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A Painter Who Can't Draw

Posted on 9/13/2019 7:27:58 AM - Comment on this
Topics: Q&A Series | Talks/Instruction

A Painter Who Can't Draw

I am on the left and it's obvious I could neither draw nor paint. I think I've used this image on the blog before, but I use it to prove a point.

Drawing & painting take work and determination. Talent is a small portion of the equation.

Ruthie, what would you say to a would-be painter who can't draw? I don't mean "can't paint." Say someone who paints realistically but uses someone else's photos for subjects because he or she never learned to draw and is a little bit afraid of trying.

Sidney Oliver

Sid, I hesitate to say that some people just cannot draw because, frankly, I have no earthly idea, but I do know that there are a lot of people who can draw or who can draw well enough to outline what they want to paint. They are either too fearful to try or too lazy to learn.

Decades ago, the head of the art department at the University of Tennessee was colorblind. He was a painter. Being colorblind didn't keep him from painting.

I remember walking into a college sophomore's room back when I was a college freshman. Her walls were papered with, what I thought with my untrained eye, professional-looking sketches. Man, was I impressed! To have talent like this must have been delightful. Looking back, I realize that she probably did have some talent, but she also was determined and that's what it takes.

From the get-go, no one should ever expect to take up a pencil or a pen and be able to draw something recognizable. Yes, there might be that rare prodigy out there, but that's not the norm. From the outset, a lot of people are discouraged and never try again. It takes a lot of work and hours of practice. Don't become frustrated or angry. No one has earned that right until they've paid their dues. Relax and have fun with it and do not think of this as a chore.

As for sketching, what have you got to lose? In watercolor, you lose a piece of paper. In oils, you lose an image that can be painted over. In other words, not much.

Expect to fail. Expect to fail a lot.

Look around you. Draw anything and everything. Everyone has a doorknob. Draw a doorknob. Keep drawing the doorknob until you intimately know that doorknob. Draw for yourself. Do not show anyone what you have drawn. That's intimidating. Realize that it won't be perfect. Trust me, I have a lot of failures in my sketchbook.

With Limited Time, a Sketchbook Is Handy is an earlier, very brief post on sketching. I plan to do a follow up this post with more on the sketching process including some photographs of sketchbooks belonging to friends. Stay tuned.

Referencing the part of the question about using the photographs of others: As discussed in an earlier post (How Do Cameras Come Into Play?), I love to take photographs. I use the camera as a guide or a jumping-off place to help me get inspired to paint. The photographer chooses the subject and frames the subject the way his creative mind sees how it should be framed. The photographer crops and edits the photograph the way his creative mind sees how it should be edited. At this point, the image belongs to the photographer.

Sid, since you are a writer, I'll mention an imperfect writing analogy. What if you wrote something, anything-a letter to the editor, an article, it doesn't matter? You are the one who had the idea, who worked to get it just right by forming the words that appealed to how you wanted to present your ideas. Say Trudy Tooscaredtotakearisk comes along and either uses your piece with or without permission. She gussies up the writing and adds some illustrations around the corners. She signs her name to it.

Is this a collaborative effort? If not, who gets the credit?

I suspect there are a lot of Trudy Tooscaredtotakearisks out there in the painting world. If one prefers working from photographs, take your own photograph. Figure out your own composition and how you want to present the subject. Drive 50 miles to get that perfect shot as I did yesterday. I remember waiting for one hour in an alley in Heidelberg, Germany to take a photograph. It had to do with the light, of course. Cameras are not as difficult as they used to be when everything was manual. I have 3 different types of cameras, but in most instances, I still grab my iPhone. How easy is that? It's possible to learn design by taking photographs. If you are using someone else's photograph, you are piggybacking off someone else's creative mind. Let the entire creative effort be yours alone and not a collaborative effort with an unnamed creative partner.

Notice the numerous lines attempting to make a nice circle.

This will be repeated in the next post, but I've discovered the most fun way to sketch is to scribble. I'm sure I developed this habit from working in oils and trying to outline an image on canvas. Multiple stabs with a paintbrush are placed on the canvas in an attempt to capture an image in oils. The same goes for scribbling. Putting down only one line is far more intimidating than taking multiple stabs at something and letting the viewer see those multiple stabs. If the process is shown, I feel the work comes alive. You don't want your work to look as if you purchased a paint-by-numbers kit. Let your thought process show. Let your skill or lack of skill show. Let your personality show.

Above all...

Enjoy the process!

Ruthie Windsor-Mann