| Author | Message | ||
  tachee |
thanks robert and dan. i TRY to chalk up nasty people to just another learning experience on how NOT to treat people. tiz a puzzle as to why i still love watercolor. good day in the studio. negative painting- white tulips. june show, thought i might invent a few flowers. eugene- if this is where greg is starting out- we have great expectations for where he shall end up. i have kept my first few [...do ya'all?]when i am raging and ranting on not being able to accomplish a painterly task, i pull them out. and have a good laugh. | ||
EUgene |
But then there's GREG, who has painted only 6 watercolors- all beautiful! There goes my "practice" theory.. Just shows there are exceptions to all rules. | ||
Eugene |
LINDA I agree with you on John Pike.. His book is still the best for teaching basic transparent watercolor technique. However reading takes you just so far.... there is also practice, practice, practice. The only way to gain control and confidence. | ||
Linda |
Eric, enjoy each element you run across. Look at it this way - a series of paintings! With each teacher you admire, do a few works with his/her recommendations. You gain from the experience, and have plenty of subjects to try. All it takes is the self-discipline to stay with ONE teacher (or book, or workshop) until you've learned all what you wished to learn. And the beauty is, you have so many nice products in the end! Eric, John Pike was also the first teacher (actually, his book) that I stuck with until I learned how to paint a picture. The very first painting I was ever proud of I made because he took the effort to teach in a book. I will always admire tremendously his work. Thank you, John! So many people love you!!! | ||
Robert |
Tachee- I sympathize with your experience. No, no one can do as much damage as a bad teacher. I have had experiences with those 9not in art). On the other hand, no one can do more to help us improve than a good teacher. Thankfully there are plenty of these, especially giving workshops which are, along with books and especially practice, practice, practice a better avenue to watercolor growth than college classes. A practicing artist has more to offer than a bad attitude professor or grad student who knows not how to do what they teach well enough to be out there on the battle lines. | ||
Dan |
Life is such a learning experience...there are just so many directions and ways to be influenced and "pulled". It's nice to always be open to new ideas from books or teachers or workshops...but yes....you just got to get "hands on" experience, in my opinion, to truly feel confident and free. This is largely a "passion" and passion felt is the reason we pursue this "thing we do". I honestly feel it will be the only thing we can take out of this "existence". Therefore...we should "know ourselves" and our own unique ways of expression. You can't put a grade on that! Tashee...I'm so sorry you had such a bad experience with...what I feel...was a teacher with serious issues. I too have overcome bad "life examples". I'm glad it did not stop you from pursuing your talent. All I can say is I wish people would somehow be accountable for what they say to others. Words cut deep and are often felt for a lifetime. Remember...you owe nothing to no-one but yourself when you choose to express yourself. When early man spread red ochre pigment over his hand on the cave wall at Lascaux France he was most likely expressing himself and what he saw. He didn't need a book or teacher to tell him what to do. | ||
terry |
I've created a Workshops Topic section and would like feedback. | ||
Eric |
Another point to add: Even with the artists I've listed, I now ignore some of the things they teach. For instance, I don't like how Tom Lynch uses a lot of masking fluid at times and reworks and scrubs and lifts a lot. I'm not interested in any of that. But I do like his teachings on values, mood, and making your paintings more dramatic. I agree, Robert, if you go from this style to that style without a firm direction, you might always stay mediocre. | ||
Robert |
I agree with Eric though it sems to contradict my earlier comment--Sample it all, try it all, get as many tips as you can. Eventually you will gravitate to a style of painting that appeals to you and keeps doing so over the months and years. At that point it seems better to focus because otherwise you may become a dabbler in various styles with no firm direction. But that, as Eric, says, comes later. | ||
Eric |
If you're starting out cold, like I did, I think it's a good idea to seek out everything you can get your hands on, which I did. I'm fortunate to have a library that has more than 100 watercolor instruction books. After reading and painting and experimenting, and deciding what you like and don't like and what works for you, you narrow your influences down. And eventually, after painting many acres of paper the real "you" will poke through. I've finally settled on a list of instructors that I still study and look to for inspiration (some are deceased): John Pike, Ted Kautzky, Claude Croney, Tom Lynch, Tony Couch, Frank Webb, Rex Brandt, Robert Wood, Marilyn Simandle, and a bunch of those Australian painters. I'm also hoping Frank Francese writes a book, if anything just to look at his paintings. But, increasingly, I'm painting a lot more than studying and finding my own voice. | ||
Robert |
"Yes--I will only "accept" instruction from someone of the plein aire, simple and fast school in the vein of Eliot O'Hara and his disciple Edgar Whitney. One of the most important items in developing is to learn who not to listen to! In fact I have to will myself to ignore the influences of artists who i might admire but wjho approach painting from too different a direction. That said, unless we are established masters, we all, I believe, need a very occassional bit insight from other painters. In fact, I don,t see how it is possible to develop in a single dierction if one is constantly udder diffrerent influences. We all have something to learn but must develop the discernment to know what fosters our style and what hinders it. | ||
tachee |
videos just make me want to get up and go paint. can't sit still long. i cannot get enough of books though. money gets to be the only decision maker as to the size of my bookshelves. went to a couple of w/c demonstrations and enjoyed them. nice to sit back and watch someone good do their thing. i learned from that. but books have been my education. i have no formal art education. mostly my books and doing it myself. what i have learned here about colors and handprint are invaluable. you are filling notebooks! i did take a watercolor class at a jr college in tennessee when i started. a horrible, embarrasing disaster. school said it was for new painters, but the instructor - ach. i did not know what i was doing! i mixed enough paint to paint my house. twice. he made some cruel, crude remarks about my attempts. last straw, he called me a stupid yankee. i got my money back on that one. and an apology. but i have not been back to another w/c class. i have taken drawing classes with a really great teacher. but it took me a long long time to show anyone my watercolors. is there anyone who could mess up a student like a bad teacher? even at my age i fell into it. my first show was at university school in nashville, i did not let anyone i knew know what i was doing- what if they had come- and laughed!? i sold 4! glory glory. i will never be the world's best painter, but my my how i am lost in this world of water and color. where was i going with this? oh yeah, never too many books. | ||
Donna |
Sometimes I think we spend too much time reading painting books and watching painting videos. The one sure way of learning to paint is by DOING it. Practice! Play with the paint and develop your own style. Take what you can use from other teachers but let your own work be your main influence. | ||
George |
Eric, good question. The problem with books, videos, and workshops is that most of these are not about “how to paint with watercolor”, but rather they are far too often about “how to paint in my style (the artist doing the book, video, or workshop)in watercolor.” | ||
Eric |
Do any of you get to the point where you're getting influenced and pulled in too many directions from reading too many books, viewing too many videos, or attending too many workshops? I know there are always new things to learn, but I can also see where a person could be on a constant quest to be really good by a never-ending parade of workshops, books, videos, etc., leaving him or her confused. |
