Start Simple-Finish Great

2005-07-06T22:57:00.000-07:00

I’ve created this Blog to appease my own frustration about the many “art books” I see collecting dust in the homes of friends and strangers alike. So many of us have started with the best of intentions, spending hours at a piece of paper without the dreamed of results.
You're not a failure. Most of these books contain drawings as "how to" examples and you haven't even learned to get your proportions right, before starting to copy an accomplished artist.

What these "elitist" books gloss over is the beginners need to just have their hand do what the mind wants to draw.
But who wants to spend hours learning to draw circles and squares?
Getting to the point of expressing your artistic desires just the way your mind intended them, is difficult for even the seasoned artist.
Bridging that gap is the key to any form of creation.

Can go ten rounds with Evander Holyfield, because you watched boxing on ESPN?
Wouldn't you feel more comfortable training first?
Many of these "Learn to draw" books have incredible art. And if the vision of the artist you want to become is firmly in you mind, seeing yourself as a great artist isn't what keeps you down. The hardest part of beginning to draw, or drawing better, is mastering the basics.

OK, so what's my point?
I didn't make this page to expound on the reasons not to buy an "art book." This page is in creation to give you key tools to make those "art books" finally work the way they were intended to! It won't cost a thing to just try it, and see if it works for you.

So let's get right to the sticking point in your versioning art career.
The one thing that stops most potential artists when they first decide they have the uncontrollable desire to create, is the one shape that so far, only Leonardo da Vinci has done perfectly on record.
What he had drawn was a perfect circle, when measured by a protractor, at arms length, in a complete free hand style, and without a support of any kind.
This is the shape of doom for most beginning artists, and the shape all artists are ask to create repeatedly. Here is the circle I drew while writing this article.

It is far from perfect. But it can be, if my brain is directing the motion and the movement and not my hand. And that is the secret, unconscious knowledge, of every professional artist.

They have forgotten their hand is even on the paper, or gripped around the pencil.

They no longer consider the tool, by the time they sit to create something.

The mind is the artist.

Everything else is just in the freakin way!

This is what you usually get in the intitial stages of drawing.

The first leap the "art books" ask you to take is the creation of the armatures. Circles and ovals loosely put together to represent a human body. This may seem so simple a thing to do but so frustrating when beginning to teach yourself to draw. So let's learn to conquer this monster before it conquers you. I'll illustrate the simple steps I used to define and refine my circle making and I know they will work for you.

Print this practice circle (in black & white.) Click the circle and print from the expanded view. This will be our starting point, divided into 4 sections. You and I are going to begin to master each section, not the entire circle. What am I, a slave driver?

KEY 1: Lay a piece of paper over your printed circle
and trace from section to section-without bending
wrist. Do not turn the paper as you draw.
Do not erase, no one is grading you.

Print this practice circle (in color.) This may seem sophomoric at first, but it's also universal. Take your traced circle and place it over this print out.

In which colored section of your circle does the curve
become harder to control? Without the pencil touching
the paper, trace your circle again, slowly. Did your circle begin to lose cohesion when you couldn't see where the line is, or when you couldn't see where the line is going?

This simple practice model will help you find where you begin to lose control of your pencil.
We all have set paterns in our muscle movements.
Did you try to bring your elbow around too far?
You haven't had to alter the way you write your name before, but what if you added a flare at the end?
You would want to practice it, you wouldn't want to write a check in front of people and have your signature look like a really bad sqiggle.

So, there you were 11, 16, 20 yrs old, 30.
Maybe you were on the phone or bored at work. You've got a post it note, the corner of a magazine or even a dollar bill. You just can't help yourself; you have a compulsion to doodle.
So off to Barnes and Noble you go, heart beating in anticipation of that first, shiny new "art book." Ovals, circles and squares won't diminish your enthusiasm!
You've been drawing eyeballs and swirls and triangle connected things all your life.
You are the Master of Doodles! But, a silent realization begins to creep over you, an epiphany...
If you know how to hand write in cursive, aren't you also in some form, drawing?

If you were to write in cursive like say, Picaso. Could anyone really read it?
Didn't someone, a teacher, a parent, teach you how to write and make it readable?
Are you absolutely sure you couldn't teach yourself to draw and make it likeable?

Repetition sucks, practice sucks, and getting over the learning curve aint no fun.
Except in art!
You never really repeat yourself because art is expression. The same work will never come out on your paper twice. Practice is not

...More to come, practice while you wait.

If you want to learn to draw like this you will have to come back and visit again.

Earth's Best Artists

So let's get right to the sticking point in versioning art career. The one thing that stops most potential artist when they first decide they have the uncontrollable desire to create. The one shape that so far only Leonardo da Vinci has done on record. What he had drawn was a perfect circle, when measured by a protractor, at arms length, in a complete free hand style, and without a support of any kind. This is the shape of doom for most beginning artists, and the shape all artists are ask to create repeatedly. Here is the circle I drew while writing this article

SweattShop Web Art Class

Start Simple-Finish Great