Category: Lessons

This title isn’t the description of a good computer and a bad car; it is the title of a terrific colored pencil drawing by one of my drawing students! Look at this:

Char has been drawing with me for 3 (or 4 or 5? time flies!) years. She works in graphite, and has a unique way of finding photos and then using bits and pieces to make the design her own. As she draws during lessons, she listens to those around her learning to work in colored pencil.  The amount of pencils, the cost of those pencils, the decisions required to select the correct pencil – it all added up to a conclusion that colored pencil is too much trouble.  Then, we got talking about using just the primaries as I do in oil painting. We discussed doing colored pencil drawings with just a box of 12 pencils. Char was interested and ordered a box of Faber-Castell Polychromos, a very fine brand. We talked about the color wheel; I showed her some techniques and we did some color matching. I recommended a subject that had as few colors as possible, and this drawing is  CHAR’S VERY FIRST COLORED PENCIL PIECE!! It is true! Isn’t this wonderful??

This is called “Coffee or Tea”. I may have shown you already, but if I can’t remember, maybe you can’t either!  It is sold, so don’t get too attached. . . or, maybe I could be persuaded to draw it again. (Hi Linda!) 

http://cabinart.net/wordpress/?p=470 This posting was about drawing pencils, and I ended with several questions. Last week I received an answer to “What in the world does F stand for?” It stands for Fine, which is because that particular pencil can be sharpened to a fine point. This leaves me with more questions, as usual. (I have always asked questions because inquiring minds NEED to know! My dad used to say to me in exasperation, “Don’t ask any more questions!”) So, why single this pencil out for a fine point? All pencils can be sharpened to a fine point with a decent sharpener? How does this F pencil fit into the H and B categories? Why is it necessary? Who decided this was a necessary pencil?  

In college, I had an art teacher in a design class or some other esoteric subject who said to me, “Just because you can draw doesn’t make you an artist”. I was devastated, insulted, dismayed, shocked, and any other adjective you can think of for the situation – how dare he say that to me!! Now that I have the advantage of 25+ years life experience and wisdom, I know he was right, even if it was an insensitive and snotty remark. Drawing is a skill that can be taught, learned, developed and is sometimes just innate. Art has to be something that one learns about, develops over time, and comes about because of a love for the subject. Art can encompass many skills, forms and be useful in many careers. Drawing is a skill that is useful regardless of one’s career, and it definitely is useful in any art career. One can become an artist without the ability to draw, particularly in this age of multiple tools.   Tonight at The Downtown Gallery I had an interesting conversation with my friend Lisa, the art teacher and MFA student. (That means Master’s of Fine Art, which is the highest degree possible in art). She is teaching her junior high students more than any of my college professors ever taught me – she goes into principles, elements, styles and history. My college professors may have had their MFAs but mostly they walked around the room while taking a break from their own work, and offered criticism and snide remarks (“Just because you can draw. . .” or “You need to work on composition”) without ever bothering to actually teach, to demonstrate or share information! I have been teaching people how to draw for almost 15 years. (and that is without an MFA – imagine that!) It is a skill, and in teaching the skill, many other things about art can be shared. We talk about different styles, ways to set up a drawing from the beginning, ways of arranging the elements in a drawing, and lots of technique. (The main thing I ever want to learn is HOW and the second is WHY, so that is what I share with my students.) Through the years, only two of my students that I can think of have pursued art as a career. Two!! Everyone that has stayed long enough to learn to draw has learned to draw, and they each have drawings they can proudly show off to prove that they know how to draw.

  Tonight I saw 3 former drawing students. Louis is in the Navy, Stephanie is thinking about occupational therapy, and Mark is just thinking.  Maybe.  Maybe he is just enjoying being 19 and trying out this and that. Drawing lessons were not a waste of time for any one of these wonderful young folks – they learned to draw (duh), learned to communicate with people of all ages (that is the way my classes are), explored a type of art in a comfortable environment, got to display their work in a show or two, developed a bit more confidence, and made new friends.  I enjoyed every moment spent with each of these people and love seeing how they are turning into adults. We have an easy friendship that transcends age and that has lasted through time and changes.  (And I can draw AND am an artist, so there, you Snotty Professor who are now probably just a retired teacher! But I’m not bitter. ) 

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&item=110323380537 Remember to check the Lotus painting! There have been many art teachers in my life, and each one seems to have hard and fast rules. Several colored pencil teachers have said NEVER USE BLACK. Another c.p. teacher said, “If you aren’t supposed to use black, why do they manufacture it?” Makes sense to me!  One c.p. teacher said to ALWAYS put the darkest color as the bottom layer and work up to the lightest color. Another said ALWAYS start with the lightest color as your base and then add layers in order of increasing darkness.  I have done both on the same drawing and gotten the same result!  My best drawing teacher in college only let us draw with a 6B, which is a very soft black pencil. He did not let us smear or blend with any tool, including our fingers. His premise was that if you could learn to control that one pencil, you could make any pencil do anything you wished it to do. It took me years to be able to use the entire range of pencils available because his idea was so deeply etched into my head. This is a drawing from his class:  Some of the painting teachers I have listened to say “NEVER use white alone”. (What are you supposed to use if that is the color you need??)  Most say, “NEVER use black”. At the Peppertree Art Show, one of the artists I spoke with told me of his layering process and it included black paint!! Go figure. Many of my students ask me how to hold their pencils. I show them how I hold mine, and tell them to try it, and to try anything that feels comfortable to them. The point is that there are some places in life where there are absolutes, but in art the only absolutes are determined by the results you desire.