All Feathered Out!!

As many of you will know I tutor to art groups in the area and am more than happy to travel further afield if invited. At the moment the furthest I have travelled is to Leicester but am looking at one or two new places which will involve overnight stays ... exciting!!

In the meantime, I work at a lovely community centre in Wigan called Sunshine House where I run blocks of 4 week lessons and all day workshops and the next all day workshop is on Sunday the 7th June. This has booked up very quickly and I do have a few people on a waiting list... the subject is "Fur and Feathers" where I will be showing people how to paint different types of fur and feathers and we will also look at noses, eyes etc and how to make them look part of the animal's face.

I usually do a bit of preparation for my workshops and this is no exception so I have been working on a few chickens,cockerels and owls. I don't always draw them but often that approach isn't helpful in workshops as not all the students can paint without drawing and I also need to understand how difficult the drawing is in the first place.

Those who have followed me for a while will know I have an opinion about drawing and painting (well actually I have an opinion about most things!!)... I believe them to be separate skills and often students complain they are no good at drawing and it often stops them painting. I identify with this to an extent as my drawing skills have always been reasonable but when I started my painting skills were hopeless so I cannot count the number of times I ruined a lovely drawing the minute I touched with my brush!! It used to stop me painting because I hated spending all that time on a drawing to have it ruined within minutes...likewise for those who feel their drawing skills are lacking even if they can paint they feel there is no point as the drawing spoils their efforts, so what's the solution? I encourage my students to learn to draw, but not when they want to paint. Learn to draw for the sake of learning to draw and paint for the sake of painting. So I have no difficulty with students tracing, using a light box or grid to get the image down on paper as in fact a lot of the masters did. I still practice drawing skills and this is one I did of Una Stubbs during the Big Painting challenge

 This took about 20 minutes with no grid or tracing etc but not always that easy to get a likeness, some seem to come quickly and others take ages and still not very successful but one thing I do  know is that practice makes perfect and drawing skills can be improved dramatically with perseverance!!

On to the feathers!!

So I have drawn these but worked on them in different ways. The chicken was painted mainly positively with a few edges lost and a few found negatively.

Used indigo, Winsor Red, Burnt Sienna (really can't do without that colour!!) and touch of Raw Sienna

In my classes I am often asked what colours I am using and I am really mean and rarely tell people... why? Because the colours are not so important and I don't want people to have to go out and buy the paint I am using in the hope it will make all the difference. I invite people to use their own colours, try them out first and see what combination they might like then at least they can choose from their own palettes and not be influenced by what I'm using because next time my palette would be different too!!

 The cockerel was done with the background first so all the edges were broken to start with and my job was to go back in and create them again so although the subject was drawn first I haven't slavishly followed the lines,  rather used them as a guide. Colours in this, Winsor Blue, indigo, Winsor Purple, Burnt Sienna, Translucent Orange, Windsor Red.

Different again, used a bit of both methods on this and a touch of masking fluid to the head and eye. Not something I use a lot of but have got one of those ruling pens from the SAA and find I can get some really thin lines with it so I now do use it occasionally. This one is obviously more subtle but I rather like his face and may have another try using a more colourful palette. Colours used, Alizarin Crimson, Winsor Blue, Ultramarine, Burnt Sienna, Tranlucent Orange

Watch out for the next furry sketches.....

Painting versus Drawing..... My Dilemma!!!

Deliberately chose the title to indicate a difference between the two and many of you who have followed me on the various forums will know I have spouted forth many times on this subject.

Now I find myself in a bit of a dilemma with my own spouting!!!!!

I have always felt that painting and drawing are completely separate skills... still do in fact. I have never seen anything wrong in using aids for getting a drawing onto the paper allowing someone to then get on with painting. I drew a lot as a child but painted very little so developed reasonable drawing skills and absolutely no painting skills. So did the ability to draw help my ability to paint? Not one bit other than being able to get a credible drawing on the paper which I invariably ruined the minute I touched it with any paint!!!!

I started to get precious about the drawing and the whole thing put me off painting anything which was remotely difficult to draw as I knew I was likely to have to do the drawing again and again and again.  I ruined so many beautiful drawings as soon as I hit the paint and it all took too long, keep having to draw things again to be painted. I found painting to be a much more difficult skill to learn than drawing but how was I to learn to paint if the thought of keep having to do the drawings was holding me back?

So, I started to paint without drawing something which is a fundamental feature of Jean Haines work, work as you will all know I love and has been an inspiration to me. This process really works for me, not because it allows me to be more spontaneous and to be less constrained by the lines ( I know Jean if you are reading those should be my main reasons!!!) but simply because it lets me paint as soon as possible and I can never wait to start painting!!!

So what's the problem then!!!

Well my problem is that although my drawing skills are ok..... am beginning to realise they could be a lot better so that I am struggling with certain things when just going in with the paint and this is where the dilemma arises.....

This is the image I'm working on at the moment, another Susan and I are doing and have done 2 watercolour sketches so far. Am liking how the fur and background are happening but can I get the muzzle right in proportion and angle to the eye and rest of the face? It is totally spoiling the whole sketch and frustrating me at the same time!!!! As with any sort of portrait the features have to be right, the angle of this face is proving particularly tricky and I am really struggling just going in with the paint so on this I am going to do just a faint drawing. But, I don't want to go back to having to draw. I want to paint!!!

When I used to go to art classes and did very little practise during the summer break I used to find my drawing skills deteriorated and needed a bit of work to bring them back to standard. I have done very little drawing recently but have now realised I really do need to brush up on my skills so that I can continue to work without the use of a sketch in my painting.

Painting without drawing needs spot on drawing skills and while I can get away with a lot of subjects, flowers, landscapes, nudes, they don't really seem to test my drawing skills, other subjects I struggle with, face profiles, some animals and other subjects where I maybe just haven't paid attention to the finer points of the drawing (Jean's door for example)..... and with this image there is a tricky angle, so am finding I need a few guidelines and therefore think it is back to the drawing board quite literally for me!!! 

So it isn't really a dilemma but it is something I need to address. It doesn't shake my belief that drawing and painting are two separate skills but what do I now think about people using aids to get the drawing on the paper? I think I still believe that to be a good thing for those who struggle with drawing and spend hours trying to get something to look half decent to then allow them to paint. I have always advocated that people practice drawing for the sake of drawing and painting for the sake of painting.
 
However, having encouraged people to use other means of getting an image on the paper, doesn't mean I  would not encourage them to improve their drawing skills. Drawing is a fundamental but what I am trying to say is that I don't want lack of drawing skills to stop people painting. Try and learn to draw as a skill in itself and likewise learn to paint as a separate skill. Learning to draw means learning to draw "what you see not what you think you see" and just as you can be taught to paint you can be taught how to draw. I do have the book "Drawing wth the Right Side of the Brain" a bit of a drawing teaching bible and as yet haven't really checked it out... maybe now is the time!!!

So, you might see one or two charcoal sketches appearing on my blog over the next few weeks as I try to polish up my drawing skills so that I no longer need to draw on my paper and can just paint!!!!