As for some consistency in writing... It's 8:00 PM on the Sunday that I'm supposed to have a blog post, because I've decided this, and I'm writing it.
I had some ideas about what to write about. These things will come later. I want to share something else right now and share it fresh, writing it directly right now.
I've started the live stream course with Jeffrey R. Watts, the master draftsman and painter. It's fantastic to watch him draw with a direct over head camera when he does the demos in the San Diego school and his ten minute warm ups with the model. His execution is masterful and so is his consistency in demoing with clarity, fullness of content and love of the arts. I don't know how much I've gotten so far from the course, because there's so much to learn and I can only apply so much of it at once when I'm drawing something. There are many things that will take years of study before I'm saying to myself, "Yes, I'm on the same page as him with this." For now, it's knowing that I'm not there in understanding the technique (Reilly abstractions being a big one) and I am encouraged to trust the practice and teaching that I will be guided there with my own proper efforts and consistent practice. He is so far beyond where I'm at, yet can both touch the state I'm in, encourage it to go further and yet sometimes make a cutting remark of pragmatic nature that sparks the desire to be more skillful, yet also is the kind of 'tough love' stab because it is just so hard to learn how to draw. That is good teaching.
We want to hear where we are at fault, even if it was our best effort at the time. He'll say, "I'm going to tell you when your drawing's lacking. C'mon, you can do a better edge than that. It seems you just phoned it in here and ran out of patience." I'll think to myself, "Damn it, I didn't run out of patience there. I tried to do that well." Yet, it's what I need to hear. The same way that my eye doesn't know how to see proper proportions, edges, values etc. is the same way that I have unconscious patterning of any kind and can't see when I'm in it. Maybe there was impatience there to some degree, but it wasn't conscious. Meaning, when I hear that remark, I think about how I must be as conscious as I can be when drawing and solving the visual problems. And even when I am as conscious as I can be, there will be things that I can not pick up on within myself about how I'm doing the drawing. It's like if you're gripping the pencil too tight and aren't paying attention to that. Eventually your hand hurts, but it's after you've been holding on for so long with that intensity. If someone points it out, you can notice, but in the meantime it will take a lot longer.
(figure master study - NOT done in 20 minutes)
There have been some technical issues with the Watts program so far. It is their first time doing it like this. I also think about the olden days when there was no internet and nobody this good at art who could teach me this way. Even not thinking about the difference between now and how it used to be, the price is just as good as if I were taking a term at the school, which is a very reasonable price for the education, and I am getting a direct overview of his demos and the ability to re-watch them and all the students' critiques who are taking the online course with me. It is really great. Another thing from watching the critiques and all these things is that I am getting an essence of how Jeff Watts looks at art practice. More of an essence than the online school gave me, though it's been a while since I've watched those videos. More than the knowledge he's imparting, or along with it, there is a mood or atmosphere that emanates from the way he approaches the craft. This is probably more instructive than a lot of the things he's saying, in some ways, because the things are repetitive in nature. This essence is a new thing, like creation itself. It's the art of the artist behind the art from the artist. I can't explain it, but it's truly transforming for me.
My practice continues and I realize how far I am from being able to draw my story in any articulate way. Frustration comes in as I try to draw a 20 minute lay-in and it takes me 40 minutes or more to get something that needs a ton of work and has a bunch of visible mistakes before Jeff sends me his critique. I'm also still healing so sometimes doing one lay-in is what I end up with and don't have time to re-draw one and fix my visible mistakes. Then I'm inspired by the words of Jeff that say, "Frustration will make you work harder, or quit." I'm realizing how I should practice more and feeling like I have barely started to do things the right way. I may be wrong or exaggerating that, because I've done a fair amount with my few months of 40 hours a week and whatever else before that. Those few months where I did that much artwork and studying was probably double than I had done in my entire life before that. Of course, I don't really know, but I never practiced with diligence before so it seems it could be close to the truth. So, this is where I'm at currently with my reflections on my practice of learning how to be a good representational artist.
Thanks for reading,
Anthony
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