Thankyou for that !! Keep meaning to find time to daydream and doodle ( or rather doodle on a clean piece of paper and not in the margins of the free newspaper!!
I love your aquarels.. I’d like to learn it myself. Would you mind if i did some studies of some of your work and put it up on my blog? With clear reference to the originals of course!
Dear Samoth, You may of course copy….but in my experience there is nothing that beats doing a drawing from real life, any bit of real life will do…the apple in the fruit bowl which is blemished, beginning to rot even, is as worthy as any perfect photograph ( see Caravaggio’s still life), the abandoned coffee cup says more if it is YOUR coffee cup. Draw the same simple object in ten ways and begin to discover where your hand feels comfortable…it could be drawing fast or slow or wet on dry or wet on wet or ink and wash. First learn by exploring lots of ways of working in a medium and then start to focus down to the methods and materials that work for you. Most of all keep working everyday… there is nothing to beat it, remember professional musicians reckon to practice 6 hours a day! sadly I have too many other commitments to manage that but its an aspirational goal. Cheers Alison
Hi, and thanks for your reply!
My goal is to draw real life, and to find my own style – eventually. You’re totally right in saying that the everyday “imperfect” situation that is personal for the artist is a much better motif or theme than the “idealized” representation of a photo or other. At some point, this is what i want to do, but i find that i learn a lot from copying. Don’t misunderstand me – copying Van Gogh doesn’t turn me into Van Gogh or anything like him, but it expands my artistic “vocabulary” and it helps my to develop my own approach. This leaf that you painted in aquarel is beautiful because it’s your “take” on a leaf. If it were a photo, it would just “be” a leaf, but you show the spectator what you see in the leaf rather than showing him the leaf itself. It goes without saying, that if i were to copy your painting, it would’nt be my take on a leaf, but on the other hand, it helps me see some things for myself that i might not have noticed – having a less “trained” eye.. So to speak. Other than that, i don’t even know how to hold my brush correctly while doing aquarel, so for now, my focus is on the “craft” before focusing on the “art”. I know that art is independent of ability – if you have something to say, or to show the world, it doesn’t matter is the perspective is off. But it’s a long discussion.
I wish i had 6 hours a day too 😉
Lemon a day 
Reblogged this on Conceptual Art.
Thankyou for that !! Keep meaning to find time to daydream and doodle ( or rather doodle on a clean piece of paper and not in the margins of the free newspaper!!
I love your aquarels.. I’d like to learn it myself. Would you mind if i did some studies of some of your work and put it up on my blog? With clear reference to the originals of course!
Dear Samoth, You may of course copy….but in my experience there is nothing that beats doing a drawing from real life, any bit of real life will do…the apple in the fruit bowl which is blemished, beginning to rot even, is as worthy as any perfect photograph ( see Caravaggio’s still life), the abandoned coffee cup says more if it is YOUR coffee cup. Draw the same simple object in ten ways and begin to discover where your hand feels comfortable…it could be drawing fast or slow or wet on dry or wet on wet or ink and wash. First learn by exploring lots of ways of working in a medium and then start to focus down to the methods and materials that work for you. Most of all keep working everyday… there is nothing to beat it, remember professional musicians reckon to practice 6 hours a day! sadly I have too many other commitments to manage that but its an aspirational goal. Cheers Alison
Hi, and thanks for your reply!
My goal is to draw real life, and to find my own style – eventually. You’re totally right in saying that the everyday “imperfect” situation that is personal for the artist is a much better motif or theme than the “idealized” representation of a photo or other. At some point, this is what i want to do, but i find that i learn a lot from copying. Don’t misunderstand me – copying Van Gogh doesn’t turn me into Van Gogh or anything like him, but it expands my artistic “vocabulary” and it helps my to develop my own approach. This leaf that you painted in aquarel is beautiful because it’s your “take” on a leaf. If it were a photo, it would just “be” a leaf, but you show the spectator what you see in the leaf rather than showing him the leaf itself. It goes without saying, that if i were to copy your painting, it would’nt be my take on a leaf, but on the other hand, it helps me see some things for myself that i might not have noticed – having a less “trained” eye.. So to speak. Other than that, i don’t even know how to hold my brush correctly while doing aquarel, so for now, my focus is on the “craft” before focusing on the “art”. I know that art is independent of ability – if you have something to say, or to show the world, it doesn’t matter is the perspective is off. But it’s a long discussion.
I wish i had 6 hours a day too 😉