Friday 19 March 2010

Patience + Practice = Pleasing

Welcome everyone - hope you are doing fine.

Firstly I have to welcome a new follower - Sam; thanks for making the effort and joining Sam, I hope you get something out of reading some of the posts and maybe have a go in your own time.

Since posting the Eye Of Horus circumstances have restricted me in some ways, and the work I have been doing has suffered as such, so things are a little slow. Two watercolours I have been asked to do have had a few practice runs to try and get them right, but I have just not been able to. Patience is one thing I do have, and it will enable me to get there in the end.

That is something you must all have too - if it's not quite right then don't worry - go back later and look at what you could not master the last time and have another go. If you are set on doing one particular subject, say landscapes, and you struggle with trees - then work on them. The advice is - practice on what you CAN'T do - not what you CAN.

That's one reason I go to the Life Drawing Group, to improve my ability and style of drawing the human body; if it's something you cannot do then keep having a go until you are satisfied. In my past postings the one thing repeated is that practice time is never, ever wasted.

Even simple things can help you, like last year I sat out in the garden and found this "bug" sat on a plant - so I got my pens out and had a go at sketching it. No it's not perfect by any means, but the point I am making is almost anything can be a good subject to have a practice on - and in this case it's modelling fees were free! Plus, with wildlife - they could move at any time, so it also helps with getting your subject down onto your surface as quickle as possible.




In this case, as an opposite to the bug, one day I was sat indoors on a dull day and simply decided to have a go at this small piece of drawer furniture.

Yes - some of the wooden mount the main subject is fitted onto are not exactly straight, but that is another thing to learn to draw as you develop.

There is plenty of shading on this sketch, highlights and darks - tonal values and probably more than enough information to have a good go at when I feel like putting it on to paper properly. The only thing really missing is any reference to colour: the wood, the knocker, the plate. If needed they could be made into any combination I wanted.

So keep having a go at whatever you fancy, whenever you feel you are up to the task of taking it on. Any subject, no matter how large or small is there just waiting for YOU to interpret it in YOUR way.

Until next time - whatever your art - please enjoy it.

Paul


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