daily-ish notes…

  • on brushing up.

    Over the last few years of trying to teach myself to urban sketch and dabble in watercolour, I’ve bought a good assortment of brushes. Not good brushes. Economical brushes to align with my learning status.

    I had to go to the art store this evening with a supply list for the painting class I registered in. One of the items on the list was brushes. Good brushes. Artist brushes to align with the quality of painting I expect we’ll aspire towards.

    I now have three good brushes that together likely cost more than than thirty cheap brushes I’ve been using since I started this watercolour adventure. For all my words on skill versus equipment, there is some advantage to using good brushes, good paints and good paper. I suspect I’m about to get a solid lesson in just that.

  • on instruction.

    I took a three hour watercolour class at the local community centre this afternoon. We painted a sunset behind the mountains.

    It never hurts to spend any time as a student, no matter how much skill you think you have. There is always something to be learned from another person, a skill or a tip or an insight to be gleaned.

    I learned about half a dozen interesting tidbits, from little techniques about applying paint, to some colour theory, to a short list of other clever tools I’ll apply in my next few paintings… and beyond.

    In fact, the question is not whether I learned anything but when am I planning on taking my next class?

  • on not drawing.

    I’m taking a deserved day off. I’ve been drawing every day for the whole month of March and (with some family stuff happening today) I need a day to catch my breath. The break will be short-lived, of course, because (a) it’s basically spring now and I can start to see the trees budding and the bugs emerging and the colours replacing the white of the winter snow and (b) I’m registered in a watercolour class tomorrow afternoon and I’m sure I’ll spend about three hours with a paintbrush in hand there.

  • on #martch last.

    It’s 7am as I write this last post of my month of daily drawing and unless something goes terribly wrong today and I can’t find thirty minutes or so to dabble out even a simple sketch, I think I’m going to be able to announce on April 1 (no fooling) that my daily doodles have been successful.

    I still need to catch up and post photos of all that art in my gallery but trust me, I’ve draw at least something every single day this month.

    A conclusion post is in order, of course, full of observations and lessons from the daily effort of putting something into a sketchbook, but the simplest takeaway for me today, as I get ready to do my last sketch of the month, is that drawing daily has forced me to draw even when I haven’t been “in the mood” or “feeling inspired” and has more than once resulted in an image that I never would have painted but has turned out to be something I’m proud that I did, and fascinated by the results.

    Thirty down, one to go. See you in April.

  • of human perspective, part 2.

    I just read an article about an upgrade to a video game I play. The game now includes ray tracing. In essence, it changes the way light is rendered by the 3d processing engine to enhance the dynamic blah blah blah… technology!

    I watched the video and couldn’t see the difference. Honestly.

    I’ve written previously on folks who lose their mind over technology specs and overlook the art the technology is meant to support.

    I once had a friend who wanted to see my dSLR and was insanely excited that it had (for the time) a great megapixel count. He didn’t look at a single photo I’d taken on it. Didn’t care. It was about what the camera could do, not what I could do with it.

    And just like the video game, some people get excited about the technology of the game and not the gameplay.

    So, when I sketch I try to keep in mind that I’m the type of person who gets excited about the art not the paintbrushes.