Artist - Part 11 - Learning to Draw

Leaning to draw is simple and can be taught to anyone within a couple of hours. The problem is that after the basic instruction, bad habits creep in.

1. students try to make their drawings look like something. Insecurity and fear that they aren’t producing anything tangible (a pretty picture) makes them abandoned the basics (shapes, lines, blocking in, etc).

2. they start using curves
   

3. they don't practice and repeat the basic blocking in skills learned in past the classes

I see students abandon solid, classic techniques before they are mastered.

On a personal level, when I was learning to draw, I did not question the instrutors and went through the motions of repeading them mindlessly. Drawing is the technical foundation, self expression should be done through your medium.

The Easier Way to Learn

When I was young I’ve realized that sometimes it easier to learn new things if you have newer technology to help you. I took swimming lessons through school but that when nowhere. One summer around that time, grade five or six… I found a pair of broken flippers at the local lake. They were missing the straps and my mother fabricated some new ones with elastics. I put them on and all of a sudden I could backstroke across the lake. I flippered all summer long. Near the end of that summer I went swimming without the flippers and to my amazement, I could swim! Not as far, not as long, but I could swim.

With music I realized I needed to learn as much as I could on my own. Eventually I plan to get a teacher, when I run out of things to learn about on my own. As of yet that hasn’t happened and it keeps getting pushed back as I master new musical ideas and skills.

"I know one thing, that I know nothing", (Socrates, paraphrased from Plato's Apology)

Musical instruments are like that too, I used to believe electrical guitars and digital pianos were “taking the easy way out” but if you don’t start playing... even on a cheap electric keyboard you’ll never learn to play any keyboard/piano.

I tell art students all the time in my classes… always learn or find a style or skill level and learn how to achieve it. After you achieve that find new goals and skill levels.

Artist - Part 10 - I’ve Decided on a New / Old Direction for the Painting

After thinking about it I’ve decided to go back to a more simplified setup for my lighting and composition. I created a painting about eight months ago that until it was finished, I had no idea that it was successful. It combined some of the best elements of my successful paintings but it had a lot of drama. I haven’t posted many pictures of my paintings over the last year so visually, you'll have to take my word for it.

When you create drama in a painting you’ve really just created a successful design. As a working graphic designer I hate the term “design”, it always conjures visions of the disposable art that is design and advertising.

So from now on I don’t design a composition… I create drama!

Learning the Piano – Part 11 – Longfellow Serenade – Key of E Major – and almost being a Deaf Infant

I’ve decided to tackle Neil Diamond’s Longfellow Serenade on vacation. My friend Tony lent me an old Yamaha 61 key keyboard, it’s got some pretty good sound but lacks the feel of my M-audio digital piano at home. It has 3/4 size keys but it is not as small as my Casio 4 note polyphony at home. I started banging through the melody and found the Yamaha adequate. The key of E Major has four sharps which is a big pain to learn. I play “Red Red Wine” which has only one sharp... (G Major) and it taught me a lot about how something is “suppose to sound”. I’d play the low F# in the melody as an F and it never sounded right, I got good at playing the wrong note too. Then it clicked, (I realized the note was F#) I don’t know why either…. the sound just wasn’t right.

As a small child I had chronic ear infections, so bad in fact it caused a speech problem that took years of therapy to correct it. R’s, S’s were my worse. I believe that because of this ear problem I’ve received the ability to tell what doesn't sound correct. It’s very finely tuned too. The flip side is I can’t tell how to fix what I am hearing or I’m not quite sure whats going wrong with the sound.

Now that I started playing music I find that the skill of finding problems with sound is helping me play better. It might take my a while to fix it, but I find fault aurally and intuitively which is pretty cool.

Cleaning of my Basement

I had the messiest basement in the world and something had to be done about it. I ended up throwing away 6 bags of garbage and actually managed to get things organized.

I set up an old wooden rack from the main floor then piled all my extra wood in the newer part of the basement. To my delight a workbench started to appear! Workspace! Hmmm.

There could be a studio setup down there, 20 x 16 feet… and it would be a nice size!

The before and after photos don’t look too different, mostly because every tool and object is a different colour and will always look like clutter.

The hard part of cleaning the basement is coming across tools that my dad lent me and I never got around to returning.

Artist – Part 9 – My Tools / Old Socks

Since my college days my tool of choice for taking away oil paint from my canvas has been old socks. Some people don’t really care about what type of rag they use but after trying many different materials I found that cotton socks are the most absorbent. While cutting up some old socks the other day I came across and old favorite pair… worn in the heals and toes… they must have been in my rag bag for at least 6 years.

It’s funny also how different parts of the sock can be used for different aspects of paint work, the elastic for cleaning brushes and the rest for the surgical work of defining the lighter part of the underpainting. In school I’d keep the sock whole but now I cut them into pieces 4”x4”.

The socks that brought up these thoughts were a pair of light brown ones. I thought back to when they were freshly washed and turned up new in my sock rotation, they were chosen first above all other pairs even when newer socks appeared and these became ratty. Then the fateful day when a hole appeared and they were put in a bag for painting rags.

We Are Going on a Summer Holiday

It’s 10:30pm on Sunday August 20^th, and this is my second evening at the cottage we rent every summer for a week, we rent Saturday until Saturday in the Bonnechere near Ottawa valley. This is the only time during the year I get to truly relax. I’ve brought an old laptop, Yamaha keyboard w/61 keys and many music and art books. The cottage is on Golden Lake… we’ve been coming up here for the past seven years. It’s a good location because you’re 90 minutes away from Ottawa and there’s a lot to do in the local area.

Tomorrow I plan to read, get some sun etc. . I am watching Spielberg's War of the Worlds thanks to the mini dvd player, I know it isn’t campish but neither is updating my blog. I listened to my ipod on the way and made it here in 4 hours. On the way back next week I’ll listen to Barbara Shear.

I don’t plan on painting on this this trip but maybe will try to get my drawing in shape for my next painting.