Rigorous Study

Fortunately for me, I did learn a thing or two at Art Center, but in hindsight, not nearly as much as I could have. I was probably too young! I didn’t appreciate the opportunity to study with some of the greats in the design and illustration industry. I was so focused on the “portfolio” rather than how to gain the skills to create it!

After Art Center I worked as an illustrator but found my drawing skills lacking, so I spent as much time as I could at life drawing sessions and keeping a sketchbook. I learned on the job to draw. It was pre-internet days, so you couldn’t just find a picture of what you needed on a computer from your house, you had to go out and scrounge up “scrap” from the library to take photos of friends and family if you needed people to pose for you. We kept a “scrap” file of photos of everything from skies to architecture to bunny rabbits. It was a very coveted and valuable thing to have an extensive file! But having good reference is just a small part of good drawing.

My art education didn’t end in California. While I was still working as an illustrator in the early 90’s after moving to Oregon, I began painting the landscape in pastel. I taught myself how to work with the medium, at first mostly by trial and error. When I became a bit more serious about it, I sought out artists whose work I admired. I studied and eventually took two workshops from Richard Mckinley who is a fabulous, generous instructor. He sets the bar very high!

Soon I began to be invited to teach classes and workshops which I found taught me just as much as I was passing onto my students. Teaching forces an artist to verbalize this thing that is very nonverbal and therefore break it down into an understandable process. It also makes you walk your talk.

Now working as an instructor takes up most of my time, but I’m still learning and finding those gaps in my understanding of my craft. If I have them, my students likely have them and they need to be addressed. So I keep studying and honing my skills. It’s a wonderful thing that we can paint for a long, long time.

I think students can get frustrated if they don’t see the results they are after right away and are sometimes looking for the magic bullet, be it having the right colors or a particular technique or formula.  Edgar Payne said “Rules were never meant to be formulas for building pictures, but rather , to instruct in the storing up of knowledge and aiding skill or facility which may be brought forth later.”

What I believe is just as important as continuing to improve painting skill, is staying open minded and having great discipline. These two qualities let us make the most of new ideas and information. It’s a wonderful and magical thing about painting. Drawing and painting every day when humanly possible is really the way to get better. It’s like practicing the piano; you have to build your skills and keep them limber. They will fade if you don’t. It’s the use it or lose it principle.

Looking at everything out there both old and new is also part of being a creative. This is just staying in the flow. Study both the old masters and the works of contemporaries whose work you admire. Checking out Pinterest and other websites to stay current on what your peers are up to is fun and smart. I like to pursue Powell’s books because they stock older out of print art books which to me offer some of the best art instruction. Old school illustrators like Andrew Loomis could really draw and compose. Some of the language is out of date, but the information is unrivaled! Some of my favorite artists are Charles Burchfield, George Bellows, George Inness, Rockwell Kent and Edgar Payne just to name a few. I love looking at the composition of N.C. Wyeth and Degas. The Canadian Group of Seven provides endless inspiration as does the draftsmanship of Sargent and modern illustrators like James Gurney.