time, and I was recently short of it. However, we created sketches from real fruits in our watercolor class. We did also a large-scale reference drawing for our still life painting, and we are about to finish the chickadees and birch painting in the evening class. Creating pencil sketches is the best you can do to make painting easier.
Drawing therapy
I paint and create drawings even when I cannot do anything else. I paint and do drawing when I feel desperate, disappointed with the reality of life and when I am having mood swings because of the strong medications. It can be a bit difficult to get started, bet when I overcome the resistance, it is a pleasure. I don’t always care how great the painting or drawing will be or how perfect the color combinations will come out. Art is so therapeutic that I cannot compare it with anything else.
One set-up of still life which resulted in reference drawing to be used for creation of a painting
Advantage of live classes
When we compare online, over-the-internet and live art classes, I must say nothing can replace the live interaction and face-to-face learning. Why? Because I can see right away what’s causing some problem: too much water, too dry paper, too less paint, too much paint, bad quality paper, brush or paint.
Any of these drawings might become paintings, this one is 22 x 29 inches ( 56 x 74 cm)
When it comes to watercolors, everything matters, yet, the quality of paper is the most important part. I always use the same paper that I give my students which is quite large size, approximately 16 x 18 in or 41 x 46 cm. This time it was 18 x 24 inches or 46 x 61 cm. Big practice painting is much more beneficial.
Drawing still life: pen and watercolor sketch
First step in still life painting is sketch: we did a very light line drawing and began to apply some paint
This is just the start, but we will finish this painting during the next class
Process
First we create the drawing and value sketch with all shadows and halftones. You can do that in pencil, using pen or even pen and ink. We transfer the drawing onto watercolor paper using very light lines. Once paper is wet, we cannot erase anything. We do the first washes and add layers and more layers until our paintings looks completed.
Don’t go tiny, experiment with large sizes
I have seen over the years how tiny and small paper prevents one from creating good art. If paper is too small, it will be definitely too difficult to apply paint on it. If you are watching somebody paint online and you do not have a very thick, heavy and good quality paper, you can kill yourself, but you simply won’t achieve what they are showing you. Saving on paper is a mistake because thin paper won’t allow to use multiple washes. With bad paints, you won’t have great results and transparency also, so, it’s best to have the decent ones.
Drawing real things
I love drawing, therefore, I’m also teaching students to draw from real life, not photos whenever possible. I believe that drawing from real subjects results in the best art because it gives one absolute freedom of interpretation. I find drawing easy because I was learning drawing not from photos, but from real subjects and set-ups. I am simply good at it and it is very helpful not to have to use computer for editing.
Enjoy the benefits of creativity
I hope that more people will pick up pencils and brushes following my advice and get started with drawing and painting. There is simply nothing like it. It doesn’t demand one to be in good shape or to be dressed up or look perfect, it doesn’t even require being in a good mood. That comes as an additional benefit along the way. I’m also seeing art as a tool to cure addictions and prevent from falling back into them. Creativity is a powerful tool which we all can make use of.
Belief is like light that never goes out as long as we have strength to overcome our weaknesses and doubts.
The year is almost over, just a few hours, and we will be writing 2016. Was 2015 a year what I expected it to be?
Yes and no. I usually do not write any New Year’s resolutions since I am simply doing what I have decided. If I have made a decision, I will bring it to implementation no matter what. For me it is always: speak less, do more.
Time disappears too fast, that is for sure. Although, January 1st is just a point in time which we are using as a date to mark the beginning of a new year, many people associate lots of expectations and hopes with this date. It feels like a new chance to refresh, to regroup and to start with renewed energy and more understanding. It certainly is a good time to review what went wrong in the previous year and what should be changed in the New Year. Realistically, any date for changes is as good as this one because any changes are up to us. When the desire to achieve something is strong enough, I cannot see why it would not take place.
I also hope that more people will include their artistic and creative side in their self-improvement programs. That is incredibly important especially because we are spending way too much time looking at screens of different devices. Therefore, keep your artistic activities away from devices, food and drinks.
Our brain has a wonderful ability to adjust. We are able to learn something new regardless of our age and so we should. Learning, challenging our capacities is the key to staying young longer. That does not involve a face lift, but that refers to a much more important part of our existence: memory, thinking and decision-making ability and brain flexibility. Therefore, I wish those who have at least the smallest intention to devote some time to drawing, sketching and painting: do it. For the sake of more relaxed you, for the sake of happier you, and to multiply and grow great things around us.
I would like to say also a huge Thank you to all my fellow bloggers who stopped at this blog for numerous times, commented, made me laugh and think, made me explore and dig deeper, made me a better me. Thank you, and without you my dear friends, my world would have much fewer colors as it does now.
