Projecting vs. Drawing
To draw or project ones subject on paper…ah, that is the question?
I see nothing WRONG with projecting a photograph taken by the artist. Sometimes a very complex subject, that requires accuracy, requires one to project the image. Restless subjects, such as children, also require the use of photography. However, projection has major creative limitations over drawing.
Drawing helps one familiarize oneself with the subject, its structure, value patterns, and shifting planes. It also permits time to think about how one might manipulate color, edges, etc. to help express what it is about the subject that made one want to paint it in the first place. Drawing requires us to pay attention! It also permits time to simplify and exaggerate a subject and build, for lack of a better word, a ‘relationship’ with the subject that will continue during the painting process. Even if one needs to project an image, I think there is real value in re-drawing the image in order to move things around for the sake of improving design and making it our own.
Here are some additional “up sides” to drawing. You can take a pencil and paper almost anywhere; the more you do it the easier and better it becomes. One cannot help but have very individual art if it is drawn and not projected. There is an incredible sense of satisfaction in “pulling from your depths” an image. Drawing takes time and therefore helps us overcome the ‘tyranny of the clock’ (Art is not about creating production line items. “Quality” art takes time to develop and paint.) Finally, drawing provides more creative flexibility… you cannot project what is in your imagination.
Some art forms are built around photography (transfers in collage for example) but, generally speaking, (and I have heard this from many artists we have filmed) learning to draw well is essential to art, and I would add, a whole lot of fun.
~Lynn~
RESIN JEWELRY - Sherri Haab
Sherri Haab has done it again! She has done all the research so you can just enjoy this new exciting product with confidence and safety. Resin opens new vistas of transparency and inclusions into jewelry, ephemera or just to seal a treasured keepsake. You learn about the material while making 15 unique projects. Sherri uses commercial molds, makes her own from a family heirloom, uses game pieces in a mini-tableau dangle, creates a theme bracelet … the list goes on. Check it out!
Sale ends when these DVDs arrive at the CCP warehouse.
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Hand Lettering on Fabric with Lisa Engelbrecht
Lisa Engelbrecht’s DVD workshop is a sound, yet creative introduction to beautiful hand lettering. She makes practice fun with an easy decorative project. It’s like two workshops in one. Basic materials and the building block of hand lettering are presented in the first part, while the second half shows you the important considerations when working on fabric. You learn how to condition material and seal the surface, plus how she creates her special backgrounds before writing. Lisa brings it all together by using a few simple materials to build a collapsible Bali Lantern. What you learn here can be applied to the fabric arts, collage or just because you want to learn more about decorative writing.
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PONDERINGS
This weekend Ted Nuttall, a wonderful portrait artist, was here for a visit. He’s toying with the idea of doing a workshop with CCP. He does not want to film a workshop that is only about technique, but rather something that gets to the HEART of portrait painting. I’ve spent the last few days trying to figure out what exactly that ‘HEART’ is. Can it be defined? Can it be conveyed in a film?
I see art as an endeavor wherein true excellence entails several critical elements. The first is a mature relationship and proficiency with a medium. One doesn’t necessarily need to have conquered their medium, but an artist does have to be at the point where working with their materials is almost ’second nature’ and they need to attain confidence enough to permit some risk taking.
Secondly the artist must have ‘a handle’ on design. They must have an understanding, intuitive or otherwise, of the impact altering one part of a painting has on the ‘whole’ of the universe within the frame. (I’ve noticed that knowing design and having an ability to draw seems to help make risk taking less risky.)
And the third element is the most ambiguous part that Ted, Virginia Cobb, John Salminen, George James and many more artists I respect all talked about. ART asks us to know ourselves… and I think that is why it has such power for those who pursue it. Art is a visual expression of the journey. It is a snapshot on the path of an artist meeting themselves. ART is the counter balance to today’s age of electronic clutter where the ’self’ can be quickly lost. In good art we find real human expression.
Cheng-Khee Chee said that every painting is a reflection of the artist. I now more fully understand what he was saying. We all have had the sense of knowing someone through their paintings. We can even know masters long departed by studying their work. It is a glimpse into their personality, struggle, and times.
How DOES a teacher create sign posts on the path of self discovery? Now that’s a question worth asking, and it goes far beyond art.
~Lynn~
Capturing Limited Light Using Expressive Brushwork by Betty Carr
Betty’s energetic approach to watercolor is contagious. Her workshop covers concepts such as: beginning with darks rather than lights, how to direct the visual path using gradations and darks, painting on a vertical surface, carrying the energy off the page and how to use expressive brushwork to add life to a painting. Along the way, Betty shares how she uses her sketch book to design her painting and think through her value pattern, her favorite quotes, warm-up exercises and much more.
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Ever wonder what the big deal is about polymer clay? Here’s your chance to find out why this versatile product is so popular. In Dayle Doroshow’s two workshops she takes inspirations from the motifs of Provence, France (DD1d) and China (DD2d) to develop exciting faux materials out of Polymer clay (Femo).
You learn to make ‘jade’, ‘bone’, ‘mileflorie’ and how to create an antique look and transfer images. Dayle creates jewelry, pendants, boxes, books, beads and charms… all great fun and it makes wonderful gifts or ephemera for collage or quilting projects. Check it out!
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