Beauty is the most universal, self-expressing phenomenon that does not require words or language knowledge. It is present in all walks of life, but it becomes something extremely perceivable due to art.
As we rush our daily schedules and spend most of the time running, we might not notice the moment when a bud opens. The magic moment when the fragile petals unfold and when the sun and rain pour life into it. It becomes a mediator of beauty. Every smallest vein and line, every nuance of color is so unique. Beauty which breathes and is alive.
The biggest advantage of being able to create, draw and paint is the feeling of being a creator. We can do anything with the sheet of white paper in front of us. It’s our choice what goes on it. I choose the never-ending, personality enriching and mood uplifting divine features of the nature. It is a cheerful activity on its own. It is more than meditation, it is much more than immersion in oneself, it is the imperative life-continuing reveal of the underlying essence of life, and the essence of life is beauty.
Enjoy! Happy Mother’s Day! I know my mom will love these paintings.
The best way to start painting with watercolor is using pen and watercolor wash. We all want our art to be great and impressive. However, if you are new to some medium or absolutely new to drawing and painting, you have to bear in mind: nothing happens right away and with the first brushstroke. I have had absolute beginners who were somewhat disappointed that their first piece of art wasn’t exhibition quality. Well, that is normal.
Patience
Every skill takes time, efforts and work. Creation of drawing or painting involves lots and lots of information. Some people are courageous by nature and love to experiment, and that is very beneficial. Some people are perfectionists and they believe everything they do must be either perfect or they are ready to give it up: don’t use this approach.
Focus on potential
My personal attitude towards something new in painting: different subject, medium, tools or technique never focuses on perfection. I focus on potential. Something might work out and something might not. There will be easy parts and probably difficult parts. That way. I call this attitude: let us see what happens. Progress is usually gradual. That is why we start with simple things and move to more complicated things.
Pen and watercolor
Pen and watercolor wash is a great technique for beginning watercolor artists. Some like it so much that they stick to this technique and turn it into their personal style. If you are insecure about drawing lines with pen, sketch them using pencil. You can draw over with pen and delete everything else. We have now clean drawing in black ink, and the white paper is not damaged.
Any subject will do
Anything can serve as a subject: from your morning coffee cup to flowers in a vase or at the fence, from a bird at your window to sprouting vegetables in a garden. Any scene with some object is good, but flowers look extremely nice when done in pen and watercolor.
Everybody can draw
When somebody says they cannot draw, I don’t believe that. Most often that means they tried 1 or 2 drawings and these drawings were not splendid. So, they conclude that they cannot draw. Talk to me after 100 drawings. That is a decent start. It is also much easier to point out what else one should do in order to create better art when they have engaged in more than just a few attempts.
Pen and watercolor flowers and spring scenes
Pen and watercolor, Spring daffodils painting 12 x 12 in or 30.5 x 30.5 cm
Stylish and simple spring rose, all done with black pen lines and watercolor wash
Apple blooms in pen and watercolor: great starting subject
Pen and watercolor apple blossoms, the finished painting
Smiley purple pansy faces, pen and watercolor wash
Spring mood with apple blossoms, butterflies and beautiful colors
Pen and watercolor wash is easy
Why to start with pen and watercolor? It is forgiving, it is easy and fast, and it allows learning watercolor application more effortlessly. The pen lines provide additional support. It is a flattering technique since practically any painting or drawing looks good regardless of how sufficient one is with watercolor. I have done numerous pen and watercolor paintings over years, just because it is fun, it is easy and looks fantastic.
Copyright notice: Copyright of displayed paintings, drawings, images of work in progress and images of finished paintings belong to artist Inese Poga. The use of painting and drawing images is prohibited if I have not given a written permission. That includes no pinning on Pinterest.
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.
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.
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.
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 sketchFirst step in still life painting is sketch: we did a very light line drawing and began to apply some paintThis 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.
Everybody can draw. And everybody should draw; if not at artistic level, so, for pure pleasure and healthy brain. I hope you are not one of those parents who make remarks like this: stop playing around with pencils, do your math assignment! While we all need literacy skills and math, there is something unique about drawing. We can draw before we can even speak or write, or count.
Path to artistic freedom
We can actually do it successfully without any regard to any rules which people have imposed on creative expressions and art. We can very well express ourselves until somebody says: that doesn’t look like a cat! That’s when the kid who loved to draw starts to wonder: really? Am I doing something wrong? That’s where the artistic freedom ends and rules start. Art is categorized as not that important compared to coding, IT, math, chemistry, physics, history and essay writing.
Drawing and painting for brain fitness
We have so much evidence nowadays that drawing and painting actually has the power to activate our brain to a huge extent and keep it flexible. Focus, memory, attention to detail, decision-making, imagination: these features are so important for anything we do in our life, and they are developed and perfected while we are just drawing and painting. In addition, this activity means a lot of pleasure, it is also rewarding.
Requirements for brain flexibility boosting tasks
In order a task or activity would boost brain flexibility and our memory, it should be:
challenging task;
new task every time;
task that involves decision-making, observation, focus and attention;
task that prompts to come up with solution;
pleasurable task and activity;
rewarding task and activity;
activity or task which enables socializing and exchange of opinions.
If you can write, you can draw
People, who think they cannot draw, have been simply using a wrong approach or have convinced themselves that drawing is something they’d never manage. They might believe drawing is something they don’t like or would never need. They might be addicted to devices and screens and they might see no point in using their brain and hand. However, fine motor movements are extremely important. Everybody, who is able to manually write, can also draw.
Manual drawing is not that common
I am obviously checking out what other instructors and classes offer, and I must say there’s not that much. First of all, if instruction starts with: take a picture, that is not going to be a lesson how to learn drawing. That instruction will tell you how to reproduce photography and sometimes advice to just trace the image and take credits for a great drawing. Why do we always need to focus on the final product? The process of creation is very exciting, and this process is well worth experiencing.
Seeing is the key to drawing
Drawing is not about copying or measuring. Drawing is about seeing, activating the brain-hand communication and creating an image of an object, person or view on a flat surface, at the same time trying to show the emotional impact we are experiencing. Before we can draw, we have to learn seeing. Most people are convinced they see everything, in fact, they see just a non-specific image, and they don’t pay attention to any details.
Practical advice for these who start drawing
When I’m watching people drawing, I have noticed the following: they rarely look at the object they are drawing or painting, hardly ever. Some follow my drawing, some look at the paper all the time and erase everything and start from new quite a few times and erase again.
Practical drawing
In fact, we have to focus on the subject we are drawing and just rarely take a look at how lines and shapes are forming on our paper. We have to draw the subject 2, 3, 4 times bigger than in reality. Also, memorize the subject for 3-5 seconds; explore the shape and values, look at paper for 1 second. That happens on its own after a while.
Forget eraser
I would like to take away the eraser, too. Eraser just disturbs during the initial drawing stages. Therefore, try not to erase everything. Focus on outlines and shapes, as well as size, scale and proportions with the first attempt. Start with light approximate lines, define them as you go.
The starting point and reference area
We have to visually perceive the subject or scene, find the reference area or spot and start out with very light general lines. With every next line, we are building up the subject or anything within the drawing. We should also stick to what there is and what we can see not converting it into an animated, simplified shape of what we know this object might be like. We should not omit and take away all specific features our subject has in reality.
The purpose of these outline drawings is to serve as a base for watercolor painting because some plants, vegetables or flowers don’t last long enough
Leaving only good lines and going over with black pen
Good subject for starting out
All apples are not the same; all cups are not the same, not to mention trees and flowers or faces. Still life is a very good starting point, and I’d usually pile up more simple things in order we could observe their relationships. Therefore, learn seeing, develop visual perception and visual memory.
We add now watercolor to lines and get a nice painting!
The positive impacts of drawing occur especially when we are employing the entire brain which is as in observational drawing. It also makes us completely independent from computers, cameras, phones, printers and other devices because all we need to start out is paper and pencil or pen. Good luck!
