Thoughts From Marsha

It's called practice.

Painting is what I do. Study and practice is something I embrace! It is called miles of brushwork if you are a two-dimensional artist. I know it is a compliment if someone says to me: I wish I had your talent." But, talent does not get you from point "A" to point "B ." Practice will!

If you do any kind of art, then you know there are skills you need to internalize by doing them over and over. And over! Learning to embrace the small things needed to do your kind of artwork is essential. We all talk about it being the journey, and not the destination.

I’m going to say it one more time. The more you do what you want to learn, the more it will become second nature. Then you can move on to the next theory, the next idea, or the next level.

Each theory, each new idea, builds on the ones before it!

The love of our own individual process is the joy and the intent. Believe me, we each have our own pathway. The bright spot is that you are always changing and growing. It is never boring or stagnant! Learn to love the doing of what you have chosen to do!

It took me a long time to learn to embrace the frustration, the mistakes, the failed attempts, etc. Those are the most important aspects of our learning. We learn more from those things we don’t do right, than those we do right and not know why it worked.

Having one work easily and turn out like our vision, our intent, makes up for the past ten that did not quite make it. That makes all the mistakes worth it.

A story for illustration of this idea. Call this a mini-lesson!

Something many students tend to push to the back of their minds, is that painting requires some drawing skills. Well? That means you need to sketch and doodle as often as possible.

I was teaching a student recently. Our normal procedure is for her to bring in work she has done and we discuss the artwork. We take probably 30 to 45 minutes at least where we talk about those images. With the discussion and question about what else she has been doing, I ask if there are issues that seem to keep coming up.

The discussion on that day led to a comment about a painting she tried in a plein air event. If you don’t know, “en plein air” is a French term meaning “in the open air.” When we say a plein air event, it means we are painting outside from life.

That day a study was not successful and she wiped it out. I always advise calling them “studies” and not “paintings.” It takes the pressure off. She was painting a little old farm cabin and said the perspective was off. She didn’t seem to be able to make it work. The scene was down a hill, so there was a bit of landscape for the image she was trying to paint also.

She admitted she had already brushed the surface off as best she could. The study was being done in soft pastel, allowing her to brush off the pastel leaving a ghost image on the board. These can be reused for any subject matter since it is like “toning” the surface before working on it.

You can wash these boards off, but do not let them soak in water. The technique is to use running water and a wide brush to help remove as much of the pastel as possible.

My advice to her

Your homework for the next month will be to draw and sketch. Make sure you are working on buildings, roadways, railroad tracks, etc. Use your sketchbook! She commented: “I know I don’t draw enough. That’s a good idea and I will try to do more sketching and practicing doing the thumbnails.”

The advice meant to choose subject mater that is man-made and not the organic elements of nature. You always need to learn about the proportion of any elements you are painting, including nature. Most students fall short when getting into the man-made objects because they cannot be “fudged” as much as a tree or bush can!

I told her little thumbnails or notan were good things to do also. These are in a sketchbook where you draw a rectangle about 2x3 inches or less. Inside these boxes you do just the minimum of line-work to indicate the elements you are seeing. You can do a second one and adjust them in the next box. Move the items around. This is also where you add or subtract subject matter/elements for the betterment of the design or composition.

Work on studying the divisions of space to correct your proportions. It helps you with your sketching and then with the painting. You start internalizing this ability to compare sizes and shapes. You quit drawing “generic” outlines of the subject. They do not have to be exact, but to make them “believable” is your purpose. Those outside contours are what makes a person know what an object is.

These little thumbnails can also be done with a marker, just indicating the dark and light areas of the image. These are called a “notan.” You can use a set of markers that are in different values. This means they go from a dark value to middle dark, to middle light, to lighter value. You can use the paper as your lightest light! It is like having a “grayscale” of the initial black and white version.

Artists all talk about how the underlying abstract image is of the utmost importance when starting your painting. Get that right from the beginning and the rest of the painting goes much easier. Above are a few examples of the ideas I am talking about.

The rest of the private lesson was actual hands-on work.

As the discussion was ending and we needed to get to the lesson, I asked her what she wanted to work on today.

Being a very smart student, she said perspective in buildings would be good. We both decided to work on a piece with buildings. Her choice from a group of photos was a downtown street scene looking down the sidewalk at the storefronts, and the signs hanging. There were also some things sitting on the sidewalk. Mine was a closer up image of an old home and yard with a swing.

Each image was chosen from a small stack of photographs. This allows the person choosing what to paint to have an emotional reaction to a photo. This is very important. Besides being something to study, it needed to draw the painter to it. When you cannot go outside to paint from life (plein air), then a photo will have to do. Be sure to choose one that speaks to you from a small stack of photos.

The student worked diligently on the thumbnail and notan to get the division of space in the “black and white” abstract in the sketchbook. That division of space can make or break a painting. It was then done again in pastel on the painting surface. At that point, those larger dark and light shapes are broken into the smaller shapes within in them. And it goes on from there.

Adjusting the sizes, the perspective and proportions is a key element in the beginning to get correct. Do not go further until you have made sure they are in relation to the other sizes and shapes in the correct proportion. Sometimes we don’t see it while we are close to our surface.

I make my students back up and sit on a stool about six to eight feet from the work. That is where the analysis takes place and the decisions are made. What is the next stroke or two that needs to be done? Is there a correction to be made?

We both were using the Ampersand “Pastelbord” which is a surface that has a sanded surface to hold the pastel. I consider it the best thing out there. Each artist is an individual and might have a different idea about the surface they choose to use. I advise students to try many different surfaces and find the one that suits their working methods.

The student was able to adjust shapes and sizes in relation to the shapes and sizes that she knew were right. Each change would affect other shapes. It is a lesson in learning how to evaluate the proportions of each element to the proportions and shapes of the rest of the work.

Sometimes to go faster in our learning, we need to slow down in our process and not be in such a big hurry to produce.

The advice is what?

All the above means is practice, practice, practice.

If I gave no other advice, it would always be just do it. Make the mistakes which will teach you more than any other method. It teaches you what you like more than anything.

Embrace the frustration and work on things you do not know how to do. It may be you are about to make a leap to the next level, the next theory, or whatever you are aiming for!

Build on what you have just done! Try again!