| Bernadette's Art Corner is where I write about art. Bernadette's Music Corner is where I write about my music! |
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I have always liked art but never considered myself an artist. I'm not. My dad has always painted and my sister has always been good at art. At high school I realized I could copy things sometimes quite well but was never taught anything so art became more and more of a mystery to me. This mystery grew to admiration and I settled myself into a niche of not really doing much art, and admiring other artists work with a fascination on how on earth it was created. At high school our art teacher would tell us to create projects 'in the style of an artist'. I would go to the library and look at artists books but have no idea what she actually meant. I blundered my way through. We would have still life assignments but again, I would try my hardest and hope for the best, feeling all the time that I lacked the tools. For homework we would be required to copy things like a piece of fruit or a half eaten chocolate bar. These turned out very well, but I never knew how and could not really re-create the experience. On and off over the years I would try but never get much further in art. I have a fondness for pencil sketches, other mediums remained a mystery.
I tried to take the bull by the horns several years ago and I bought myself some pencil sets and many books on 'teach yourself how to draw'. I tried the exercises and was sometimes pleased, sometimes horrified with the results.
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| A Tree |
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| A Watering Can |
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| Some Rocks |
One day it suddenly clicked. It was a simple thing, one of the books said to use the side of the pencil to shade. All of a sudden, I was no longer trying to shade in great areas with a fine tip, I also had greater control. The exercise went on to explain various shades and densities of pencils and I began to notice a difference. I would use YouTube videos and copy their tutorials to see it being done.
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| Loaf of Bread |
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| Clutch Purse |
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| Fruit |
Copying was much easier but I became fixated on the 'hows' and lost in the entire concept of perspective. I would do each 'how to' video or book tutorial and get so far, but still not have it in my mind how to create a
real picture! I was stuck in this rut for a while, I would go back to the same drawings and do them over. Then I ventured out into other mediums, trying to decide what I liked best. Looking back, I can see I was making good solid progress all the time, but I was hung-up on the
inner critic. I criticized everything I did, occasionally liking something, only if it was
perfect. This is me down to a T. Always expecting too much and pushing myself way too hard. My expectations were so high, in the end I did actually quit....several times.....with months/years in between. When my beloved dog died, I lost all hope and everything I had ever drawn reminded me of an era so I actually got rid of everything.
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| I copied this gramophone from Google Images. I had been making progress without realizing it. |
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| Old Shading Exercises - very helpful! |
It's been 69 weeks since she died and I can now look at old pictures and feel inspired by art once more. I contacted a great artist
Gary Gumble to ask his advice. His advice was incredible, he instantly realized about the
inner critic and encouraged me to ignore this and plough on! I picked up my pencils (new ones) again and worked through it. I feel that that years break actually allowed all the stuff I had desperately read and tried, to fester, mull, grow and work in my brain. I actually
get things now, things that I could not grasp before and thought I would never be able to understand like perspective, shading, different styles of art/artists. The key for me has been to
not aim for perfection, to try and find what I like, to draw because drawing is great, creativity is important and also therapeutic. In this blog I would like to share some of my progress-drawings from before, the different stages of learning, breakthroughs, light-bulbs going on, and also any new art and experiences as they come about. This will be a place of non-criticism and new artistic ventures for me.
