Watch Me Paint: World-Class Art, World-Class Instruction
Have trouble drawing people? Here’s a way to get a good likeness in a hurry. Robbie, by Carol L. Douglas We’re going to be doing self-portraits in my classes during the next two weeks. We’ll be using mirrors, but this is a technique that works with pictures of yourself or others, from the live model or …
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Being technically accurate frees up your subconscious mind to analyze and interpret what you see. Main Street, Owls Head, 16X20, oil on gessoboard, $1623 unframed. Observation I once took an artist on a long loop to see all my favorite painting sites here in midcoast Maine. “But there’s nothing to paint,” she wailed. She was …
“I wish I could paint, but…” What’s standing in your way? Breaking Storm, by Carol L. Douglas, available through Folly Cove Fine Art. Yesterday, our pastor listed these five common barriers to adult learning: Lack of time Lack of balance (juggling commitments) Lack of motivation Lack of flexibility Lack of a supportive community Lack of time …
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Drawing is a series of actions, rather like dance. It can be learned, just like any other process. Teachers sometimes tell their students to hold the pencil fully outstretched. I disagree, because moving it up and down and sideways makes you move in an arc, as Sandy demonstrates, above. Drawing starts with measurement. Get that …
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Before you can paint successfully, you have to learn to draw. I love drawing in church, especially when there are sleepy teenagers. This drawing started with simple analysis of shape. One of the problems with writing about ‘how to do art’ is that you’re speaking to all levels of experience. Today we’re going right to …
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“Drawing is prayer,” Delacroix famously said. He could have added that it’s play as well. And thinking. The Giaour on Horseback, by Eugène Delacroix, c. 1824–26, by Eugène Delacroix, pen and iron gall ink with wash over graphite, courtesy Metropolitan Museum of Art Shelving books this week, I came across a small volume of drawings …
I rapidly gained a hundred pounds after my first cancer in 1999. It’s taken me this long to get serious about getting rid of it. As I reach my halfway goal, I realize that much of the discipline of losing weight is the same as the discipline of learning to paint and draw. Peppers, by …
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Start with the mechanical measurement and work your way down to the details. All illustrations are by Carol L. Douglas (left) and Sandy P. Quang (right) By now, the long slog to decorate for the Christmas holidays is in full swing. If you haven’t got your tree up, you’ve at least located the boxes and …
Continue reading “Monday Morning Art School: drawing a globe”
This exercise is like learning perspective. You’ll never draw this way in the real world, but practicing it will improve your harborside skills. Cadet, by Carol L. Douglas I tell my students that it’s best to paint a boat from the deck of another boat or a floating dock. If you can’t, then keep your …
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The important thing you bring to class is not your prior painting experience, but your attitude. To teach painting effectively, one must not only know how to paint, but be able to break that down into discrete steps and effectively communicate those steps to students. That’s straightforward, right? What isn’t so straightforward is how one …
Continue reading “Do you have the right mindset for learning?”