Never stop improving your technique

Practice does make perfect. With art you've got to practice, practice and practice some more.

I know I need to put in more quality time to get to where I want to go artistically. I am taking another 3 day workshop with Martinho Correria titled: Studying the figure through the Masters at the Calgary School of Art at Cactus Arts Supply store. Check out their respective website for more info. Its nice to see some familiar faces as well as many new ones for this intensive in classical atelier methods of instruction. I love the private training, you always get pushed beyond the levels and learn so much, making the price worth every penny. I highly recommend these courses and others like them at Swinton's Art Supply etc. if you really want to learn artistic skills and techniques directly form those in the craft every now and again I ma delegated at the opportunity to improve my skills as a student and devote some time to improving my practice.

After the first lecture we worked on tracing gesture type drawings from old masters works to get a feel for the essence of "gesture drawings". It is challenging to remove what you know and previous skills and learn to work a different way. These gesture drawings are meant to be simple ways of conveying the weight and feeling of a model and freezing it into a moment as models tend to move even when posing for a long time. This means you have to learn to capture the feeling behind the figure being drawn.  We traced a myriad of figures done by different artists for reference.

We learned how to properly prepare a pencil and how to hold it for this type of drawing. This one was plastic composite and not wood, I was fooled at first, until I got my exact blade in it, it shaved weird. Then you make a point in the lead with some sandpaper and use smooth wrist and arm movements to create soft and curved S and C curved lines.

We practiced on a small Brague drawing example. First doing a gesture drawing to capture the feeling of the form and then moving into getting the basic shapes and proportions of the figure in place. I took additional notes during the demos to add to the invaluable handouts our instructor Martinho provided.

After a lunch of a delicious "Manwich" at the Holy smoke Grill across the street, I felt groggy with so much meat and bun in my belly. I set up my drawing board on an easel and set up the reference next to the paper another student was kind to offer me to try and work on. This pose is a little intimidating given how much time we had left in the class.

We worked on drawing our figure larger using comparative proportions. I think my guy is a little thick, in places, there is some definite tweaking needed before continuing onto the next stage. But I did manage to get the majority of the figure blocked in in the time given. I look forward to learning more in the next few days, we will see how things develop, I hope this interests you and you come back to check it out.

Ciao for now = :D

Why Beauty Matters

I made a post yesterday and by the end somehow it transformed into some sort of personal manifest.
A statement that says: This is how I see the world. This is how I choose to live.

It was empowering but there is more to that vision I would like to share. I spent the day working on stuff, during which I had videos on you tube about the lives of great artists like Caravaggio, Rembrandt, Leonardo Da Vinci, Velazquez, Manet, Picasso and so on. Many were from a BBC series titled "The Power of Art". Some were about their lives, others about the process of restoring their work. All captured my attention. For some reason these are the things that bring interest to my life.

 I'm lucky I know the things I like. I love the smell of the studio. I love collecting art books and artwork. I love learning more about how to make visual things better and more appealing. I love color, and art materials, and all the tools of creativity. I have an addiction to collecting this kind of stuff. It has been a life long process of discovery that continues each and every day. These are the things that fulfill me and make me happy. I can't explain why, but if it does it needs more pursuing. Making art is a question, a question the artist poses to him/her self. This whole thing is about life and self discovery.

So what is Beauty, and why does it matter?

I found this video that is just the tip of the iceberg, but it really caused me to solidify my purpose.  It made me feel those higher aspirations I have in order to transcend this world in pursuit of the sacred.

I have always felt a certain way about art. I am also appalled by most of what I have sampled in and around my city. I choose not to go to most openings because of some of the ways people behave but also because most of the art is not what I would consider art. Its lazy and cynical and pithy. Maybe its the current state of apathy or the inability of the artists to create a straight line. Do they have the fundamentals to create beauty or did modernity scrape that away in exchange for convenience and profitability? The state of art as a current definition is an empty slave to consumer culture feeding immediate appetites to gratify empty pursuits.

Fuck being poignant cynical or funny to make pithy post modern statement, I will not trade my dignity or integrity in the pursuit of  fame and fortune, or after simple selfish fulfillment. There is more to life than this. There is talk of a returning trend toward classical idealism and training. Even I am interested in pursuing these exalted goals. My interest lay in figurative work at the moment but any learning toward mastery of this craft is very appealing.

That is why I want to create, to fill this hollow void with beauty.



 A close up of Martinho's piece, he learned at John Angels studio in Florence, Italy.

So how does one go about learning this craft?

One route is libertarian academic training and getting a Master' degree so that one can have a stable job and teach. In a discussion with a good friend, he had me name those who I knew who had done this path. To my surprise, I couldn't name people I respected. And yet, they were the ones who attained a masters level. The second option, which has my interest at this time, is trying out the Atelier Method. This studio training is where artists are trained under a master in the tradition ways of making art. It is the old method or apprenticeship. I worry it is from the ideals of centuries past and I don't want to make photographic like classical works exclusively. I also don't want to fall into the trap of following old rules in a contemporary world. But then again, look how beautiful the work is.

I suppose the argument ends up being one of idea makers over skilled artisans and crafts people. I am going to continue contemplating these subjects.
What are your thoughts?