Time Passages

[Patricia Joyce]

I always feel time is my dilemna. I wonder if there are other artists who are struggling as I am with making choices of HOW to spend my studio time.

Currently I work four ten hour days Tue - Fri from 8am to 6pm. By the time I am home and finished with exercise, dinner, dishes, it is 8-9pm and all I am ready for is bed. I am asleep by 9:30-10pm. So I have no time those four days to be in my studio. The most I get done is 1/2hr sketching in my book of anyting that is before my blurry eyes.

Saturday, Sunday, and Monday are my studio days. The only household task I keep up with is laundry because the laundry room is next to my studio and when the buzzer bellows that a load is done I am in need of a break! So at the end of the day if nothing else gets done, I have loads and loads of laundry clean!!!

But back to my dilemna. Should I draw or paint? Right now I am drawing most of the time because I feel I still need to improve my abilities. Yet I am so anxious to get going on color. I have done some monochrome paitings, and some wash-ins (or wipe out) as learned in Marvin Mattleson's workshop. I believe these have been valuable in learning to handle oils and it is really fun to do. But when it comes to putting on color I really stink!!!

I am attanding another workshop with Marvin in July so right now I think I may wait until that class to think about attempting another painting in color.

My question, I guess, is what is the best route to go to move from drawing to painting? I am not interested in pastels as I do not have the money to invest and I really want to learn to paint in oil. What have other artists, especially self taught artists, done to move from drawing to painting?

My guess there are other students here on the forum who would be interested in reading some suggestions on the best way to spend 3 8hr days in the studio each week.

Thank you
Pat

ps might I add, that I greatly admire the Kimberly Dow's and Jimmie Arroyo's who can work all hours, even in the middle of the night, with little or no sleep. I envy your energy!

[Michele Rushworth]

Bill Whitaker says that, in the studio, you should do exactly what you feel like doing each day. That way you keep the joy in your work and it doesn't lose its energy. If you feel you're ready for color, jump in.

[Ilaria Rosselli Del Turco]

Patricia, Michele's is the best suggestion.
And if you feel like painting just set up a small life and go for it. If you practice on still life you will get to this summer workshop with a feeling for brushes and colours. Painting is a little like exercising, you must work out regularly. You need to feel at ease with your weapons.
Don't be scared of facing a more challenging media such as oils, we all started, once!
If you have practiced a lot of linear drawing maybe you can set it aside for a while and start drawing in paint
Ilaria

[Patricia Joyce]

Michele and Ilaria,

I am always pushing myself because I feel like I don't have enough time to accomplish all that I want to accomplish. I guess it would do me well to relax a little. I will admit that I am intimidated by oils, though I am getting more comfortable with paintbrush and medium. The portrait sketches I have done with oils always end in complete, muddy frustration.

Perhaps setting up a still life is a good idea and one I will play with this weekend.

Thank you

[Michele Rushworth]

I am always pushing myself because I feel like I don't have enough time to accomplish all that I want to accomplish.

Don't expect that feeling to go away. I paint full time and I feel exactly the same way.

[Patricia Joyce]

I do like William Whitaker's advice too. When I want a portrait to be really, really top notch, like a recent one I finished for my portfolio, I am not happy with the finished product. I see in my head what I want and I can't pull it off yet...

but then, yesterday I decided to do a portrait of my father for Father's Day of a pic I have of him from his Navy days sixty-one years ago. All day it was shear pleasure, I was in the zone, it sang it's way out of me and at day's end I had a great start to a drawing I know he will love. So, yesterday was an act of love all day. But, the past three weeks have been a struggle to accomplish a goal. I suppose both experiences are worthwhile as ANY art we do is towards better work.

But that "TIME's running out" thing is what often gets in my way. It is a pressure only I put on myself. Who else does it really matter to whether or not I accomplish great paintings?

Where do you and other professionals draw the line on family obligations, like graduation parties, birthday parties, showers, weddings, reunions. It seems this summer is full of these obligations, all of which I want to make excuses for and stay at home to paint . . .

[Tom Edgerton]

[But back to my dilemna. Should I draw or paint?]

Both.

[Enzie Shahmiri]

I agree with Tom. My suggestion would be to keep a sketchbook with you at all times and draw when you wait in the parking lot to pick up the kids from school, or at the doctors office, etc. Drawings can be small studies of anything that happens to catch your eye. They train your eye to see proportional relationships and values, two things that are the foundations for a good painting.

I have struggled through many paintings as well and have come to the conclusion that it's best to walk away if things are not happening. After a little break of flipping through art books and studying paintings or reading up on old forum posts relating to the problem at hand,your mind focuses on something else and allows you to continue your work with renewed energy.

Wait until you see me struggle during Marvin's workshop in July and you will see you are not alone with your frustrations. Sometimes you just have to laugh it off and hope for a better day!

[Debra Norton]

Pat,
I agree with Tom too. Do both. That's what I do at school. On Monday, Wednesday and Friday mornings we work on the figure - either in charcoal, black and white paint, or color, depending on our progress. But EVERY Tuesday and Thursday is reserved for pencil figures, so we're drawing constantly. I've seen great improvement in my drawing skills and I know it just comes from all the practice I'm getting. What about splitting your time like this?

Last fall I made color mixing charts of our palette and found that to be a great help in my color mixing. (I think they were in the pictures I sent you a while back.)

As for the best route to go from drawing to painting - this is the way I've been taught - and the longer I'm here, the more I see the benefit of it: We start out in charcoal, to learn drawing, value, and edges. Then we go to black and white paint to continue drawing, value, edges, and add paint handling. Then we go to color in still life, while we're still in black and white on the figure. Once we get used to color in the still life we go to portrait and figure. Now that I'm working in color I can definitely see why we're taught this way. I can easily imagine how I'd be painting if I had just jumped right into it without going through the process. I very well remember all the piles of mud I made 20+ years ago, before I gave it up in frustration.

I can relate to the "time running out" you talked about. That's why I decided to go to school. It's also why we move halfway across the country to do it. I knew I'd need to be away from the old home commitments to get the time I needed. I also know when I go back home I'm going to have to train my family and friends to see me as a working woman, rather than a hobby artist.

Another thing we do that you might find helpful is memory drawing. We do it two ways. I have a notebook with silhouette shapes, going from very simple (a three sided shape) to complex (three ballerinas in tutus). We use these shapes to draw from memory. First we put tracing paper over the shape, then put a plumb line on it somewhere, and maybe a dot or two depending on the complexity of the shape. Then look at it, measuring with your eyes, pencil, or whatever - can't use rulers. Then we put away the shape and complete the drawing from memory. I confess that I tend to go in spurts of doing and not doing this. The first thing they had us do was just learn to see an inch. And then different lengths of line. You can make the shapes yourself, I've done it when I got bored with the handouts.

The other kind of memory drawing is where the model gets up for five minutes and we can look but not draw. Then she gets down and we can draw. When she's on the stand we have to cover our paper. We repeat this process for three hours, using the last 20 minutes to fix our mistakes. This really helped me to see where I wasn't looking! You could do something like this with objects rather than the figure.

Sorry, I didn't mean to go on so long! Hope this gives you some ideas.
Deb

[Patricia Joyce]

Tom, Enzie, Debra,
Thank you for your advice. I guess I will just split my time between drawing and painting which is kind of what I have been doing. It takes me a whole day for painting because I mix Marvin's palette and that still takes me a couple hours. But, I really am struggling with putting the color down and getting it to look right . . . Enzie you and I can scream together. I look forward to meeting you in a few weeks!! And Janel too. Val Warner will be there also and she is a blast to have in workshop. Should be a good group.

Debra I truly appreciate your input and value your suggetions. I like the idea of memory drawing and have to try it out. I am bad about carrying a sketchbook around but go in spurts. Currenlty I am in sketching mode every day and it does help me see everything around me. Why do we let this habit go so easily?? I guess it is like exercising, huh?

I have a couple of wash-ins completed, maybe I will take them further with just black and white. It is a good idea and I think will be less intimidating. Perhaps the best way to spend the next couple weeks before the workshop.

I appreciate all your advice. Tom, you are my quintessential Nike commercial and just what I needed to read!!!