Chapter 9: How to Be a Solid Student: Reality Check

"Old School New Art - Craftsmanship: Today's Avant-Garde" - Jeffrey T. Larson

No matter how you want to paint, in whichever style or manner, the bottom line is that you need to learn how to draw really, really well…which means accurately. This is primary. This is foundational. 

You also will need to be able to recognize, organize and translate the broad range of values that exist in nature accurately, adjusting saturated sunlight and the deepest of shadows into a truthful, compressed version that has to fall somewhere between Ivory Black and Titanium White.  You will need to be able to adjust edge relationships to the subtlest of degrees.

You will need to be able to differentiate the warms from cools, see and mix the infinite variety of hues, from subtle neutrals to saturated intensities.  All of this falls under “training the eye” and it takes a long time and dedicated hard work.  You will need to learn how to handle a pencil, charcoal and paint.  Becoming competent in all of this is just the means to accomplishing a truthful rendering.  A working understanding of human anatomy is vital if you want to paint heads and figures. All of this is done in service within the creation of a solid and intelligent composition.

This isn’t meant to overwhelm or discourage but to layout a realistic understanding of what is required at a base, core level.  Every year thousands of people begin down this path to becoming working artists, a few travel down this road their entire lives, and far too many step off before they really give themselves a real shot at it.  Starting out with your eyes wide open and having as realistic of an understanding of what to expect as possible will help you prepare to grit it out when you run into bumps and challenges. 

Don’t forget, every artist who ever lived started at the beginning.

Make friends with failure, it is just your first attempt(s) at trying something new.

There is no way around this, you’re going to have to make X amount of mistakes (X equalling a lot).  So, early on as a student, make as many as you can and get a bunch out of the way…make them big.  Big mistakes are easier to catch, they get you further down the road quicker (as long as you are learning from them), and they’re good for the soul. 

There is nothing worse or more nonproductive than allowing the fear of making mistakes to slow you down to a crawl.