People Are Sight Hounds

We rely on our sight for hunting. That is the way we developed and this ability to see and compare quickly, is one key to our species success. What we see has power for us and over us.



It is our bases for reality. This is not the case for all species. Dogs, for instance get 80% of their environmental information from their sense of smell. For them, smell is more real than even sight. While they do know what we look like, it is our smell that does the final identification of us. We rely on what we see.



Visual cues and clues are extremely important to us from infancy onward.



First emphasis is on facial recognition, eye to eye contact. Eyes draw our eyes from the first and what we cannot see disappears.



Peek-a-boo



This link between sight and reality is what makes peek-a-boo such an exciting game. When something is out of sight it does indeed disappear for the baby. And why what we see has so much power over us. There is some truth to the saying “out of sight out of mind”.



Things we see are real to us, even when they are not. How often have we exclaimed about how realistic something looks, how a painting almost looks as if we could walk into it. Been fooled by some Faux finish into thinking an object was one thing rather than another? No dog was ever fooled by a painting. Now, an odor?



But to us, seeing is believing.



We use drawings to communicate information and to clarify things all the time.



“I see” said the blind man, as he picked up his hammer and saw.



This dependence on sight is reflected in our language. Seeing is equated with truth, knowledge and understanding. “I see” we say when we understand. The word see and understand are synonyms. Most often when we use the word see, we are referring to knowledge rather than sight.



The light bulb goes off, the idea is illuminated, bringing it into the “light” and making it understandable.



This dependence on sight is what makes visual art so powerful and at times so controversial. We see it, we need to understand it. We are uncomfortable with art we don’t understand. It is subliminally threatening to us. So photo-realistic art can be comforting, reassuring to many viewers.

He Never took a Lesson in his Life

He never took a lesson in his life. We are told this over and over by his (or her) proud relatives, co-worker or parents. This person who simply can draw anything with no effort at all (no effort they have seen anyways). At every show or opening or even when I simply mention I am an artist, out comes the relative who “never took a lesson in his life”. Now, there is a real artist! And that should show you!

Why are we so in love with the self-taught artist? And so suspicious of the art student/ art graduate? As if somehow the very fact that they studied art nullifies their talent? Some how, the person who studied art is a the dilettante? And not a serious artist? We do not expect even the most precious or precocious musical prodigy to be able to play the piano without lessons or some kind of guidance and lots and lots of practice, but for some reason, visual artists are not according the same respect and allowances.

We should just be able to draw, paint, sculpt, with nary a misstep. Each work should be the perfect culmination of artistic genius, and if it is not, well, we must be fakes.



And this is often they way it is taught. Middle school students are taught that they all ready know what they need to know to be artists by “instinct”. Heaven forbid that any art teacher should “inhibit” them with drawing lessons! Or instruct them in craftsmanship. More and more students come out of college with their fine art degrees, expressing themselves all over the place, but the quality of work is poor. The ideas are undeveloped and raw, and they are clueless. Most of their instruction is in the peer critique. So their ideas and beliefs far from being challenges are simply reinforced by people as inexperienced as they are. They come out of school shouting at the top of their lungs before they have anything to say.



Well, it ain’t so babe. Art is hard work! It takes years of painting, sculpting and drawing etc. to master any medium. Yes, art is about self-expression, but there is a place for manners too. So stop, and listen. Learn to develop those ideas before regurgitating all over that canvas.

Self Portrait

Self-Portrait

I need an illustration for my next blog post. Since I am talking about how art can make you happy, I need a happy face. Or at least a pleasant one. Only trouble is, I don’t have one. Oh I could use clip art, but hey, this is a blog about art. Somehow seems a bit cheesy to use clip art for an art blog, especially when I teach drawing.

But I don’t have a happy little drawing. Hubby is out of town, so I cannot bludgeon him into posing for me. I am all alone. Feeling blue. What am I going to do?

The only face available is…horrors, Mine!

Trying to take my picture

I say horrors, because there is a reason I am always on the other side of the camera. I hate the way I photograph. Some people are beloved of the camera, I am not one of them. Pictures always come out looking like me. But I need that shot, that expression. So I give in.

Trudging off to the bathroom with my small point and shoot, I accept the necessity of taking a picture of myself, worse yet, smiling. (Shutter!) So I am going to take a picture of me in the mirror.



Taking a picture of yourself is not as easy as you might think. When you put the camera to your eye, well, that is what you get! So I have to hold the camera near my face, try to get the face and not all camera. Hold it up, hold it down, turn to the right, Take and take and take. Seven shots should give me something.



After I uploaded all the takes to the computer I remembered why I have so many photos of daffodils and so few of me. I hate my face. I hate the red-roundness of it. I hate the small mouth, the wispy brows, eyes that don’t match the long nose and the flyaway hair.



But I need that illustration and I will just have to work with what I have. I looked closely at the shape of my face. Kind of weird, actually, kind of squishy and bottom heavy, like the rest of me. I have a dent in my chin. And gravity has been no kinder to my face than to the rest of my body. My face is spreading too.



Eyebrows are disappearing. Now you can barely see them without my glasses. Actually, I look better with my glasses, they define my eyes, let you know they are actually there. My glasses are crooked. They are getting old too. I had not noticed that before. Located the top of my head, Boy is that a long way up there! When I started adding my hair, I stopped to take another look. That space looks a little slight, oh. The only thing getting thinner on me is my hair!

How to Say Thank You

Might sound like a strange title for an art blog. But bear with me. As many of you know, I am host for an on-line painting site, about.com/painting.

One thing that I hear over and over again is how can I value my own work? One of the most recent messages posted to me on About.com was this lament:

"Starr, what's the cure for hating everything I paint? :-) I wish I could stop...sigh..j

Thanks,"

Boy, this is more common than you think. So often I hear this, and to be honest, have felt this myself. What is it about our artwork that makes us feel to guilty to liking it? While it is good to be able to look at our work and honestly see what is wrong, what needs improvement, where we went wrong, for a lot of us, it is total. Everything we do is junk! Why do we waste our time with it?

Wasting Time

This might be a clue, right there, Art work is a time waster. Something for children and something serious adults outgrow. Real men and responsible woman do not waste their time painting little pictures. It is  or should be a hobby at best, and unless we can see "profit" from it, a drain on ourselves and our families. We could be spending our time more profitably.  Like cooking and cleaning for them!







Roots in childhood

Art is for children. Over and over we are taught this. We have art in school, more as play time than serious learning. Something to occupy time and keep kids out of adult hair, in other words, a big time waster.

And what art kids get in school today only reinforces this view. For most it is simply make-work. Do a craft to give mom or dad a home-made gift, that under other circumstances no one would want. There is no training, no building appreciation for craftsmanship, quality or creativity. And so often art is shoehorned into an already bursting schedule. “We have 15 minutes, you can take out your pencils and draw,” For those few students that still have art in school, it is often reduced to 45 minutes once a week for 6 weeks. Not to criticize those beleaguered art teachers, but how can they do anything but baby-sit with that schedule? With schools and communities giving only lip-service to the importance of the arts if that, is it any wonder we ourselves tend to undervalue what we do?



Well, then, how do we learn to give up the guilt and learn to love our work?

My advice? Walk away from the canvas, have a cup of tea (good stuff, not cheap) then come back and pretend you did not paint it. Pretend that you are encountering it for the first time. It is not your work, but the work of someone you admire.

Look At It Through Different Eyes.

Notice what is good about the painting. Does it draw the eye? Are the colors vivid and inviting? Does it tell a story? Look at it as if you were in a gallery or museum. See, its not so bad, is it? Still having trouble? Just can’t choke the words out?

A lot of us have this problem because we are conditioned from childhood not to blow our own horn, to not praise ourselves. We must be modest. “Ah Shucks, Mama am, It t’wernt nuthin” We hang our heads down and don’t know where to look. I, like most of you simply do not know how to take praise. When I do get a compliment, I tend to look for some “error” or “mistake” to point out. Another comment that hit a resounding chord with me was this:

      "When I look at my work, I can only see the flaws. I have to bite my tongue to keep from pointing them out to everyone. I'm learning to just say, thank you, when someone compliments my artwork. But it's hard.

~Susan"

Sound familiar?

And when it comes to art, most of us have been conditioned to be to be super critical of ourselves. This is not something we are supposed to take pride in, because it is not important.

It is really; really hard to say "I am good."

Someplace along the line we all learned that we are garbage, what we create cannot possibly have value. That we cannot simply say we did a good job. Something about making art makes us crazy!

You don't hear carpenters telling people they hate the houses they build do you? Or plumbers saying, "boy I am a dunce when it comes to putting pipes together" They are proud of what they do, and rightly so, but we cannot be proud of what we do.

I am not saying we should not be aware of our faults as artists; just give yourself permission to say:



" I am good".

And when you are complimented, say “Thank You”

Art and the Head

Or Something is up up There!

The thought processes behind creating and living with your art.

Art happens in the head, not the hands. Anyone with enough manual dexterity to sign their own name has enough muscle control to draw, if sufficiently motivated.

Painting can be even easier. The basic skills of handling a pencil or paint brush, learning about color and color families, composition, etc. can be taught, even to a certain extent, creativity can be taught, or rather techniques for unlocking your own creativity can be discovered. These “keys” to creativity can and will be different for everyone.

But the main one is the same for all. The more you create, the more experience you get with the basic act of creating, the more in tune you will be with your own, unique creative process. And that happens inside your own head, not on a piece of paper or canvas.


Skill, don’t knock it.


Skill is required to successfully create any work of art. It just doesn’t “just happen”. Yes, there is serendipity in art. What other artists have called, “happy accidents” but you are more likely to have these happy accidents if you have mastered basic skills in whatever medium you have chosen.

This leads to:

Practice makes perfect in art as in everything else. The more you paint, draw, crave, mold, staple and manipulate any media, the more mastery you will have over it, and the more inventive you can get with it.

Guilt by Association

Another strange thing about creativity, the more you are around creative people, the more creative you become. This is the reality behind things like artist’s colonies. Creative people have found that by associating with other creative people the more creative they become.

Such is the reality of many of our art movements. The impressionists had their own little impressionistic “club” same with the Fauvists. Picasso did not create in a vacuum, he surrounded himself with an invisible and sometimes visible support to his creativity.


Which brings up to the art league, art association, artists group, etc. Many of us feel the need to join such groups. They can be a large influence on us or a drag, depending on how good they are at inspiring creativity. Some are great, other can drag you down. So you have to investigate and decide just how stimulating they will be to you, the artist.

Find a Mentor

Ask yourself how will this group help you further your own artist ambitions? Do they encourage the work? Supply you with information or access to learning experiences? Do they sponsor the kind of shows that accept creativity or do they simply sponsor the same clickish work?

Select carefully when it comes to learning experiences. Many “classes” are more social clubs. You do a selected, pre-thought out complete painting in an afternoon. These are fine for what they are, but they will not stimulate your own creative direction. Find a mentor.

The First Time

The first time I sold a piece of art; I could not believe it. I was prepared to have a quiet little show, have the pieces on the walls of the local coffee shop and then fade away

Field of Daisys
S. Tschantz

When the owner called me after I had hung the works, but before the meet & greet that one of the pieces had sold already I was flabbergasted.



Someone forked over money for something I put together? What is this? Ordinary everyday people buying art?



But it happens.

I don’t sell art to big time collectors. Don’t know any. They would not be interested in my work anyways. I am not avante guarte. I don’t understand reactionary art. I take photos of things that interest me. I paint happy little realistic paintings of things that interest me.

But from time to time I do sell things.



And that is and will always be special to me. It means I have connected, even for a little while with someone else.

Still Life with Blue
S. Tschantz

One painting that sold was a little painting of gumballs. (Still life with blue) the person who bought it loves it. He hung it in his modest home in the entry so that when he comes in that bright painting is the first thing he sees.



Another person, a doctor bought a scene of a frozen creek, Icy with green slushy snow. That now hangs in his den. When life gets hectic and the pressures mount, that scene is there to as he put it “get lost in”.



These people are special to me.

Drawing the Winter Landscape Part 4- Value and Light



Reference Photo

Value and Light

There are several challenges in doing a winter landscape. You have to making the show look real, dealing with the subtle and necessary value shifts and working for the soft texture you need to make the snow look nice and fluffy. So often it is not a mater of drawing the shapes, but shading in everything around it. Dealing with the negative shapes, which in this case are white or near white. One of the biggest challenges is finding your darks, and not being afraid of them. Shadows and shading are all important.




Light source



It was a snowy day in early March, one of those deep spring snowfalls that bring such a soft blanket of snow to the area. We had had a real storm, with thunder and lightning thrown in with the heavy snow cover. But the day these photos where taken had been a rather bright, sunny day so there are nice shadows and contrasts.

When this photo was taken, the sun was beginning to lower in the west, but the shadows were not yet very long. Keeping this in mind, I know the sun would be to the right on this drawing, so things sloping away from there would be in shadow.

Shadows and Shading are all important in any drawing, but they become obvious in a snow scene. There is value to white. Angle of sight changes things. sometimes in large ways, but more often in small ways. How well our drawings turn our depends in large measure on how well we deal with both types of shadows.



Cast Shadows and Contour

There are two types of shadow or shading going on here, the cast shadows from the sun and the contour shading you get with any 3-dimentional object, like the columns of the trees. Both are necessary to work this drawing. Since in this photo reference the trees now become the focal point, handling both shadows is very important.



Working the shadows



There are two ways to deal with these shadows. You can use softer pencils and rework these shapes, and you can use blending tools, like a stump or tortillion. Many blending tools are possible for any drawing. I tend to favor the judicious use of kneaded erasers. This seems to work especially well on snow scenes. Sometimes it is just as important to remove graphite, as it is to apply it

Winter Drawing
3 Trees

You as the artist must be sure of your light source. This is especially important if the photo reference you are using is unclear or confusing on this subject. You must be sure. If the artist is confused, the work will be confused. Now, on this project I have a slight advantage, as these are my photographs, and I remember the conditions when I took these pictures. But you might have to simply pick or study the photo for clues as to the time of day and where and how strong the light source is. I have been known to draw myself a little sun on the paper, outside the margin to remind me where the light is coming from!