Paint With Me WIP: the nude

Holy c***!

C’mon Ken…Don’t be so enigmatic. You don’t like the thing or you ve’got totally different opinion on how to make art - just express it ( like David did on “A few thoughts on inspiration”). AlienGirl - I appreciate your courage to share your private opinions and works with us. “Learning how to draw is not difficult” - I must dissagree. Unless you are an absolute genius who just draws with a great skill and understanding what you see, you would probably need years of proffesional tutorial (or strictly disciplined self-tutorial) and your lifetime of trials and errors to master drawing. And by “drawing” I mean an art per se (not sketchy intros to paintings, not more-or-less hobbyist’s “pretty” drawings). Drawing is the very basis of any true art, its spine and a foundation stone. Drawing (as I mean it) is to SEE things as they really are, is to achieve the highest possible level of understanding (that’s why anatomy is not only for doctors; Leonardo knew it-look for his marvellous anatomical drawings) in order to extract an essence of the drawn object - no matter how humble/gorgeous it is (a teaspoon, a pebble, an amazing nude or maybe cosmos as seen by an astronomer). Extracting essence doesn’t always translate into a super-realistic drawing - imagine drawing just a movement of a crowd of people flowing down the street -realistic drawing is impossible (unless you take a photo to froze the time, but you will miss your point doing that). The same with human models - you not drawing a mannequin, your model’s got his/er very individual character, personality, a way sh/he moves/ sits, interprets a pose - you will have to use many different media and to juggle with the quality of your line to draw whom sh/he actually is. Saying that I have to make you aware - AlienGirl - that your figure (drew from life - I assume) seems, for me , to have a little bit cartoon-ish quality. Unless it’s what you meant I would recommend spending more time with her and getting to know her better. Good luck. Katarzyna

Ken,

I’d probably delete your response because it contributes nothing to the site and violates the comments policy, except that it would make Katarzyna’s response nonsensical. So I’ve cleaned up the expletive instead.

Please don’t bother to comment if you have nothing significant to say.

Accurate drawing can be learned readily enough - atelier students should be evidence of that. But what katarzyna describes, capturing “essentials” with greater understanding, yes, that requires a further level of experience and insight. But the core foundation shouldn’t take a lifetime, unless you draw like Basquiat (bwaha).

And hey, cartoons are art, ain’t they? Lookit http://johnkstuff.blogspot.com and look at the intensive subtleties of animation. It will open your eyes and make you say, “more ovaltine, please!”

Hi Incompetent
Read my post again please. I wrote “drawing as I mean it ” - with an emphasis on “I”. I expressed my personal view and I’am glad that you have yours. I used term:”cartoonish” after Oxford Dictionary of English “a simplified or exaggerated version or interpretation of something” and I meant that AlienGirl’s figure has got a simplified (or - as for my taste - oversimplified) quality - as she was drawing a doll, not a human being. And that’s fine if she intended her picture to look like that. I didn’t make my comment to “kick” somebody (is it your intention - Incompetent?), but to help her to take a fresh look on her work. From my experience, it’s really important to hear constructive feedback.
P.S. I wouldn’t generalise that “cartoons are art” - some of them-yes

The problem with defining art is that the parameters are so broad and muddied with the aftermath of the modernist movements. I provided that link as an example to show the traditional requirements of skill in form, line, and so forth, that are the hallmarks of representational art, are still alive in other genres that may be viewed as lesser forms i.e. cartoons.

I do not intend to kick anybody but I will continue to chew gum. Do you like Western movies?

It’s a quite broad theme - “Western movies” - isn’t it? I like good movies, regardless of the country of origin. A’propos a “theme” - we are not addressing AlienGirl’s post any more and I wouldn’t apprecite it being in her shoes.

I enjoyed reading this latest thread on drawing. For some time now I’ve been beating myself up for not drawing every day. I have the excuse that I go to paint at the studio all week, but that shouldn’t stop me. I actually love to draw too and it does give me a perspective on my surroundings and just a satisfied meditative sensation. Yet, I have wondered why I avoid it, even forget it? And then I read this article about how mass media gives us what we crave and therefore we don’t turn to drawing. (My interpretation.) Lately, I’ve been getting home from the studio and flipping on the t.v. Now I’m going to come home and flip open my sketchbook and draw. Thanks.

Thanks Kim, I wouldn’t possible even dream about turning people to drawing just by writing a post. I should too start to spend less time on treating myself with T.V. or even the Internet. The problem is that we’re “programmed” by our civilization and we’re intuitively looking for “busy”, “loud”, complex images satisfying our senses. To spent two hours being focused on e.g. just a piece of rock makes us anxious or bored (unless we’re contemplative by nature or trained to manage this)