How long have I heard the insecent instruction to build upon a solid foundation in art. To secure ones self in the practice of drawing by hand first, shapes and shades and perspectives. To draw from life, even! Those words droned on as a monotonous clack of a cog in a mechanical wheel spinning the reiterations of a thousand art schools and text books. Oh, of course I drew with pencil, when I was a child, a student. With the digital age and Photoshop I had no need of such elementary tools.
That was many years ago and I had since found the sketch to be a great place to jot down an idea or two. To form the basis of my painting that could then be photographed and placed in photoshop, there to be rendered with the love they deserved. But I see now that even then I was cheating only myself and doing no justice to the works at hand.
In all these things I found most elusive the human form. My visions of beautiful maidens and knights in armor fell short in that I could only see them, but to place them on canvas was to deform them in ways that left me ill and fearful of a lack of knowledge and study. I felt I must attend some school of art to master these things that others before me have graced with seeming ease. I lamented the work of other's greater than I, that I would never achieve such skill.
And then it came, many years later. The tired resignation that I, with nothing more to do than sit alone in quite shack as my job requires should force myself to occupy my time with sketching. I had some books on the art of drawing and painting sitting on dusty shelves and bought only for inspiration or of those instructional manuals on drawing, that one day I may actually read them. So this should be that day. And so I read, somewhat. Perhaps it was the encouraging words of John Howe and no doubt the the stunning work of Boris Vallejo and Julie Bell that stired in me. I was inspired. Also among these sage books was a cumbersome tome dedicated to the complete theories of drawing. It plodded along like those very text books I despised. Yet I had little else to do occupy my time and so I read what I could of those stiff pages.
I learned something......It was Howe who pointed me in the direction and that massive compendium that stated matter of factly. Draw what you see. Uhg! Still lifes!? I so detested still lifes. Yet they serve their purpose and I understaned what detail one may miss in drawing from imagination only. Draw what you see. But then a new thought emerged...that ungainly book of technical theory was droning on about the human form and it mentioned in passing, the fear of artists on where to start the human form. And then again I heard...draw what you see. Having a referece of Boris work at hand I began to use my eye. To draw what I see. EUREKA!! I, without tracing, and much erasing and fixing and (as that slab of a book suggested...learning by mistake) I was able to take the form and create from those refrences, sketches of my own visions. They were not copies of Boris' work, no but I had drawn, by hand, beauty. Oh there where still small mistakes but all this said......I believe I have crossed another threshold. I CAN draw what I see and every great artist uses references. I hope that I may demonstart these new found skills in the artworks posted hearafter.
The moral of this lengthy diatribe is simply. Draw. Draw what you see! You WILL learn from your mistakes, don't be afraid to erase and redraw. Draw everywhere, draw everything. You don't need an art school you just need courage and will power. The foundations are an inescapable necessity.
Oh and that cumbersome book of technical know how.....THE COMPLETE BOOK OF DRAWING - Essential Skills for every artist by BARRINGTON BARBER. God I hate that book....and yet......