Creating the Mood

I was wondering the other day, what to put on iTunes today while I'm working would you not think your favorite music or sounds would work! Am afraid I can't draw to Janis Joplin or Meatloaf for that matter it seems I create the mood even before I sit down to draw or paint or photograph. I subconsciously create my environment before starting and I only found out when I put Summertime by Janis on and found myself listening instead of drawing!!!!


I seem to do well listening to Clanadonia, bagpipes and drums. Calamity Jane on DVD does well. Also Red hot chili Pipers again bagpipes and drums there's a theme going on here me thinks! It does not seem to matter what kind of drawing it is, maybe my mood is what I take into account, as, this seems to be a subconscious act at this time while writing I listening to Enter the Haggis's Star of the County Down. 

I have just finished a painting of Hunter the Cairn Terrier and he was very hard to do so many colours in his coat and getting a true representation was difficult, I think more so as I tried to change my listening music, and so it took longer to finish than it would have!

Going Stale

If you had your favourite meal for breakfast, lunch and dinner Monday to Sunday, the meal would soon become stale not as tasty and above all boring! 

The same happens in art I tend to change from photography to drawing to painting. Mind saying that I tend to keep to portraits but this is because I find my style suits people and animals. 

I do step outside this genre as when I ventured out into my garden and seeing so many beautiful shapes and colours, hints and hues, I don’t think these images are as strong as the new wedding photographs and horse and rider images in this blog! 

What I am trying to put across and know you strengths, but don’t stop digressing and exploring and sharing.  

Light

We don't see objects as such, we see the light that bounces off the object. So drawing has to take this into account. This is also true when it come to light and shade, shadow is light in a different form, light has many disguises and the first part of recreating an object is to discover the different forms that light had discovered to be projected from the object, I made friends with light, I watched how it changes with time and tide.

I Watched an apple in a bowl of fruit transform over a day or two, I watched how the colour changed through the altering light conditions, through midday, afternoon, clouding over, bright sun. I saw how the bowl of fruit changed under artificial light. This can help when a time is chosen to draw the object.

It might be an idea to draw your object under artificial light so as to keep the article in the same light condition for the duration of you drawing, and above all have fun.

How to draw

How to draw is not too hard, what is hard is analyzing what you want to draw, I can not teach anyone to draw through a blog that would be silly, learning to draw is 90% looking and 10% marks on the paper.

Making marks on a piece of paper is the easy part, joining them together to make sense of them is what you are trying to achieve.

It really does not matter what style or genre you want to achieve the marks still have to be at the right angle, the right strength of dark and light. Shadows are darker on the whole but then there is detail in the shadows, ergo shadows are differing shades of dark and light.

Taking your time.

It is always best to take your time when you decide to do anything well. Saying this everyone works at their own speed and if you try working at someone else's speed the final piece will not be as good. Try drawing at differing speeds to find which works best, as with the first blog concentrate on your chosen object and try drawing it in different medias.

I found that when I was at college I worked to fast for the lecturers and was made to slow down, which did not help my drawing. Now I draw on my own and have worked out my own methods I feel my drawing is starting to really move forward, mind you I have been drawing for over 10 years seriously.

Find what subject suits you, some artists are landscape or portrait, and many other genres, concentrate on what you enjoy.

A likeness

I have two favorite drawing lecturers first Lindsey John Moffat and then Willie Strachan. Without either of these guys I would not be able to create anything I do.

The easiest instruction to give and the hardest instruction to reproduce is... "People are all made up of angles all you have to do is get the angles right"!!!!

The best way to start is from life, and start small, if you give yourself too big a object then when you do not get it right you will disappoint yourself.

People do not always like still life but that is a good place to start, as I was always told the human body is the hardest image to re-create.

Start with a piece of fruit; draw it, paint it, mix media it, get to know the angles and their relationship with each other.