Years ago, my friend Kevin suggested a book by David Bayles and Ted Orland called Art and Fear*, said it was a cult classic, and especially useful to someone like me (which is to say, a person who makes art and runs up against self-imposed barricades regularly).
I bought Art & Fear when it first came out, when I was working in The Golden Notebook. The title pulled me in. It still sits on a bookshelf in my house. I've never read it. I was too afraid! I think it's time to read it now. Thanks for the reminder, Bar! xo
Do it, Nan. (or not) but I think you'll get something from it. I think David and Ted got it exactly right, at least for me. They'll introduce themselves, but the key thing is that they taught for a long time and watched hundreds of students go through the same pain and angst year after year. Let me know what you think. I've read the book at least a dozen times. Read it every time I'm facilitating a workshop. Reminds me of where people often are with their work when they sign up for a workshop.
I love how the bird on the right has cocked its head to hear you better. Your quotes from "Art and Fear" have given me something to think about. A great exercise in regard to quantity vs. quality.
cute little birds, aren't they? A unique species! They were the first exercise in my class for painting something with more than one color. Very fun. REALLY makes you appreciate the brilliance of experienced watercolorists.
You're very kind, Shannon. Thank you. I stole everything about this image from my teacher. Tried to do what she did with a little success, but man, to watch her do it! Here was the trick she shared, which you probably already know. Make a sketch in pencil on a regular piece of copy paper (I just copied hers because I don't know how to sketch anything). Make it rough, nothing fancy or accurate, just try to get the dimensions more or less right. Then put the sketch underneath a piece of watercoloring paper, put both up against a lit window (in lieu of a lightbox), then do a light pencil trace of the original sketch on the watercolor paper, paint one color at a time, single strokes, as little as possible seems to be the trick. HARD! Let it dry, then do the next color, one stroke, just getting the gist of the shape of the bird. Then she used colored pencils to finish them. I tried to do that, and that's when my sparrow turned into a chicken. C'est la vie! There's one book that I found the other day which is fabulous. It's a short one but the painter is incredible. It's called Learn Watercolour Quickly by Hazel Soan. LOVE her work, never heard of her until I found this book in the library. The course I'm taking on-line is on domestika.com. Watercolor 1 with Laura McKendry. I think she's great, too. If you find Hazel's book, look at the last piece in the book called Running for Joy. It's stunning to my eye.
Your watercolor of "Birds on a Wire" is charming! Thank you for sharing. It reminds me of one of my favorite art quotes by Claude Monet, " I want to paint the way a bird sings."
funny you should say that because the exercise I was doing included a bigger bird singing to these two little ones. The singing bird didn't go so well, so....thank you, Marti. It's very fun and challenging on so many levels.
I know you're going to be amazing at this, but I so agree. Hard as can be. Last night I worked on fishes. So awful!! The teacher made it look so easy. ten stunning, cool looking fishes in under ten minutes. I made eight that made me laugh they were so bad. Brent laughed too. So that was kinda fun.
I bought Art & Fear when it first came out, when I was working in The Golden Notebook. The title pulled me in. It still sits on a bookshelf in my house. I've never read it. I was too afraid! I think it's time to read it now. Thanks for the reminder, Bar! xo
Do it, Nan. (or not) but I think you'll get something from it. I think David and Ted got it exactly right, at least for me. They'll introduce themselves, but the key thing is that they taught for a long time and watched hundreds of students go through the same pain and angst year after year. Let me know what you think. I've read the book at least a dozen times. Read it every time I'm facilitating a workshop. Reminds me of where people often are with their work when they sign up for a workshop.
Thanks Bar, I will. I pulled it from its shelf last night. I'll let you know! xo
hey look at that!
right, right?
I love how the bird on the right has cocked its head to hear you better. Your quotes from "Art and Fear" have given me something to think about. A great exercise in regard to quantity vs. quality.
cute little birds, aren't they? A unique species! They were the first exercise in my class for painting something with more than one color. Very fun. REALLY makes you appreciate the brilliance of experienced watercolorists.
Birds are so hard to draw! Yours are excellent. Mine haven't looked birdlike yet.
You're very kind, Shannon. Thank you. I stole everything about this image from my teacher. Tried to do what she did with a little success, but man, to watch her do it! Here was the trick she shared, which you probably already know. Make a sketch in pencil on a regular piece of copy paper (I just copied hers because I don't know how to sketch anything). Make it rough, nothing fancy or accurate, just try to get the dimensions more or less right. Then put the sketch underneath a piece of watercoloring paper, put both up against a lit window (in lieu of a lightbox), then do a light pencil trace of the original sketch on the watercolor paper, paint one color at a time, single strokes, as little as possible seems to be the trick. HARD! Let it dry, then do the next color, one stroke, just getting the gist of the shape of the bird. Then she used colored pencils to finish them. I tried to do that, and that's when my sparrow turned into a chicken. C'est la vie! There's one book that I found the other day which is fabulous. It's a short one but the painter is incredible. It's called Learn Watercolour Quickly by Hazel Soan. LOVE her work, never heard of her until I found this book in the library. The course I'm taking on-line is on domestika.com. Watercolor 1 with Laura McKendry. I think she's great, too. If you find Hazel's book, look at the last piece in the book called Running for Joy. It's stunning to my eye.
Your watercolor of "Birds on a Wire" is charming! Thank you for sharing. It reminds me of one of my favorite art quotes by Claude Monet, " I want to paint the way a bird sings."
funny you should say that because the exercise I was doing included a bigger bird singing to these two little ones. The singing bird didn't go so well, so....thank you, Marti. It's very fun and challenging on so many levels.
I love your birds! I'm learning watercolor too. It's so incredibly frustrat-- er, fun. It's so fun.
I know you're going to be amazing at this, but I so agree. Hard as can be. Last night I worked on fishes. So awful!! The teacher made it look so easy. ten stunning, cool looking fishes in under ten minutes. I made eight that made me laugh they were so bad. Brent laughed too. So that was kinda fun.