Category: drawing

Drawing versus art

In college, I had an art teacher in a design class or some other esoteric subject who said to me, “Just because you can draw doesn’t make you an artist”. I was devastated, insulted, dismayed, shocked, and any other adjective you can think of for the situation—how dare he say that to me!! Now that I have the advantage of 35+ years life experience and wisdom, I know he was right, even if it was an insensitive and snotty remark.

Drawing is a skill that can be taught, learned, developed and is sometimes just innate. Art has to be something that one learns about, develops over time, and comes about because of a love for the subject. Art can encompass many skills, forms and be useful in many careers.

Drawing is a skill that is useful regardless of one’s career, and it definitely is useful in any art career. One can become an artist without the ability to draw, particularly in this age of multiple tools. A number of years ago, I had an interesting conversation with an art teacher friend. She was teaching her junior high students more than any of my college professors ever taught me—principles, elements, styles and history.

My college professors may have had their Master’s of Fine Arts degrees, but mostly they walked around the room while taking a break from their own work, and offered criticism and snide remarks (“Just because you can draw. . .” or “You need to work on composition”) without ever bothering to actually teach, to demonstrate or share information.

I have been teaching people how to draw for over 30 years. (and that is without an MFA – imagine that!) It is a skill, and in teaching the skill, many other things about art can be shared. We talk about different styles, ways to set up a drawing from the beginning, ways of arranging the elements in a drawing, and lots of technique. (The main thing I ever want to learn is HOW and the second is WHY, so that is what I share with my students.)

Through the years, only a small handful of my students (that I know of) of have pursued art as a career. Everyone that has stayed long enough has learned to draw, and they each have drawings they can proudly show off to prove that they know how to draw.

I couldn’t draw this well in college; growth is the goal of many years of practice.

Drawing lessons were not a waste of time for any of my former or present students. They learn to draw (duh), learn to communicate with people of all ages (that is the way my classes are), explore a type of art in a comfortable environment, develop a bit more confidence, and make new friends.

I enjoy every moment spent with each of my students. We have easy friendships that transcends age and last through time and all its changes. In conclusion, I can draw AND am an artist, so there, you Snotty Professor who are now probably just a retired teacher! But I’m not bitter.

The Rules

There have been many art teachers in my life, and each one seems to have hard and fast rules. Several colored pencil (CP) teachers have said NEVER USE BLACK. Another CP teacher said, “If you aren’t supposed to use black, why do they manufacture it?” That strikes me as pure (un)common sense.

One CP teacher said to ALWAYS put the darkest color as the bottom layer and work up to the lightest color. Another said ALWAYS start with the lightest color as your base and then add layers in order of increasing darkness. I have done both on the same drawing and gotten the same result!

My best drawing teacher in college only let us draw with a 6B, which is a very soft black pencil. He did not let us smear or blend with any tool, including our fingers. He never told us why this was So Very Important, but now with many years of hindsight, I have this guess: if you could learn to control that one pencil, you could make any pencil do anything you wished it to do. It took me years to be able to use the entire range of pencils available because his idea was so deeply etched into my head. This is a drawing from his class:

Some of the painting teachers I have listened to say “NEVER use white alone”. (What are you supposed to use if that is the color you need??) Most say, “NEVER use black”. At an art show of Very Big Deal Artists, one of the artists I spoke with told me of his layering process and it included black paint!! Go figure.

Many of my students ask me how to hold their pencils. I show them how I hold mine, and tell them to try it, and to try anything that feels comfortable to them. The point is that there are some places in life where there are absolutes, but in art the only absolutes are determined by the results you desire.

Flags should be in color!

This little gem was fun! Seems to me that any time there is a flag, color should be applied. On the last commission, the customer and I discussed adding color to the flowers. We concluded that there was only one place it would work, and then the front door would no longer be the main event. With this drawing, the color is conveniently located next to the front door, so that is not an issue. (Ick, that word really bugs me. However, note its proper usage here.)

And here is an admission: I am getting old. I know this, because 8×10 feels very very small. Much of this drawing happened under a giant lit magnifier. Those diamond shaped windows next to the front door took an alarmingly long time to get right – no pencil point can be sharpened small enough. This used to be normal work for me, and now it is so very very tiny that I can’t believe I used to draw this way! And to any of my drawing students who are reading this, please please forgive me for expecting the same from you if you are over 45 years old!!

All About Drawing Pencils

I use three different brands of pencils. None is particularly better than any other, but my current favorite is the red one, Stabilo. I can’t find them anymore, but being someone who dislikes shopping, I haven’t tried very hard yet. The blue ones, Staedtler, are pretty good, quite dark, but not as dark as the Stabilo. Turquoise, made by Sanford, are the ones I used in college, so there is a weird sense of loyalty even though they aren’t as dark as the others. Besides, they are very easy to find. There are other brands, but these are enough for me. You can see colored pencils in the cups in the background, but that is for another entry.

That little black and silver dealie on the end of the three pencils in the lid of the box is a pencil extender. It used to be a bit of a game to me to see how short I could get a pencil and still use it. Then carpal tunnel syndrome kicked in, and it became clear that the longer the pencil, the less the pain.

For years I drew without understanding what the H and B actually stood for on those drawing pencils. With some reading, I finally learned that H is for Hard and B is for Black. The higher the number with the letter, the more there is of that particular quality. So a 5H is harder (and lighter) than an H (which is 1H but the 1 is assumed). A 6B is blacker (and softer) than a 3B. An HB is exactly in the middle, and is the equivalent of a #2.

And get this: the lead is a combination of graphite and clay. The more clay, the harder and lighter the pencil. The more graphite, the softer and blacker the pencil. Ever used a pencil that scratched? It probably had a rough piece of clay in it. (Don’t you just hate that?)

Sometimes students ask why the pencils don’t come with erasers. EASY answer! Because we would use the eraser up long before the pencil, and then we would automatically flip the pencil over to erase and scratch our drawings. By forcing us to develop the habit of picking up the separate eraser, the pencil manufacturers are sparing us some unnecessary pain. (And for that,we thank you, lovely Pencil Manufacturers.)

All this leaves me with some questions: 1. Who decided that hard is the opposite of black? and 2. What in the world does F stand for? 3. How does this all fit with the school-type rating of pencils, 1, 2 and 3?

How splitting wood is like drawing with pencils

Sports are not for me – in fact, I’ve been known to say that I have only two sports: walking and splitting wood. I love to split wood! That is the axe my dear husband gave me for my birthday, and this weekend I was thrilled to get to try it.

As I was splitting wood, it occurred to me that there are many parallels between splitting wood with an axe and drawing with a pencil. Look at these:

1. Neither require electricity.

2. Both require a sharp edge – blade or point.

3. For best results, start with the large and move to the small.

4. They both make wood bits – shavings from the sharpener or splinters from the axe.

5. Lots of strokes are required for results.

6. One has to start with good stuff to get decent results – great scenes make great drawings, and good clean-grained wood makes good shaped pieces.

7. Both require paying close attention to what one is doing, unless one doesn’t mind wasting time and energy.

8. The terms “hard” and “soft” are always being flung around, both with wood and with pencils.

9. Cedar makes the best pencils and also the best-splitting wood.

I’m sure there are more parallels; can you think of any?