12-30-2019, 10:11 PM
When it comes to painting and things like, how thickly you paint, it's really down to how you want to paint. It would probably be best if you tried to familiarise yourself with many different ways of doing things. The only real answer to something like "how thickly should I paint" should always start with "Well it depends". With the watts people you'll get their way of doing things and that's usually a very modern, very american way of doing things and if that's exactly how you want to paint, that's great but there's a lot of cool stuff to painting out there and it's a shame to not explore it.
With the drawing, I'm thinking that it's maybe not the best approach to point to examples and say "this needs to be this way, not like that" because we're sort of in a cycle where the core issue isn't addressed and maybe it's stressing you out like that previous drawing?. Like if we fix the overall shape of the face, we didn't fix the thing that caused you to draw it incorrectly or the thing that kept you from seeing it, you know? So we have to figure out, what is causing these problems and I have a guess for at least one of the causes..
My guess is that your face is too close to the drawing. Just guessing here, but I suspect you're like a meter away from the drawing at most and if so, yeah your mistakes are going to have more to do with big stuff rather than small details. Human beings are just not very good at judging the overall shape of things when they take up a large portion of our field of view. So you're putting yourself at a disadvantage by being so close to your drawing, unable to confidently rely on your visual judgement and just having to hope it's correct. So step back, at the very least you want to be able to cover the entire drawing with your outstretched hand, and even further back is better. This is where your eyes and brain are better suited to judge the overall shape of things. It can help to place the drawing and subject next to each other so it's easier to make comparisons.
There's an attitude I've found of some people thinking they're too good to step back from their work. Like, that it's some kind of cheating or you're not a hardcore serious artist if you do it. I don't know where it comes from but it often happens that people have weird prejudices against simple things that would drastically improve them as artists. Solomon mentions this in his book how he encounters students who think they're too good to look at the negative shape of something. Personally I see it as a kind of chad move, only caring about big stuff, not being the looser who needs to detail their drawing/painting in order to make it look good (at least that's how I like to imagine things). Don't worry, it's not a crutch, it's a practice that will improve you in a fundamental way, teaching you what qualities to pay attention to and which not to. You don't have to make learning any harder than it already is.
Also, you mentioned Cornelia earlier. She was one of my drawing instructors when I first started. I don't remember exactly how she painted, we had one or two of her's on the walls, but I do remember her drawings and they were always very soft and smooth. At times we had fairly different views on technical stuff and it made discussions both interesting and confusing.
With the drawing, I'm thinking that it's maybe not the best approach to point to examples and say "this needs to be this way, not like that" because we're sort of in a cycle where the core issue isn't addressed and maybe it's stressing you out like that previous drawing?. Like if we fix the overall shape of the face, we didn't fix the thing that caused you to draw it incorrectly or the thing that kept you from seeing it, you know? So we have to figure out, what is causing these problems and I have a guess for at least one of the causes..
My guess is that your face is too close to the drawing. Just guessing here, but I suspect you're like a meter away from the drawing at most and if so, yeah your mistakes are going to have more to do with big stuff rather than small details. Human beings are just not very good at judging the overall shape of things when they take up a large portion of our field of view. So you're putting yourself at a disadvantage by being so close to your drawing, unable to confidently rely on your visual judgement and just having to hope it's correct. So step back, at the very least you want to be able to cover the entire drawing with your outstretched hand, and even further back is better. This is where your eyes and brain are better suited to judge the overall shape of things. It can help to place the drawing and subject next to each other so it's easier to make comparisons.
There's an attitude I've found of some people thinking they're too good to step back from their work. Like, that it's some kind of cheating or you're not a hardcore serious artist if you do it. I don't know where it comes from but it often happens that people have weird prejudices against simple things that would drastically improve them as artists. Solomon mentions this in his book how he encounters students who think they're too good to look at the negative shape of something. Personally I see it as a kind of chad move, only caring about big stuff, not being the looser who needs to detail their drawing/painting in order to make it look good (at least that's how I like to imagine things). Don't worry, it's not a crutch, it's a practice that will improve you in a fundamental way, teaching you what qualities to pay attention to and which not to. You don't have to make learning any harder than it already is.
Also, you mentioned Cornelia earlier. She was one of my drawing instructors when I first started. I don't remember exactly how she painted, we had one or two of her's on the walls, but I do remember her drawings and they were always very soft and smooth. At times we had fairly different views on technical stuff and it made discussions both interesting and confusing.
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