Drawing, watercolor, inspiration

Drawing is important skill

Learn drawing to create original art

Drawing is probably one of the most important skills to learn if you want to sufficiently use pencil, brush and any paints, not to mention pastel painting. It is almost like writing: we start with letters, and we finish up creating breathtaking poems and meaningful stories. Being skilled in manual drawing also allows not to depend on any devices, any editing, any tracing.

Drawing still life

Once you manage your lines, you manage your brush strokes, composition and values, as well as contrasts. Drawing still life or simple things around us is a good start. People sometimes say: I do not feel like drawing vegetables or fruits. However, that is the shortest way to make one’s eyes perceive the multi-dimensional reality and recreate it on a flat paper or canvas. We draw and create volume and dimensions. Becoming good with still life subjects is a base for more complex subjects.

Painting is drawing with a brush

Drawing teaches us about shadows and light, light direction, values and contrasts. It teaches us very fast how to create a powerful composition. We generally need to become familiar with a good brush stroke. I have noticed that most beginners apply paint as if painting a wall: back and force, to the left and right. Painting requires using elegant, long or short, soft or powerful brush strokes which make our subject more impressive. That also helps with blending, composition and values.

Realistic art is based on drawing

Even people, who love painting abstracts need to create a map of the intended painting in their mind.  In order to move paint somewhere, we need to rely on composition elements. That sure does not apply to bad abstract art which is present all over the internet. Therefore, sketching out our plan, helps achieving good results faster.

Pen and watercolor: beautiful art without struggles

I have mentioned in my previous articles that using pen and watercolor is a perfect way to obtain basic watercolor painting skills. Why? It contains all the most important parts which one needs to be aware of in order to paint and create art. It is much faster than, for instance, acrylic or pastel, therefore, it makes a lot of sense when testing our ideas.

Pen and watercolor paintings:

Take it easy, go outside

Fall season offers us colors and shapes and subjects without limitation. They are not only beautiful, but they also allow practicing all kinds of shades and color mixes.Take it easy, go outside or watch nature through your window. We can place beautiful fall bounties on our desk: that is all we need. Fall is rich and generous, we simply shouldn’t be lazy, but take advantage of all the natural inspiration around us. Remember: drawing and sketching will take you anywhere in art.

New studio

Although, I have not completed arranging my new studio yet, and there are still unpacked boxes, not to mention, boxed in hundreds of paintings, I managed to get something new done over the last two days, and I hope you can get inspired by these artworks which I will most likely post separately at a later time point.

Original watercolor paintings for sale

Start sketching, drawing and painting

How to bring art in your life: start sketching and drawing

Are you creative?

If you love art, you should start sketching. Spring and summer are the best seasons to start, then, by the fall, you can already paint. While many people are specializing and trying to be experts in just one area of life, it is great to maintain some universality and balance. Adding creativity to daily routine changes everything for the better.

Being artistic

Being universal might not be that easy because everything has many aspects, whether it is art, writing and literature, music, or theater and dance. I still believe we need variety of uplifting things that make us more human and sensitive to happiness, sadness, joys and troubles of life. Art does that. It opens up one’s soul and redirects thoughts towards something unique, unexpected and beautiful.

New skills, new habits, new perception

We freshen up our life and bring something new into it. Why not sketching and drawing? These are the first steps towards painting and drawing. Sketches look great either small or big. The small ones we can use in art journals. The big ones can be framed or simply hang onto wall.
Adding visual images to your thoughts or at least having visual images in your head gives one’s life more color, more brightness and vitality.

My journey

Sketching and drawing are the areas I have explored since early childhood. I did not have a good paper or good pencils and pens, but I had a huge desire to capture everything around me. The urge to turn visual scenes into sketch or drawing was so intense that I would draw during school lessons and later at University lectures. I had drawn lots and lots of portraits of my class and school mates, as well as of my family and friends. When I was outdoors, I was sketching and drawing garden, streets, buildings, plants and flowers: anything, really.

Sketching supplies and what makes it easy

Sketching is much faster than, for instance, acrylic painting or even watercolor or pastel painting. It is a convenient genre to take outside because we do not need much: just paper, pencil or pen. It can be done with adding a little bit of watercolor. It can be done in pencil, watercolor pencils or pastels.

Using good art supplies

I never use paper which is called sketching paper and is supposed to work well for sketching. It is too thin to add paint, and tears and smudges very easily. Use of paper also depends on the purpose of your sketch. If it is just a quick reminder of a scene, sure, anything will do. I use for sketching watercolor paper that is a grade below the best watercolor papers which are heavy Arches and Saunders-Waterford papers.

Pen outlines

Pen works and looks better on smooth surfaces.  Watercolor marker paper was available a while ago, I haven’t seen it recently in our local art store. That was excellent paper for pen drawing, and I do not have or use watercolor markers. I have watercolor pencils. That is a slow way of developing watercolor painting; however, it does the job for people who are very comfortable with pencil and not with brush.

Try not using eraser

I would advise also not to use eraser until the subject has gotten some shape. Otherwise, one just keeps erasing without achieving any results. Focus and draw, trust your eyes, think about contrast, composition, values and effects, and not that much about perfect drawing. You can adjust it any time. Forgetting eraser at home when you go out sketching, will increase focus.

Old countryside house in pen and watercolor, 18 x 12 in or 46 x 30.5 cm

Million reasons to start sketching, drawing or illustrating:

if you are alone, but do not want to feel lonely;

if you have hard times getting the me-time and letting it all go;

if you are facing issues that affect your life badly and you want to escape them for a while;

if you are young or old, but do not want to spend all leisure time in front of a screen;

if you would love to develop a habit that helps getting rid of addictions;

if you feel that your memory is worsening and you want to sharpen it up;

if that is your dream, but you never got to it;

if you want beauty in your life and art on every wall;

go ahead and start sketching and drawing.

There is no better time than spring and no better place than outdoors to start sketching or painting.

Rocks and water, size, 22 x 15 in or 56 x 38 cm

On this large test watercolor painting, I explored a new masking technique. This painting was simply a test whether packaging tape works as a masking tool. It does. I cut around with X-Acto knife and, yes, it really works better than any masking fluid. However, it is applicable only to large areas, not the tiny ones. So, I kept adding paint, and this testing piece ended up looking like a painting.

Testing colors for a large watercolor painting. Looks great!

Here, I was testing the color combinations and layout for a larger watercolor painting. It looks attractive, yet it is just a pen and watercolor sketch.

Perspective is easy if you know how to proceed. Old buildings make a perfect sketching subject.

These are some of demo paintings done during and for my pen and watercolor classes.

More sketching: https://inesepogagallery.com/2014/03/02/sketching-in-watercolor-whats-the-advantage/

Red and gold for Christmas and holidays

Red and golden paintings

Red and gold

Red and gold is a fantastic color combination for the festive Christmas season! I thought it would be great to have a good show this year since the summer was slow. It feels the bad years are over, and I can start fresh. much better, at much higher level, much more efficient and more skillful. That is not hard to do when my health has returned.

Late with posting on blog

I have been very busy creating the show paintings, I promise to post articles and poems more often when I get over Christmas. The theme of this year is red and gold for Christmas as I mentioned. Red is such a warm and energizing color, we need it in winter. We need it especially when it’s cold and nasty outside. I was spending the day trying to get pictures for my show. The light was bad, but I tried, tried and tried until it worked.

Small bird paintings

Red cardinal and golden robin paintings make a very beautiful gift. I also invite everybody to join the art classes and paint some gifts on your own, red and golden birds or a festive holiday scene. That can be painted in a comparatively short time when using primed canvas. Primed canvas has a coat already on it, therefore, painting is easier.

Red and gold

Red and golden-red cardinals, silver-golden robin with beautiful decorations, they are sold now

Red and gold for Christmas

Red and gold colors increase the festive mood

Christmas Red poinsettia

Red and gold, and red is as in poinsettia, Poinsettia painting measures 20 x 16 in or 51 x 41 cm

Red and gold

Red and gold as in burning candles, this is Christmas still life, 20 x 16 in or 51 x 41 cm

Red and gold Christmas art

Red and gold, and gold as in sparkling decorations

Red and gold Holiday season art

Red and golden colors make any space festive and elegant.

Christmas show

If you prefer to paint your own art, join the art classes.

Art classes at Inese Poga’s art studio

Keeping gifting in moderate range

I hope you are not overdoing with gifts, but choosing soul-warming, mood-lifting and energy-giving things, like a painting. Why not? If you would love to see what deals are on, please check out and follow my Facebook page which is about this art studio, my art, art sales and art classes:

https://www.facebook.com/InesePoga/

 

Accept the fall gratefully

accept fall

The fall is here

Just like birds, I will take off tomorrow. I won’t go south; however, I will go east, to Latvia. Whether we like it or not, September is soon over, and October will come with its gold to soothe and comfort our aching souls because, oh well, we are heading towards the winter. Eventually, snow silver will cover the rusty golden sparkles, and our feet will be walking the icy and cold sidewalks of freezing town and city roads. I love the colors of autumn, just like we all do! It is such an injustice that this beauty disappears so fast. Nevertheless, it is a great time to capture and enjoy the fantastic colors. Regardless of personal preferences, nature’s cycles are inevitable.

Fall art projects

I kept working on some projects and I also tried to bring to finish the class project: the distant blue background and the lonely tree. Pumpkins are going to be uploaded to Fine Art America; maybe somebody will like them as greeting cards or other products: there are so many now that I cannot even list them all.

Looking forward to my time in Latvia

I will try to report about my adventures in Latvia since I have a new laptop. Laptop is fine, I would not say I’m very excited about Windows 10, it came with so much abusive stuff which I never intend to use that it takes me hours and hours to adjust my settings for my personal needs.

Alone, acrylic painting by Inese Poga

Alone: lonely tree; 20 x 24 in acrylic painting, it was sold to Brenda. Thanks, Brenda!

Pumpkin for Thanksgiving, 20 x 24, in acrylic painting, art by Inese Poga

Pumpkin for Thanksgiving, 20 x 24, in acrylic painting

High above,  acrylic painting, 20 x 24 in by Inese Poga, sold

High above, acrylic painting, 20 x 24 in by Inese Poga, sold

Under the autumn sky: 30 x 42 in acrylic painting by Inese Poga

House under big sky, it’s a very large acrylic painting, 30 x 40″

Painting tip for students

If you would like to paint some fall scenery, put the color you want to use exactly on a spot where you want it. Do not keep brushing the paint around for so long that everything becomes the same color. This is easy using a feather-like, light brushstroke. It is like running on a spot: you just use the flat and wide side of the brush with light motion, so that it mostly is parallel to canvas surface.

Enjoy the sunny fall days and survive patiently the dullness of rains and chills of winds!

Art collections by Inese Poga

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.

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.

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!