Saturday, 3 February 2018

All About Finding my way with art, drawing, sketching, painting......

Bernadette's Art Corner is where I write about art.  Bernadette's Music Corner is where I write about my music!
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.

A Tree
A Watering Can
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. 

Loaf of Bread
Clutch Purse
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. 

I copied this gramophone from Google Images.  I had been making progress without realizing it.
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.