Do I want an art book, an art tutor, an art class, or an art education?
August 8, 2022 5:27 AM Subscribe
Can you recommend an art learning process that might help? What I think I want is someone to review my (small) body of work, grade me against a rubric of mastery of different skills and techniques, help me decide what my goals are, assign specific exercises, and give me feedback. Does that exist? If not, is there a way I can provide it for myself?
Seven years ago I decided "You know what, I will learn to draw."
Cue countless youtube tutorials, books, one-off lessons, and an adult ADHD diagnosis. Today, I don't feel confident in my work, because I get lost in the details and forget what I'm working on, and I have short attention span and patience.
I've reached out to a few art teachers I know, but they are busy teaching art to school kids. I've looked a little for teaching online, but was too nervous to pull the trigger, especially because a lot of art educators have video/no-contact "classes" that I've tried in the past and not found super helpful.
I crave a bit of external validation and feedback that is goal oriented. Too many people tell me they love my style or give me encouragement, but it doesn't really give me the information I need to build skill. I'd like to find someone who can help me look at my work objectively and identify improvements, and also give me feedback on what to do differently.
I also crave having someone assign specific things to paint, because I lose a lot of energy through anxiety trying to choose what to do.
And finally - I have lost the love of sketching because of how hard it's gotten. All the mistakes have piled up in my head, the joy isn't really there anymore. I force myself into doing it a few times a month, because it's what I really want to do, but I never find myself whipping out sketching materials when I'm bored. It's an expense of energy, not a relaxing and enjoyable process I can get lost in. I would love to recapture that feeling.
(If you know someone who you'd like to recommend but are nervous about posting their info on AskMe, please DM me. all recommendations are greatly appreciated!)
Seven years ago I decided "You know what, I will learn to draw."
Cue countless youtube tutorials, books, one-off lessons, and an adult ADHD diagnosis. Today, I don't feel confident in my work, because I get lost in the details and forget what I'm working on, and I have short attention span and patience.
I've reached out to a few art teachers I know, but they are busy teaching art to school kids. I've looked a little for teaching online, but was too nervous to pull the trigger, especially because a lot of art educators have video/no-contact "classes" that I've tried in the past and not found super helpful.
I crave a bit of external validation and feedback that is goal oriented. Too many people tell me they love my style or give me encouragement, but it doesn't really give me the information I need to build skill. I'd like to find someone who can help me look at my work objectively and identify improvements, and also give me feedback on what to do differently.
I also crave having someone assign specific things to paint, because I lose a lot of energy through anxiety trying to choose what to do.
And finally - I have lost the love of sketching because of how hard it's gotten. All the mistakes have piled up in my head, the joy isn't really there anymore. I force myself into doing it a few times a month, because it's what I really want to do, but I never find myself whipping out sketching materials when I'm bored. It's an expense of energy, not a relaxing and enjoyable process I can get lost in. I would love to recapture that feeling.
(If you know someone who you'd like to recommend but are nervous about posting their info on AskMe, please DM me. all recommendations are greatly appreciated!)
So I have 2 professional artist friends who run 1:1 sessions and small group sessions for precisely this purpose! Would be happy to connect you with them - I know they've been looking to teach and mentor more for the rest of this year, too. I memailed you some more info but just mentioning it here too, in case this is useful to anyone else.
posted by aielen at 5:54 AM on August 8, 2022
posted by aielen at 5:54 AM on August 8, 2022
I think your work is lovely! I'm sure you're aware of it but my first thought is to join a local urban sketching group (e.g.) via Instagram or similar. I think there's a lot of peer feedback and some groups hire one-off teaching and mentoring sessions. But do keep making great art!
posted by humph at 6:23 AM on August 8, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by humph at 6:23 AM on August 8, 2022 [1 favorite]
Hi! First of all, nice collection of work you have there! You seem to have a natural knack for choosing palettes of colours that go really well together, and I can see that your grasp of perspective has improved through the years. That rocks, and I know it's not easy to feel like you've improved, especially if you are creating art alone without a community to cheer you on. So yay you!
If I'm reading your question right, you seem to be prioritising finding a mentor to review/grade you ahead of defining your goals. Speaking from personal experience, I think you might want to reverse the order, if possible, or at least defer the "grading" portion before you have clearly identified what kind of art you want to make. I say this because different art communities/styles/industries tend to prioritise different skill sets, oftentimes in contradictory ways. It would definitely be a less frustrating experience for you in the long run if you knew what you wanted to work towards, and to get feedback tailored in that specific direction.
With that in mind, perhaps you might want to collect 5-10 artworks that you love and hope that your art would look more like? Your mentor (or you yourself!) would hopefully be able to break them down by their different art parameters - e.g. line quality, representation of form, degree/type of stylisation, colour, value etc - and show you the gaps in your knowledge and how to practice to fill those gaps so that you can make similar work in the future. I hope this helps, and I wish you all the best in your art journey :)
posted by seapig at 6:24 AM on August 8, 2022 [3 favorites]
If I'm reading your question right, you seem to be prioritising finding a mentor to review/grade you ahead of defining your goals. Speaking from personal experience, I think you might want to reverse the order, if possible, or at least defer the "grading" portion before you have clearly identified what kind of art you want to make. I say this because different art communities/styles/industries tend to prioritise different skill sets, oftentimes in contradictory ways. It would definitely be a less frustrating experience for you in the long run if you knew what you wanted to work towards, and to get feedback tailored in that specific direction.
With that in mind, perhaps you might want to collect 5-10 artworks that you love and hope that your art would look more like? Your mentor (or you yourself!) would hopefully be able to break them down by their different art parameters - e.g. line quality, representation of form, degree/type of stylisation, colour, value etc - and show you the gaps in your knowledge and how to practice to fill those gaps so that you can make similar work in the future. I hope this helps, and I wish you all the best in your art journey :)
posted by seapig at 6:24 AM on August 8, 2022 [3 favorites]
I see that your sketchbook is of Grand Rapids. If you live in the area, have you spoken to the art department at GVSU? I've met one of the professors from there who seemed really open and I wonder if reaching out to individual faculty members might point you in a productive direction.
posted by taltalim at 8:26 AM on August 8, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by taltalim at 8:26 AM on August 8, 2022 [1 favorite]
Disclaimer: I don’t really have a solid answer but want to share a few thoughts because your question hits close to home.
Looking through your samples, I'm reminded of the watercolours that've been done by British naval officers in the days before photography. An important aspect of their job was to make a record of the ports and surrounding geography. So, I'm saying that there's a value in your work that stands outside whatever artistic conception you might have set out with. Their historical value is only going to grow.
I went to art school and for me, the most important aspect of the foundational year was getting narrowly define assignments - they asked you to fulfill a task with a limited tool set (eg. - show depth by varying the intensity of a single colour). It allowed your mind to focus on a single aspect of the project and then, when the pieces were all submitted from all your classmates, you got to see a bunch of ways of managing the task and exploiting the tool set (some more successful than others). I found this informed my eye far more than any teacher's critique.
So I'd try to find something that exposes you to the work of people who are trying to do exactly what you're doing.
Beyond that, many highly trained people struggle with finding the energy or the self-permission to work on art. I illustrate for a living and only got productive with my own work after I shifted to woodworking - it didn’t feel as fraught with expectations.
posted by brachiopod at 9:09 AM on August 8, 2022 [2 favorites]
Looking through your samples, I'm reminded of the watercolours that've been done by British naval officers in the days before photography. An important aspect of their job was to make a record of the ports and surrounding geography. So, I'm saying that there's a value in your work that stands outside whatever artistic conception you might have set out with. Their historical value is only going to grow.
I went to art school and for me, the most important aspect of the foundational year was getting narrowly define assignments - they asked you to fulfill a task with a limited tool set (eg. - show depth by varying the intensity of a single colour). It allowed your mind to focus on a single aspect of the project and then, when the pieces were all submitted from all your classmates, you got to see a bunch of ways of managing the task and exploiting the tool set (some more successful than others). I found this informed my eye far more than any teacher's critique.
So I'd try to find something that exposes you to the work of people who are trying to do exactly what you're doing.
Beyond that, many highly trained people struggle with finding the energy or the self-permission to work on art. I illustrate for a living and only got productive with my own work after I shifted to woodworking - it didn’t feel as fraught with expectations.
posted by brachiopod at 9:09 AM on August 8, 2022 [2 favorites]
I applaud you for wanting to learn to draw! I want you to know that you CAN learn to draw well, and with the right instruction, you will improve.
If you want to draw and paint realistically, you should pursue learning a Classical Realist approach to drawing and painting. If nothing else, it provides a method and a rubric and all of the structure that you're looking for.
One online course I recommend is this one. If you're intimidated by the quality of the work, don't be! Check out this post from her old blog about how she got going, back in 2004. Or this one, from her more recent blog. Or check out some of the videos on her youtube channel.
There are other Classical Realist ateliers out there. If you're near a big city, do some online searching to see what you can find.
And good luck!
posted by cleverevans at 2:23 PM on August 8, 2022 [1 favorite]
If you want to draw and paint realistically, you should pursue learning a Classical Realist approach to drawing and painting. If nothing else, it provides a method and a rubric and all of the structure that you're looking for.
One online course I recommend is this one. If you're intimidated by the quality of the work, don't be! Check out this post from her old blog about how she got going, back in 2004. Or this one, from her more recent blog. Or check out some of the videos on her youtube channel.
There are other Classical Realist ateliers out there. If you're near a big city, do some online searching to see what you can find.
And good luck!
posted by cleverevans at 2:23 PM on August 8, 2022 [1 favorite]
> There are other Classical Realist ateliers out there. If you're near a big city, do some online searching to see what you can find.
Looking for "Bargues Drawings Chicago" and on https://www.artrenewal.org/Atelier/Search
gave this:
http://www.theravenswoodatelier.com/about.html
Classical Realism/atelier/academic teaching builds foundational skills, which is why Van Gogh worked through master copies of Bargues drawings.
Even if architectural watercolors are what you want to do, I'd also look for a weekly life drawing session somewhere. Drawing and painting from the model is fun, and presents us with challenges that build us up.
The community grab-bag art schools can be good, although each instructor teaches their own idiosyncratic system for the figure, rather than an attelier that runs the student through one system that progresses inexorably towards mastery of repesentational drawing and painting.
posted by sebastienbailard at 6:42 PM on August 8, 2022
Looking for "Bargues Drawings Chicago" and on https://www.artrenewal.org/Atelier/Search
gave this:
http://www.theravenswoodatelier.com/about.html
Classical Realism/atelier/academic teaching builds foundational skills, which is why Van Gogh worked through master copies of Bargues drawings.
Even if architectural watercolors are what you want to do, I'd also look for a weekly life drawing session somewhere. Drawing and painting from the model is fun, and presents us with challenges that build us up.
The community grab-bag art schools can be good, although each instructor teaches their own idiosyncratic system for the figure, rather than an attelier that runs the student through one system that progresses inexorably towards mastery of repesentational drawing and painting.
posted by sebastienbailard at 6:42 PM on August 8, 2022
Response by poster: Brachiopod, your comment reminded me that one of my biggest inspirations for learning to paint was Watercolour World, a site that catalogued "the world before photography."
My artistic goal is to capture what I find interesting in the world. Urban Sketching, architectural illustration, landscape painting, and figure study are the areas I've focused on. Vacation sketches, monuments, interesting shadows that happen in certain locations.
However, I know my adhd brain is getting in the way, because I can't seem to "remember" the macro skills of composition, color palate, focal point, and scale; nor the micro skills of making gradients, relative values, brush control, etc. Also, I struggle with remembering what I'm doing with a painting, like "this part is supposed to be white" or "oh, there's a door there, not a window."
Basically, painting should be fun, but I spend most of the time painting feeling anxious, like I know I should know what to do next, but I just don't know what to do next, so I'll try something.... and sometimes it doesn't work out. I'd like to feel in control, like I'm following known steps, so the "art" process can drop away and I can enjoy the "explore the world" part.
I am looking for narrowly-defined assignments that will help me narrow down my focus on specific technique, so I can build those skills. And I want feedback because that's the fastest way I know to gain skill.
Thanks everyone! You are giving me a lot to think about
posted by rebent at 7:04 AM on August 9, 2022
My artistic goal is to capture what I find interesting in the world. Urban Sketching, architectural illustration, landscape painting, and figure study are the areas I've focused on. Vacation sketches, monuments, interesting shadows that happen in certain locations.
However, I know my adhd brain is getting in the way, because I can't seem to "remember" the macro skills of composition, color palate, focal point, and scale; nor the micro skills of making gradients, relative values, brush control, etc. Also, I struggle with remembering what I'm doing with a painting, like "this part is supposed to be white" or "oh, there's a door there, not a window."
Basically, painting should be fun, but I spend most of the time painting feeling anxious, like I know I should know what to do next, but I just don't know what to do next, so I'll try something.... and sometimes it doesn't work out. I'd like to feel in control, like I'm following known steps, so the "art" process can drop away and I can enjoy the "explore the world" part.
I am looking for narrowly-defined assignments that will help me narrow down my focus on specific technique, so I can build those skills. And I want feedback because that's the fastest way I know to gain skill.
Thanks everyone! You are giving me a lot to think about
posted by rebent at 7:04 AM on August 9, 2022
Next to carving in marble, watercolour is probably the most unforgiving medium to work in. It sounds like you're bumping up against that in a way that's pushing it too far into the struggle zone.
Never in my life have I directed anyone away from traditional media in favour of digital but I think you might find the iPad/Apple Pencil/Procreate to be a worthwhile investment. You can still get the look of a traditional watercolour while being able to endlessly adjust the composition, play with the intensity of colours, adjust relative values, erase bits that aren’t working out…maybe playing in that way will free you from some of the anxiety around the process. You could still come back to watercolour but with some practised facility under your belt.
But I would also bet that lots of artists besides myself can relate to the problem of it not being “fun” a lot of the time.
And as has been said above, “Yay, to you!”. I love what you've been doing. I particularly find the idea of doing sketches of meetings and such to be brilliant.
posted by brachiopod at 6:09 PM on August 9, 2022 [1 favorite]
Never in my life have I directed anyone away from traditional media in favour of digital but I think you might find the iPad/Apple Pencil/Procreate to be a worthwhile investment. You can still get the look of a traditional watercolour while being able to endlessly adjust the composition, play with the intensity of colours, adjust relative values, erase bits that aren’t working out…maybe playing in that way will free you from some of the anxiety around the process. You could still come back to watercolour but with some practised facility under your belt.
But I would also bet that lots of artists besides myself can relate to the problem of it not being “fun” a lot of the time.
And as has been said above, “Yay, to you!”. I love what you've been doing. I particularly find the idea of doing sketches of meetings and such to be brilliant.
posted by brachiopod at 6:09 PM on August 9, 2022 [1 favorite]
I agree with brachiopod, pretty much all the artists I know struggle with having antagonistic feelings with the art-making process at some point or another. I'm a freelance illustrator, and some days it feels like I'm physically wrangling with my works - this makes the good days sweeter, and ultimately I gain satisfaction from looking back at my works and seeing progress over time. With enough experience, you'd start to gain confidence in your problem-solving skills, as in "Hey I had to draw with this wonky foreshortening once, and I resolved that passably well, so maybe I'll be able to this time!".
| However, I know my adhd brain is getting in the way, because I can't seem to "remember" the macro skills of composition, color palate, focal point, and scale; nor the micro skills of making gradients, relative values, brush control, etc. Also, I struggle with remembering what I'm doing with a painting, like "this part is supposed to be white" or "oh, there's a door there, not a window."
| Basically, painting should be fun, but I spend most of the time painting feeling anxious, like I know I should know what to do next, but I just don't know what to do next, so I'll try something.... and sometimes it doesn't work out. I'd like to feel in control, like I'm following known steps, so the "art" process can drop away and I can enjoy the "explore the world" part.
This definitely sounds like a workflow rather than a lack-of-technique issue. This might be a little too much for some, but fashioning a flowchart for how you would approach a scene might help. For example, you might to classify the techniques/concepts you already know (e.g. focal point) into the wider art parameters (e.g. composition), and allocate them to different stages of your painting process.
Sample flowchart:
1) Composition
--- Relevant techniques/concepts you want to apply here: focal points, framing, rule of third's etc
--- Actual marks you make on paper: (pencil) light marks indicating the rough contour of the objects you are painting, arranged taking the above concepts into consideration
2) Perspective
--- Relevant techniques/concepts you want to apply here: 1/2/3 point perspective, horizon line, vanishing points etc
--- Actual marks you make on paper: (pencil) line indicating the horizon, light lines checking for convergence, slightly darker lines that indicate the forms of the objects with correct perspective
3) Mark-making / Drawing
--- Relevant techniques/concepts you want to apply here: line quality, gesture, hierarchy of lines thickness etc
--- Actual marks you make on paper: (pen) confident, thicker lines indicating outside contour, thinner lines for details, thinnest lines for texture
4) Values
--- Relevant techniques/concepts you want to apply here: relative values, high/low key, value grouping, 3/5 step values, value hierarchy etc
--- Actual marks you make on paper: (pencil studies) small studies on the side with pencil to test different value groupings, value range, number of value steps
5) Colour
--- Relevant techniques/concepts you want to apply here: gradient washes, brush control, transparent vs opaque vs staining pigments, hue, saturation, value etc
--- Actual marks you make on paper: (watercolour) broad washes of your chosen dominant colour, building up to local colours of the objects, white gouache for highlights. Squint to check painted values with pencil value studies.
This way, you can methodically check off items as you paint, and highlight items that you feel you cannot yet put into practice ("Have I checked for converging parallel lines on this building? Oh, they aren't actually converging to the same point, I'll put a note to practice drawing straight lines at different angles in isolation"). This should help with the anxiety, and with enough practice it would become second nature. You don't have to use the same art parameters (I see that you've already grouped the stuff you've learnt into applied/micro vs theory/macro), but I think further classifying your knowledge into more specific and logical groupings will help you to tackle your art in smaller manageable chunks. It worked for me, and I hope it works for you too :)
posted by seapig at 5:52 AM on August 12, 2022 [1 favorite]
| However, I know my adhd brain is getting in the way, because I can't seem to "remember" the macro skills of composition, color palate, focal point, and scale; nor the micro skills of making gradients, relative values, brush control, etc. Also, I struggle with remembering what I'm doing with a painting, like "this part is supposed to be white" or "oh, there's a door there, not a window."
| Basically, painting should be fun, but I spend most of the time painting feeling anxious, like I know I should know what to do next, but I just don't know what to do next, so I'll try something.... and sometimes it doesn't work out. I'd like to feel in control, like I'm following known steps, so the "art" process can drop away and I can enjoy the "explore the world" part.
This definitely sounds like a workflow rather than a lack-of-technique issue. This might be a little too much for some, but fashioning a flowchart for how you would approach a scene might help. For example, you might to classify the techniques/concepts you already know (e.g. focal point) into the wider art parameters (e.g. composition), and allocate them to different stages of your painting process.
Sample flowchart:
1) Composition
--- Relevant techniques/concepts you want to apply here: focal points, framing, rule of third's etc
--- Actual marks you make on paper: (pencil) light marks indicating the rough contour of the objects you are painting, arranged taking the above concepts into consideration
2) Perspective
--- Relevant techniques/concepts you want to apply here: 1/2/3 point perspective, horizon line, vanishing points etc
--- Actual marks you make on paper: (pencil) line indicating the horizon, light lines checking for convergence, slightly darker lines that indicate the forms of the objects with correct perspective
3) Mark-making / Drawing
--- Relevant techniques/concepts you want to apply here: line quality, gesture, hierarchy of lines thickness etc
--- Actual marks you make on paper: (pen) confident, thicker lines indicating outside contour, thinner lines for details, thinnest lines for texture
4) Values
--- Relevant techniques/concepts you want to apply here: relative values, high/low key, value grouping, 3/5 step values, value hierarchy etc
--- Actual marks you make on paper: (pencil studies) small studies on the side with pencil to test different value groupings, value range, number of value steps
5) Colour
--- Relevant techniques/concepts you want to apply here: gradient washes, brush control, transparent vs opaque vs staining pigments, hue, saturation, value etc
--- Actual marks you make on paper: (watercolour) broad washes of your chosen dominant colour, building up to local colours of the objects, white gouache for highlights. Squint to check painted values with pencil value studies.
This way, you can methodically check off items as you paint, and highlight items that you feel you cannot yet put into practice ("Have I checked for converging parallel lines on this building? Oh, they aren't actually converging to the same point, I'll put a note to practice drawing straight lines at different angles in isolation"). This should help with the anxiety, and with enough practice it would become second nature. You don't have to use the same art parameters (I see that you've already grouped the stuff you've learnt into applied/micro vs theory/macro), but I think further classifying your knowledge into more specific and logical groupings will help you to tackle your art in smaller manageable chunks. It worked for me, and I hope it works for you too :)
posted by seapig at 5:52 AM on August 12, 2022 [1 favorite]
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posted by MelissaSimon at 5:54 AM on August 8, 2022 [7 favorites]