Category: drawing classes

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Creating is learning and living more intense

Apples, Purple variety, watercolor painting

Creativity is personal

Any creation involves saying something about ourselves. That is how we are telling others what our point of view is. True creativity is never copying and reproducing, but taking an idea that lives or is just born in our imagination and bringing it to life.

The use of color and technique

The use of color is also a very personal feature. To mix up a color which we find unique and love, we have to learn the process of color mixing. It is important not to stick with paint colors out of tube. Composition can be explained as good layout of the painted subject on a particular size paper, canvas or other surface material. There are generally applicable principles, and we should know them. Specific take on composition is a personal feature of an artist, and we should rather develop our own preferred compositions.

Choice of painting subject

Choice of painting subject is always important, and it is also a very personal feature. We should remember that it is much more useful to learn principles of drawing or painting without reproducing subjects somebody else is already painting in a very specific manner. You like it because they are painting it great. Nevertheless, we should not copy this style and painting subject.

Choice of technique and style

How and what we draw and paint always depends on us. As we progress, we study the many ways of achieving the desired result. Learning is an ongoing activity, and it’s erroneous to assume somebody knows everything. Experiment is the best teacher of all. Try for yourself and you will see whether it works or not.

Experiment and error

Learning process always involves mistakes and errors. Only people who do nothing never make mistakes. Try not being a perfectionist, at least at early stages of learning how to draw and paint. Perfectionism lives inside many minds, but it is restrictive and limiting. Art which is less than perfect is still art and provides you with improvement value.

Take the path of discovery

I personally always think: let’s see what happens. Everybody who is painting or drawing has thrown out lots of paper and damaged quite a lot of canvas. There is nothing bad about that. I had a girl who once said: I do not want to throw away this expensive paper just because I started the painting wrong. Don’t do that! When something cannot be corrected, throw it out without any regret.

Start over

It is much more difficult to correct wrong lines and colors than start a fresh using the new knowledge you just discovered. I believe that every task adds something to our knowledge and skills.

Sunflower drawing
Sunflower drawing
Sunflower watercolor
Sunflower watercolor

Creating on the go

I am not at home at the moment, but visiting my closest family in Latvia. I had a few sheets of paper and student grade paints in  too few colors. Such paints don’t have the transparency or flow ability of good quality paints. However, I could not resist when I saw this bloom and these apples, because I do not have these painting subjects in Canada. I always prefer drawing from real subject. It was more difficult because I didn’t have the right tools and brushes, but I did not allow that stopping me. I can reuse the same drawings with decent paints and better size paper or canvas at home.

Apples in apple tree drawing
Drawing for apple watercolor
Apples watercolor, unfinished
First layers of watercolor
Apples, Purple variety, watercolor painting
I finished the painting after I returned home, Purple variety

More about drawing: Drawing and watercolor

Inspiration: Get started

My art:

My life school blog

My life school blog deals with GREEN LIVING and importance of changing our perception in order the Earth was living and livable longer. Links to 3 recent posts which continue the same conversation about green living.

https://inesepogalifeschool.com/2016/10/14/living-green-means-simplifying-and-enhancing-life/

https://inesepogalifeschool.com/2016/10/14/the-new-perception-of-prosperity-and-green-living/

https://inesepogalifeschool.com/2016/10/10/the-very-green-walk-in-october-forest-we-have-to-end-consumerism/

 

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Nothing compares to summer painting outdoors

Chickadee, watercolor

I wish summer stayed with us longer

Summer days are running away so fast that it is pretty clear: this summer is pretty much gone. It is certainly the best time to grab our paint box, some paper, pencil or brush and go outside. The weather isn’t too friendly in Ontario this year. I cannot recall so many heat waves and so many days without a drop of rain while I have been living in Canada. My mornings are spent at a clinic, afternoons – trying to get back in shape, but painting helps staying well.

What to start with?

When people ask me what they should start painting or drawing with, my answer is very simple: draw and paint anything around you. There is nothing better than drawing from real subjects and real places. Once you get used to it, you will notice how everything is more vibrant and more realistic when we paint from life.

Use real reference materials whenever possible

Lots of instructions start with: take a picture. I would love to say, however, do not take any pictures, but set up a still life or do a reference sketch. If it is a large work and you are afraid you’d forget the scene, you might also take a reference picture. The problem is that most people want to copy their reference photo instead of just using it. I might sound like an old vinyl, but it’s so silly to copy the photo and then pretend you painted it from scratch.

Chickadee, watercolor, summer

Chickadee in summer shade, watercolor, 12 x 16 inches or 30.5 x 41 cm

That’s why we have eyes and brain; we are supposed to use them as intensively as possible.

If you can draw, you can draw anything

The next thing which matters is this: once you learn drawing, you are able to draw anything. This happens because you have perfected your visual perception, developed eye-hand coordination and your hand starts perceiving impulses from your brain. Drawing happens as if on its own, and all we have to do is relax and observe.

Summer painting, backyard

The backyard, 12 x 16 inches or 30.5 x 41 cm

Create your personal color palette

Is it important to stick with colors which somebody else is using? Not at all. It is much better to explore and develop your personal color combinations. I also find that paints of different brands act very differently. My favorite watercolor paints are St. Petersburg artist grade paints. I haven’t seen any other paints which have such transparency and allow mixing up all sorts of colors easy. It is almost impossible to get a dull painting with these paints. The secret is the natural and pure pigments they use as opposed to many paint manufacturers which cheat and replace pigments with fillers and binders. That means chemicals which do not enhance color or its purity.

Important art supplies

I usually use just one large round size 12-14 brush and one size 6 round brush for any up to 20 x 24 in watercolor painting. Along with paints and brushes, an extremely important part for watercolor painting is paper. When I am asking my students, why they are using this really thin and bad paper, they’d normally answer: they are just learning and it’s not worth to spend money on a good thick paper. This is a wrong assumption. Every paper acts differently. The thinner and lighter papers do not even absorb paint. It floats on the surface and creates ugly marks. It is also quite easy to lift paint, but not that easy to add more. My favorite paper is Arches. However, paint keeps traveling through layers of paper even quite a while after paint application. I am using other heavy, cold press papers also.

Summer painting

My lovely old fence post, watercolor 12 x 16 inches or 30.5 x 41 cm

Use good art supplies for practice

If you practice on a bad paper, you won’t know how much easier it is to paint on a good paper. Watercolor paper is definitely the most important part of all supplies for watercolor painting. I haven’t done much recently because I am trying to recover. It’s already a month after surgery, but it seems like I will need more time.

The current Life school blog post tells a story about the ugly side of success and how this can destroy lives: The ugly side of success

Support is always much appreciated

I would appreciate a purchase of any of my original paintings. After such a long period of being out of work, any support would mean a lot. I can certainly offer very good deals on originals; but prints and other products on Fine Art America site are inexpensive anyway. Since people rarely read these posts, this might go unnoticed, but anyway, I hope I can get something sold. Big thank you goes to 3 ladies, who bought 5 watercolor paintings!

My art prints and artistic products on Fine Art America:

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Benefits of attending an art class

Drawing still life, attending art class

Art class delivers

I have been mentioning in my articles for numerous times how huge the gain from learning drawing, sketching and painting is.  Drawing and painting is not intended only for those who want to be artists or already are involved in creative activities. Drawing is an activity everybody can pursue and art class helps.

Repair and boost cognitive function

There is more and more proof that learning and doing arts is a unique activity which boosts brain activity and development of new neurons and their connections that there is no doubt:  drawing, sketching and painting is the best exercise to keep our brain fit, thus, preventing early memory loss and age-related dementia.

Enjoy and have better memory

I recently read about a new brain fitness trial which was carried out at the Newcastle University in a population of 30 volunteers divided in 3 groups for 8 weeks. One group was walking for 3 hours a week, the second doing puzzles and crosswords, and the third group took part in art class 3 hours a week. All participants were tested before and after their respective activities.

Reference: What’s the best way to fight memory loss?

The best results undoubtedly showed the art group, which is no surprise to me because I’ve observed that during all years of teaching. I would like to just mention that I have been working with student groups of 5-30 people for almost 35 years, and those who did arts quite often excelled in ANY area of their life.

If you can write, you can learn drawing

Is everybody able to draw? Yes, everybody is able to draw, but in order to do so they have to learn seeing and processing the object of interest in their brain so that the hand knows what it should be doing. Along with maintenance of good brain health and memory, it is a fantastic, rewarding leisure activity. Once one knows how to draw, they can forget about camera, image processing on computer, they can forget about copying photos.

Mastery is time- and effort consuming

Well, those, who want to master drawing from life, must count on 10,000 hours, at least. That’s the estimated time frame to learn drawing effortlessly. Although, the benefits are so obvious, majority of people will admit they cannot draw. In fact, the truth is they don’t know how to look at something, how to pay attention and what to look for The ability to draw is based on our visual ability to process the visual information and to make our brain move the hand with pencil.

Before you draw, you must learn seeing

Therefore, before we draw, we have to learn how to pay attention and notice relationships between parts of an object, its layout, size and how to reproduce everything on a correct scale. That means, most people see things, but they never focus enough to memorize what they see.  At least it is not enough for being able to draw from memory.

First attempts

What are the usual problems when starting out with drawing, sketching and painting? It depends on whether one is at the class only for the result, or for the process. Process is good for everybody, but results are evident after longer time. I have sometimes people, who want to achieve excellent results right away, in 1 workshop or 1 class, or they think, it’s not worth continuing. While we progress, we can still enjoy a lot and give our brain the necessary exercise.

First watercolor washes when painting still life
First watercolor washes begin to identify all particular items in still life
Drawing and sketching still life
Drawing looks rough because camera cannot capture all aspects of surrounding room and drawing on paper, but drawing the actual size is really helpful, that is drawing large and very large.
Still life sketching, large drawing (full sheet of watercolor paper)
The entire drawing, I had to make it darker in order it was visible. We draw on watercolor paper with extra light lines which are hardly visible, therefore, taking picture of such drawing produces very washed out image.
How to paint still life, watercolor painting
First washes, it’s a good paper, Arches, cold press, heavy. I go layer after layer and usually add to background and parts of painting as I go and as I see fit.

How to get better with drawing and painting

Watch, learn seeing and exercise focusing ability! Drawing is not the same what copying photos, transferring images from photos or printing off outlines. Once one gets used to flat objects in a photo, they will have much harder times to ever learn drawing from reality. Reproducing photos also does not facilitate the brain activity as drawing for real does.

Learning changes our ability to see

All people, who wanted to participate in drawing and sketching classes noticed soon that they are seeing everything in a different way. Would you like to boost your memory and have some pleasurable pastime? Join the club. We are starting out next week. I’m sharing some pictures which show different types of drawing. We usually draw with very light lines for watercolor painting. We can sketch out main values if the reference object can go bad or disappear soon.

Drawing still life, outline drawing for watercolor painting
I made lines much darker. On the actual painting paper, lines are very light in order not to shine through after I have added watercolor paint. The finished painting is below, after text.
Drawing, drawing for still life
This is how I have set up everything for my watercolor painting. I create a detailed drawing first, then transfer only outline onto watercolor paper and continue with watercolor paint afterwards.

I actually completed one still life only 3 years later and the large still life 4 years later, but since I had a sketch, it was no problem. Here is link to the large still life and how it came out: Finished large Autumn harvest still life

Watercolor painting, watercolor still life with vegetables
This is the painting, drawing is visible slightly above. It took a few years before I got finishing ths watercolor painting with vegetables.

In my opinion, the only way to draw efficiently is using real subjects, real setups or ask somebody to be a model. Everything else means reproducing photos. Some do this very creatively and successfully, some not that much, but only manual drawing from real subject makes one free and independent of any devices. We can interpret our painting also in any way we prefer while photo limits one to use only what is on a photo.

Thanks for reading! Create!

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To praise the divine, to overcome the dullness of routine

Roses, watercolor paintings by Inese Poga

Stagnation and routine, and divine inspiration

Routine and stagnation go hand in hand. I also believe that talk solves nothing. I am deeply convinced that too many “everything is fine” statements can actually cause harm. When our intentions remain only as to-do-lists, there is no result. There is huge gap between the real action and intent. Therefore, we need the divine inspiration to interrupt our routine.

Life is fair, humans – not always

We often hear that life is not fair. Well, life as such is fair and fine. It is us, humans, who make things unfair and unfavorable for others. We should know: if we win, somebody else loses. When we are at loss, somebody has won the big prize. Therefore, I wish there was much less pretending that everything is fine and much more doing in order it was like that. While total equality isn’t possible for very many reasons, we can at least try to measure up to the ones at the top.

Rose for my mom
The dearest rose of all, the rose for my mom

What is the divine in our daily life?

For me, praising the divine does not mean unstoppably talking about it. That means bringing the beauty to people and making them understand how little, in fact, we need to experience the most valuable things on this Earth. There would be much less suffering if one day we had opened our eyes and started calling things their correct names. Becoming realistic is not a bad start. making regular things divine is something we all can do.

Floral art by Inese Poga
Colors and shapes of flowers will blow you away

Losing time due to routine

The daily routine is absorbing plenty of time and taking away lots of energy. People who are not rich have to deal with chores whether they are happy with that or not.  Even though, I could do so many useful and exciting things instead of cleaning up and washing dishes or cooking, that is not going to change. I am efficient, and I have prevention system in place: to avoid general cleaning, I do not allow any dirt or messes to accumulate. I spend 12 hours or more a day quite often on medical writing. That is the job I make my living with. but I hope earning my living with art at some point.

Watercolor painting, divine inspiration
Poppies, simple and divine

Health condition as an energy drainer

Spring art: bird's nest watercolor
Birds with nest, they take care of everything without being afraid of failure

Love to divine within simple things

I have inherited love to the nature and all Gods creations from my great grandparents, grandparents and my parents. I strongly believe that family either makes one creative and resourceful or completely ignores this necessity by not appreciating the great experiences and benefits creativity has to offer, although, this does not always mean any financial benefits. I am genuinely thankful I have all skills and knowledge to dress myself,  design my clothes and outfits, to grow my own garden plants , flowers and vegetables, to cook fantastic meals with little efforts, to decorate my living space and create all necessary items for that and so on and so forth.

Watercolor paintings by Inese Poga
Butterflies and apple blossoms, just the right things for sunny mood

Necessity to be active

This is all because of my family. Somebody might call me workaholic, but I hate simply sitting around and doing nothing. I cannot recall any single episode of my childhood or earlier years when I had to admit I was bored. I was always busy. Trying to make something from nothing. That is a great way to, a great way to live since I am seeing some opportunity just about everywhere.

Floral art by Inese Poga
Rose and apple blossoms, spring is here

Flowers: the divine aspect in daily life

I am sending flowers to my mom every time whenever there is some important day or some celebration because I know she appreciates and loves them. We are far away, the Ocean is between us, but we can talk on Skype. My husband gives me flowers on every occasion, not only when there’s a celebration or birthday, but just for pleasure, as well. I have always fresh flowers around me, many are potted. I believe he does this because he knows how I am talking to plants and how much I enjoy them. They respond with adorable blooms and never-ending beauty.

Apple blossoms, watercolor by Inese Poga
Apple blossoms for spring

Teaching is a duty

I feel that my duty is to teach other people to enjoy things which are not that costly, but rather a true source of happiness, pleasure and satisfaction. It would be tough going through life without art and beauty. The importance of brain fitness is completely ignored, but I am trying to make everybody aware how this can be achieved with simple sketching and drawing on a daily basis. If one can escape the age related dementia and loss of brain functionality just doing some visual art exercises, why don’t they do that? That’s a good question because physical body is always put first and mental and spiritual well-being is supposed to occur automatically which is absolutely and totally wrong.

New greeting card images

I hope I’m doing my part and creating art you enjoy. To me, this means praising the divine every single moment not only in words, but with doing.

Art collections by Inese Poga

Enjoy and possibly purchase!

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Art projects for any age: unblocking path to our hidden resources

Art classes and art projects for everybody

When somebody says they attend art classes, other people usually understand that it means practicing and learning to become an artist. That’s pretty much incorrect because as the current research reveals, there is no other activity more beneficial to prevention of brain aging, avoiding loss of memory and related disorders than drawing, painting and sketching. Art projects in art classes are usually suitable for beginners, for hobbyists and for anybody with interest in creation.

Brain exercises

The unique features of creation boost ability of the brain to create new neurons, as well as the existing have longer life span. Do you believe that brain aging is not inevitable? That is not true. Our brain is just as any other part of our body, yet, it contains all the vitally important tools for regulating and managing the other systems. Therefore, it’s crucial we keep exercising our brain every day, every hour and every minute. Anything which is not in use deteriorates and loses flexibility, it degenerates.

How drawing helps the brain flexibility

Drawing connects the brain function with our fine motor functions, and does even more than language. It allows expressing feelings, emotions, states of our mind, mood, our character, hidden thoughts and memories. As we draw, our hand transfers the ideas onto paper. It is a reflection of the most intense mental work, conversion of one type of energy into another. That is why drawing is used in determination of our brain health. It signalizes earlier than any other tests whether everything is still fine, or maybe it’s time to get advice.

  • strawberry sketch
  • Still life sketch

Mental fitness

We need to move and exercise all our body parts, but mental exercise increases the rate at which our new brain cells survive and make functional connections to the existing networks of neurons. The more active a particular brain cell is, the more connections it develops with its neighboring neurons. That is where art classes come in. As we learn, we intensively think about each line we are putting down on paper or brushstrokes. This boosts our memory cells, thus, preventing them from cell death. Activities that require using all our senses, breaking our routines and engaging in new experiences are extremely good for brain health.

Age is not of essence

Age does not matter because it is equally important to have good memory in young and even more so in old age. Creative exercises like our Fun and Pleasure acrylic painting afternoons or sketching and watercolor exercises should not be undervalued. It seems like a play or some brushing around with different colors, but, in fact, it is a very strong brain ability booster. Images show my still life sketches, but students did very well, too. I’d like to simply publish only my sketches in this post.

  • Beautiful still life sketch

My journey

I can share my own experience. I was reading a book a day and painting or drawing every single day for about 1 hour between ages 8 and 16. I was reading systematically through everything library had to offer. That involved history, geography, art, music, science of the corresponding century starting with ancient Egypt. We didn’t have internet back in the 70-s. When I moved on and started to study at the University I was only 17 because I could and I had developed extraordinary visual memory   thanks to reading, drawing and painting,

Best memory booster

I hardly had to study because I was able to remember up to 60 pages of text which I read through within some half an hour using the diagonal approach. I still can remember every single tough term in texts which I was translating 5 years ago. I never have to make any lists and write notes to myself. In my case, drawing and painting showed an enormously positive effect on memory, cognitive function and reasoning so far.

Art is important part of learning

For young children, artistic activities are as important as physical exercising, especially because they are under-using their own cognitive ability due to the overuse of mobile devices. We are always welcoming new participants in our art classes!

Pen line and watercolor wash

Plain and simple: creativity unblocks the pathways in our brain and gives us a chance to use our hidden resources, and there are so many. Therefore, I expect everybody getting involved in new art projects: simple, colorful, uplifting and very rewarding. Thanks for reading!