Art

This article is by Wendy Lewis.

Art is a subject particularly well-suited to home university. Plenty of time is a key ingredient to becoming skilled at drawing, as is beautiful and varied surroundings, both things which are plentiful at home.

My Experience
I started drawing, like every child, before memory began. When I went to school, because it was a Steiner school, drawing was encouraged, but I never really counted this as art. The paper was wet and went bobbly, making all the colours splurge, and the teachers never let one simply draw - they tried to teach one concepts at the same time. All the pictures were scrapped afterwards, which would have been distressing if I had minded, but I didn't, because my picture looked just like everybody else's. I don't think I even linked this art done at school with the art I did at home - one was rather annoying, the other was rollicking good fun!

When I left the Steiner school, my brother and sister and I had all the time in the world to draw pictures. The three of us would sit round the table, Bethan with her big pack of crayons, drawing Toyland or Fairyland, inventing ways of drawing things  which I would speedily copy, as I sat, with my smaller pack of crayons, working on a rose-covered house. Samuel, being the youngest, would have wax crayons, and he was generally drawing a hedgehogs' tea party. As we worked we would tell long stories of what our characters in the picture were doing, and sing songs, or just talk.

This sort of thing has continued until the present day. This morning found us drawing round the table, Bethan working on her fairytale cartoon for the Freedom in Education magazine, me trying to finish the cover picture of the Central Brittany Journal, Samuel drawing shamrocks for the publicity of a local bar, all chatting away as ever.

The drawing we have done over the years has naturally resulted in our skill improving. When people see our drawings they sometimes say 'gifted', but I don't think that gifted comes into it. I believe it is about the amount of passion a person has for the subject. When I read the book on art which Leonardo da Vinci wrote, then it is very clear to me that his enthusiasm for the subject exceeds mine beyond all comparison, just in the same way as his ability to draw exceeds mine beyond all comparison. Those who love the subject dedicate themselves to it in a way that someone only mildly interested won't do. I don't believe you could find anybody who hated art but was incredibly good at it, or anyone who loved it and had no talent.

If this is true, then it is the perfect system. Anyone who really wants to be able to draw can do it, and it need never be too late to begin, even if you have never picked up a paint brush before. If you have the passion, you will not only enjoy yourself (which is all that really matters) but you will create something beautiful - and of course, the more you draw the better you will get.

Below are some tips about different mediums and ways of drawing things, which I have found to be true, and might help the beginner.

What to draw
As with most things, inspiration is the first step. Everybody feels inspired to draw something: a funny face, a pretty face, a caricature, a favourite cartoon character, an illustration from a book, a copy of a classic masterpiece. Copying things teaches one a huge amount, and also increases one's admiration of a picture.
It makes sense to draw whatever inspires one, one is then less likely to tire of the picture before it is finished.

Doodling
I think a lot can be said for doodling. It is a very easy, unpretentious way to draw, which requires nothing but something to draw with and something to draw on. In the past I have filled whole books with doodles. With doodling one can draw whatever one wants without being hampered by what is correct or lifelike. I think it is important to discover for oneself all the lessons which are explained in art books and there is no better way to do this than through doodling.
The doodles that my brother and sister and I did were always linked in with the games we were playing, and sometimes our games would simply involve drawing amusing faces and people to show each other and make each other laugh.
I am not sure if this doodling was part of learning to draw, or part of growing up. I don't really doodle these days, but I know that through the doodling of the past I explored and learnt so much about drawing people, cartoons, shading, caricatures and expressions on faces, things which continue to be extremely useful to me.

Style
Many artists feel that they have to have a style, and some will study very hard to get one. I remember being rather concerned about it myself once, and I developed a style of drawing everything in colour pieces. I soon tired of it though. For me the point of drawing is to express on paper the admiration I feel for something. When I look at a flower I want to draw it not because it needs to be drawn, or because a photograph wouldn't be more accurate, or because my picture will be better than the flower - that would be impossible - but because it is a way of praising that flower, just like a poem would, or a song. It is a way of appreciating its colours, petals, detail and minuteness in a way that nothing else could. One thing I have found is that everyone has their own style whether they like it or not - just like they have their own singing voice, their own writing style, and their own features on their face, unlike anybody else's. One doesn't need to try and have a style - one already has one.
This is very clear in our family. Bethan, Samuel and I learnt to draw together, used the same mediums, and continually copied each other's pictures, but our styles are quite different. When we draw outside together we are even sharing the same paints, and yet our finished pictures are barely recognisable as being the same place!

I don't think that Michelangelo was trying to have a 'style', but it is easy to recognise his pictures. The same applies to Rembrandt, Rubens, Vermeer, Van Gogh and all the other artists.

Mediums:

Pencils
Sketching with pencils is a very easy way to begin drawing. They are cheap, available, and easy to rub out when something goes wrong. Sketches are not generally counted as finished drawings, but I think they can be. They are obviously very useful in planning out a picture, but when continued to completion, they can also look nice in themselves. Sketching can be done with any pencil to hand (even an automatic pencil can make a good sketch) but a set of drawing pencils is a good investment. A soft pencil such as B or 2B, can make a good rough sketch, and the harder ones are useful in creating a more finished look.

Crayons
Besides pencils, I have always used crayons more than any other medium. Caran D'Ache are the best, and worth the expense - nothing is so annoying as cheap, scratchy crayons which are always breaking - and fortunately a pack lasts for a long time. There are many different techniques which can be used with crayons, all of which are fun to experiment with. Water can be added to Caran D'Ache, to make the surface smooth, and these days this is how I do most pictures. (All the pictures in the cooking section of this site are done this way.)

Oils
Oil paints are a very good and comparatively easy medium. It is what the Renaissance artists used, and theImpressionist painters, and nearly all the pictures in art galleries are done in oils. One of its great advantage is that you can rework a picture again and again until you get it just right, its disadvantage is the amount of things you need to get started. Nobody has easels, boards, brushes, paints, turpentine, linseed oil and varnish in their house by accident, and all of these things are expensive to buy. Fortunately, not all these things are essential, and there are cheaper alternatives.

• An easel: this isn't necessary to begin with. It is useful for when painting outdoors, but not essential. When painting on a table indoors, it helps to prop up your picture with something if you don't have a table easel, otherwise you will be deceived by the way your painting looks when flat.
• A board: the boards in the shops are useful to begin with, but a cheaper, and I would say preferable option, is to buy a large piece of framing card, or collect the off-cuts of plywood, and cut a piece out of this the size that you want. It then only needs to be given a couple of coats of white Gesso paint before it can be used. The surface is much smoother than shop-bought canvasses.
• Brushes: an alternative to the expensive, long-handled oil-painting brushes, is to use synthetic watercolour brushes, which are a lot cheaper. I actually find them better too - they seem to last longer!
• Paints: money spent on paints is a good investment. The really cheap makes are thin and oily, the more expensive ones are much more satisfying to use. Windsor and Newton make good paints, and do not cost too much. Some paints are vastly expensive (one small tube can be 20 to 30 pounds!) but never having tried them I don't what they are like.
• Turpentine, Linseed oil and Varnish: Turpentine is used to wash the brushes with. It is quite essential and very poisonous (although it is a natural substance). Linseed oil is used to thin the paint with, and is not essential. Varnish needn't be considered till later, as you are supposed to wait at least six months before varnishing a picture.

Pen and Ink
Pen and ink is quite an art. I didn't do it at all until the age of fifteen when One-to-One needed to be illustrated! I boldly set about the task and realised I had stumbled upon something far more complicated than I had at first imagined.

In the days before photography the newspapers used to be illustrated by the most skilled pen and ink artists and to copy their pictures is very helpful. Shading is done differently when you are only working with one colour (black) on white paper. You have to use lines, or dots, crossed over with more lines for darker shading.

I highly recommend the classic work on the subject: Rendering in Pen and Ink by Arthur Guptill.
All you need to begin, is a pot of ink and a dip pen, which aren't very expensive.

Watercolours
I find watercolours quite tricky, but they do have certain advantages: their portability, quickness of drying and the speed with which they can be done. You need to paint on thick, good-quality paper, and all sorts of interesting effects can be obtained with wetting it before you begin. Watercolours are particularly good for outdoor painting.

Drawing Books
Lots of books deal with how to draw, but although some fun can be had with them, they are often a little restrictive, and it is generally more enjoyable to just draw what you want to draw. It is always better to copy from real life objects wherever possible, because a copy is always inferior (even when it is a photograph), and if you copy a copy your picture is in danger of being doubly inferior.

The Benefits of Drawing
I would say that art is an activity in which there is very little of anything but pleasure. Perhaps there are the occasional moments of frustration when a picture won't work, but on the whole the benefits are even greater than one would imagine. The lessons learnt through drawing are useful in almost every area of life. An artistic eye gained through art is just as useful in photography, and all areas where design is used: planning a garden, arranging a room, decorating a house, designing a building, a poster, a web page, a book-cover or anything similar. In all other areas of art, one is also benefited by skills learnt through drawing: sculpture, wood carving, basket-making, clothes-making, pottery, calligraphy, embroidery, and most other crafts.
There are also the other, obvious, advantages such as being able to have original artwork round your house. A nicely framed picture makes a perfect gift, and one is never reliant on shops for cards. When a picture is needed for something you are doing, you do not have to turn to the clip art on your computer, you can draw something yourself, and even if you are copying something within copyright, your picture belongs to you, and can be used by you wherever you like. A picture, like music, is one of those rare things which everybody understands. It is a universal language which doesn't need words, which makes it a useful art in itself.
But above all, perhaps, drawing is a lovely, quiet and peaceful activity which really teaches one to admire whatever one is copying, and appreciate on a whole another level the ultimate artwork of the Creator.

"Every now and then go away, have a little relaxation, for when you come back to your work your judgment will be surer, since to remain constantly at work will cause you to lose power of judgment. Go some distance away, because then the work appears smaller, and more of it can be taken in at a glance, a lack of harmony or portion is more readily seen."

Leonardo da Vinci        

Do you have any drawing tips, advice, or experiences you would like to share with other readers?

Please send a comment to wendy@freedom-in-education.co.uk , and I will post it on-line.

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