I feel that I am really starting to get serious with art. I have been serious about for years but didn't have structure. My questions for you are- Do spend time practicing, like a musician would practice their instruments? Do you spend time doing drawing exercises and sketches to better your art, or are you always creating what you call masterpieces? What suggestions would you give for "line practice", or anything else, like stretches for the hands?
I practice everyday, sketching, and shading. Not everything I draw or paint is profound, it takes practice to get things right with me. Sometimes ill create something beautiful with little effort. I consider that luck. I'm still learning. I'm taking art at my college in the fall to broaden my skills.
many artists do what are called "studies" a figure study is the drawings of a figure for study purposes. the discipline of art is not so different from academics and it requires a great deal of effort to be a master. studying masterworks is common, check out books at hte library and copy the works of Duhrer or Michelangelo or Peter Paeul Rubens. copy these drawings with great effort and study their techniques. the progression of your technical ability will inspire you to create greater works. and often if i lack inspiration i will draw something mundane like a still life and then i will be inspired through this exercise as if the idea came out of thin air.
I like to practice different kinds of art. Even if you are great at one medium (drawing for example) it is great to mess around with anything artistic as it will expand your creative mindset and inspire you. I wouldn't say to "practice" in any scheduled kind of way. That can be stifling. Just create when you feel it, and if it's a masterpiece, great...if not, then you got some good time in! Have fun!
thats exactly what I am trying to stay away from. That is what I have been doing for the past five years, just creating when I feel like it. Going about things that way, I didn't feel like my skills were improving. I need structure. I am not in the mood to create something beautiful or extraordinary, at the moment that is. I need to better my skills. I am in the mood at the moment to work very hard, though. And I need structure and discipline. I need to find a routine that will help me to "practice" my art, just like a musician would practice their instrument.
Ok, so do that Sounds like you have it figured out already and you know what you gotta do! Good luck!
take an art class... painting, drawing, sculpture. there are three reasons this will benefit you: 1-you get the structure that you desire. there will projects for class and for home. plus the classes will stimulate thought for your homework and your homework will stimulate thought for class. 2-you will feed off of the positive artistic energy of the other students. they will inspire you and you will inspire them. this is a friendly atmosphere and very conducive to making good art. 3-the teacher will guide you. they will suggest artists that may inspire you. they will critique your work and get you to work harder. they will share their knowledge with you. take one at a community college, they're cheap and easy. its what i do. and i love it.
haha right... next semester. I actually just talked to my favorite art teacher from high school. He is retiring at the end of spring and wants to spend the summer doing human figure studies and having art talks around the campfire. Sounds fucking great...
Attitude & Line practice thoughts - I would say first and fore-most the key to enjoying whatever you create is not judging it or comparing it to other artwork as you draw it. Lose concepts of good and bad art, all art is expression. Art is simply beauty. Children scribbles make me happy, there's a lot to it. So many amateur and starting artists make that mistake -- every little line they make they let frustrate them -- very counter-productive when trying to get in the "zone", or when trying to simply enjoy the act. When I try to draw a complex shape, it starts off as a simple shape. A sky scraper with a 1000 windows is essentially a rectangle with many smaller square shapes inside of it, and then details--, knits, knobs knots crooks cracks crannies and lighting upon the shapes. I'll often draw light lines many times, and then use the eraser to shape what I'm drawing as I watch my subject and keep matching what I see to what I draw. It's hard to draw that "perfect line" in one motion, or to get something right all at once, so never expect that, and don't let it get to you. This is key in my opinion for real seriousness and passion. Practice - Yeah. Practice is essential and there is a lot to learn. I never went to school I am self taught and am still learning "methods", but as far as I've been recently learning as I've been trying to sketch humans -- humans may all appear different -- but essentially we are all made up of specific body proportions that fit together. Practicing drawing naked humans can help you familiarize with these proportions and draw a perfect unique human straight from your own mind. Lighting is essential. You can practice on 3D objects to get your light down. I don't know enough to go on, I'm still practicing my shading. Though the further away from the sun, the darker it is. Closer brighter, something like that. Depends on the angles too. "Do you spend time doing drawing exercises and sketches to better your art, or are you always creating what you call masterpieces? " The artist does not call his work a masterpiece. The subject does. I guess a more self-absorbed artist may call all their stuff masterpieces lol, but who knows. You should avoid aiming to make a masterpiece, people don't make art to make a master piece, they express themselves and then if they accurately did so it's usually perceived as beautiful and something deep, possibly. But you'll find in time beautiful art isn't always about a message, about being a masterpiece, etc, it was just the artist simply enjoying a beautiful moment diving into their own mind drawing what they could channel through. But yes, practice is essential. Even people who weren't born with a natural knack for art can learn it through lots of practice, patience, and going through tutorials on all different perspectives. I believe this, and I have helped friends and witness them get somewhat better. It takes time. There isn't even such a thing as bad art if you ask me. Patience is key in developing more adept 'skills'. Google is killer for finding methods if you don't have anything hands on to study. Good luck man!
If you want a solid block figure, a ruler can be helpful and there is nothing wrong with it -- a lot of artists who didn't have some sort of "advance" in drawing (if that's even what it is), used things like rulers, gridding, and math to place objects proportionately onto a work canvas. There is so many phenomenal things you can do to make your own masterpiece, no limits, no rules. But of course you can always fall back on guidelines before you develop your own thing. It's the best foundation for beginning besides practice. So you gain some sort of understanding in perspective, and how art is essentially creating an illusion of 3D/4D etc (if you're drawing 3d objects and such of course). I would say tracing may help you too, help you familiarize with small intricacies in objects that people normally don't pick up on right away. A common problem is somebody drawing an eye as a football, (not really a problem depending on the type of drawing), but just as an example here, an eye isn't really an oval, though that is the base shape. When you break down the eye, it's really just area's of dark and light. No real "solid shapes", yet it can be reduced to one and associated with one, the football. All colors are essentially either "light" or "dark". Darker colors require hard pressed lines, lighter colors more gentle, etc. It's why color TV can be converted to tones of black and white (+ everything in between) and still look amazingly realistic, just "colorless", this is essentially what your pencil is compared to an actual set of crayons when sketching. Practice looking at things that way when you draw maybe, as far as lighting and shading goes. Hope something here helped.
