Practice, it Really Does Make Perfect

Practice, practice, and practice some more... We hear it a lot as children, whenever we want, or our parents want us, to be really good at something.  Playing piano or another instrument, or learning a new language, or drawing; all these and excelling at just about anything else, require a lot of practice to become really good.

Often, when told that we will need to practice a lot to be good at something, we have a little internal conversation with ourselves.

Self: Gee, I'd really love to be able to do that, but it will take a lot of practice/time/patience.
Inner-Self: Say what?  And what's in it for me?

Generally our inner-self will have to see some benefit.  Once convinced it's a done deal.  I have been told that guys usually learn guitar, practicing for hours, to pick up girls!  I have known a lot of guys who play guitar and I suppose there may be some truth to that.

Once you decide you'd like to draw or paint, practicing your drawing is very important.  Regardless of what artistic style you embrace, you will need to train your eye to see.  I know the concept of 'learning to see' may be difficult at first.  We learn to see when we're born, right?  It's true that we begin to see when we're born.  But we take so much for granted, we see so much that we don't notice, that when we go to put it down on paper we leave out a LOT.  We need to 'teach' our eyes to see completely, and then we need to 'train' our hand to reproduce what our eye has seen.


Take a simple apple for instance.  Ask a young child to draw an apple and you will see "round and red".  (The apple to the left would be a giant leap for a very young child, given the shape and shadow detail, but I just can't do "round and red" anymore.) 


But there is so much more to see when you view an apple.  See this wonderful little painting by Jos van Riswick.  Jos does a painting a day, calling them postcard paintings, now that is practice!  But look at the detail... he shows how the reflected light from the tabletop lights up the underneath of the apple, how a subtle shade of gray, just behind the 'real' red area of the apple makes the illusion of 3-dimensionality.  The highlight is soft and not a stark white, actually the entire image has a softness to it.  Most people are so surprised to know that humans don't actually see hard lines (even those with new glasses.  We also don't read every letter but only the shapes of the words... weird, huh?)

Anyway, enough drawing lecture.  My point here is to say that to paint something realistically, we must learn to see it, and practicing is the best way to see.  I must have painted dozens of apples in my day, here is a little picture called "Lady Apples" I did years ago,  The finished size is 12"x24".  A year or so before I started this painting I volunteered to teach an adult art class for Baltimore County, MD, and I was nervous.  So I painted about 20 or so red apples as practice.  I had never done this before, and it really pushed me to a new level.  I began to really see ALL of the apple, and also to get my hand to paint exactly what I saw.

So, practice, Practice, PRACTICE... this is the mantra of the week.  If you don't know what you want to draw for practice, just find an artist you like and study his work.  Do a sketch or copy of a painting of theirs.  Copying another artist's work is not bad, so long as you don't sell it as your own idea.

Here is another great blog about practicing!  11 Reasons to Keep Practicing.  Number 11 is my favorite! 

• When you’re on your deathbed, do you want to be able to say that you went to the mall every weekend or that you tried to write a novel?

So, until next time... Practice!
Laura

Visit my website at www.LauraMasonArt.com or search for me on Facebook under Laura Mason Art. 

Encouraging the Young Artist

I always love it when I am displaying my work and kids come to look.  There are times when a child of 10 or so will just stand and look studiously... I love those kids.  I usually give them a chance to look before I slowly approach them (don't want to scare them off!) and ask if they are artists too.  Quite often I hear... "No, I just like to draw." 


Of course, this is the perfect lead in to a great discussion on what it is to be an artist.  Many kids tell their parents "I want to draw" and get handed the same pencil that writes the grocery list... which is I guess better than nothing. 

Why is it so hard to encourage our kids when they want to draw?  There are some very simple ways to help your child both 'see' and to give them some freedom to create.  Kids need first to know that it is not hard to view the world around them and put it down on paper or in clay.  My kids learned the simplicity of the human face, nearly in infancy, with 'Fingerman!'

Fingerman is basically a finger puppet, drawn with a pen or marker (it washes off eventually, lighten up Mom!)  It is also a good way to teach 'eye', 'eye', 'nose', and 'smiling mouth'.  And that is exactly what you say as you draw one on the tiny finger of your child.  Yes Mom, it's a simple happy face!


Fingerman

 I still draw Fingerman today on visiting kids, and now that I have a grandson am looking forward to introducing him as well!  Once you draw a handful or two of fingermen, your child will be drawing his own with no problem and will also begin to see how easy it is to 'break down' objects to be drawn.

I used to keep butcher's paper or that old green-bar computer paper taped to the coffee table so there was always something to draw on.  A box of crayons was a permanent part of the decor.

I encouraged my kids to draw, it was never mandatory.  A lot of their little personalities emerged in their simple doodles.  I could see that my Rose would be very detail oriented, and that my Drew, working quickly, could capture the 'feeling' of a person.  He did some very interesting cartoon people which I still have tucked away for posterity.

I am going to start listing some great blogs I have found by art teachers.  I am NOT an art teacher, but believe that every child starts out as an artist at birth.  What happens after is the mystery.  With encouragement from US they will never lose that spark!

http://teachkidsart.blogspot.com/

http://www.redtedart.com/

http://www.redtri.com/all-cities/craft-blogs-for-kids

Birth of an Artist - 1965

Thoughts on Blogging - Post #1 This is a test!  This is only a test!  If this had been a real Blog,  you should tune into your radio station for information about how to survive... Seriously, I have been wanting to write for some time on my ideas about art, why I do it.  How I do it given the limited time I have.  I have been drawing since I was very small... now here is a great place to begin!  My 'artist's life' story.  Then you'll know where my art days began. As a very young child, unbeknownst to me, Mom and Dad, I couldn't see a blessed thing.  I remember very little about my very early childhood, probably because I could not see it.  In first grade my teacher, Ms Riley, called my folks and told them "I think she might be pretty bright, but I think she needs glasses!"  So, off I went to the eye doctor, where I was diagnosed with severe nearsightedness... severe (think "Magoo!").  I DO remember the day they put the first pair of glasses on my nose, my world opened up.  I mean, how was I to know that everything was not supposed to be blurry? So, thanks Ms. Riley! So, here I am in second grade, gotta love those glasses!  Enter Mrs Baker (I promise not to touch on every single school year.  Its fall, and we are sent outside with our crayolas and paper to draw anything we want.  I decided to draw one single maple leaf that had fallen.  With my newfound visual skills, I can see every detail.  I capture the way the 'fingers' of the leaf curl over on itself, did a little shading... oh what a pleasure.  So I took it inside and Mrs. Baker Freaked!  (Although we did not express it quite this way in 1965.)  It made me so happy that it made HER so happy.  She actually sent me back outside ALONE (remember this was the '60's, and I was probably in view of the window) to do more!  She meant to do more  leaves, but I took it to mean 'finish this leaf', so that is what I did.  I missed MATH class!!!  Whoo hoo (still not great a math and it's probably all her fault!) Anyway, this was the beginning for me.  I decided to become a famous artist... I'd better get started!   So here is my first blog... maybe a bit self centered, but it's just to get started.  I plan on posting some websites of others of my favorite artists and I will probably be blogging on non-art topics as well.  I have lots of thoughts, especially on encouraging young artists...  More on that later.