Drawing One: Drawing Blogs

Drawing the Line - A New Way to Learn How to Draw!

This post is the first of many to follow – I hope. It is an overview of a system I’ve developed to teach practically anyone to draw. Yes, anyone! I’m not going to get into the philosophy of why we draw. Not just yet. Neither will I get into what purpose the act of drawing serves. It’s too soon for that. What I will get into in this; the first of my posts, is what value learning to draw brings to those who want to learn.

The emotional reason why anyone may like to draw is that it makes them feel good. It’s great therapy. All warm and fuzzy feelings aside, drawing has a very rational and practical purpose. Actually, it’s learning to draw that is the practical part. Learning to draw involves intense progressive, well, learning. It’s the process. The process is about eliminating all precepts, concepts and illusions of what you may already know. Therefore, in a class with beginners and those who've enjoyed doodling for some time will all be taken down to one unified level. Once the taking down is achieved, everyone begins anew.

One of my college instructors said that the making of marks on paper, whether a serious creative attempt or doodling, was just perspiration. The first phase of the Look-See-Achieve© course had and will continue to rattle students emotionally because everything they think they knew is eliminated. Those who can see the exercises for what they are do endure the emotional and psychological battery. As I’ve discovered, the act of drawing is a spiritual act and at the beginning it can either be cathartic or very painful.

The building up phase of my Look-See-Achieve© course can also be upsetting because it takes the student to places they’ve never been before. It feels awkward. And, it can be physically demanding. All along the way, I have to fight the student’s demonstrated human faults of vanity, laziness and impatience. There’s also the emotions of fear, urgency and doubt. Students quickly find out that my drawing course is far more than they anticipated. Many have told me it was, especially at the beginning, the hardest thing they’ve ever had to do. I tell them and remind them constantly throughout the course that if they quit; it’s not me they’re quitting on. They’re giving up on themselves. As I believe and as I say – drawing is a spiritual act.

So why, after reading what you’ve just read would you take up the challenge of signing up for my Look-See-Achieve© course(s)? Because, you know you just have to know if you can do it. Why? Because you’ve wanted to learn to draw or improve your current drawing skill. Why? For the same reason you eat chocolate – you can’t resist. You cannot continue not knowing whether you were or are any good at what you now think drawing is. And, because of that and perhaps that alone, you will at least promise yourself to give it a shot.

Why do we draw? Why do people like to draw? Why do people think they may enjoy drawing? For everyone it’s different. For some, even the less than serious act of doodling, represents an activity to pass the time or to relieve tension. For others, it is a process and although they may not realize it, this process can assist them to better understand and perhaps see the world around them. It also is a great way to learn problem solving by forcing themselves to use the right side of their brains. But more importantly, to many, it represents the simplest form of joy because they have achieved some level of personal satisfaction or, perhaps even self-actualization.

Self-actualization is, oddly enough, a process of establishing yourself as a whole person. It is the ability to exercise and develop your cognitive skills in order to better understand yourself. By doing so, you are given the opportunity to reveal to others what we see, feel and understand your environment to be. When I was teaching community based learning drawing classes I asked the mostly adult students why they decided to take a drawing class. Their responses were almost universally similar in two distinct categories.

The first response: they loved art in school but at some point in time, someone told them art was for children or that it was not a viable profession. The second or Part B of their response was that because of this interruption or reproach, they needed to know if they could pick up where they left off or, determine whether or not they actually ever had a talent for art.

How sad. How many children, adults in the making, have been denied the joy of self-actualization? And, as the result of this injustice, have also been denied them access to an excellent problem solving process? Art, as represented here by drawing, is much undervalued in our culture. Whenever there is an economic downturn, art and humanity program funding is reduced or eliminated. Pablo Picasso said, “Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once we grow up.”

There's Seven T’s to Drawing - Honest!

I was once lecturing an art history class and mentioned that as an artist or as a creative person, I felt as though I was handicapped in some way. Or, more correctly, it was that through personal experiences that people (non-artists) made me feel as if I was handicapped. A student raised her hand. She said she was an art major and that I had it all wrong. “We,” she said, “are not handicapped, they are.” I obviously never forgot it. The proverbial line in the sand had a whole new meaning to me as a result of her insight.

We, the artists, are not handicapped because we have learned, or more correctly, have not been denied, the training or exposure to the process of solving problems in a very progressive way. This process is not commonly used in most schools. We know how to solve complicated problems, even if they are only visual problems. In order to solve these visual problems, we use or are forced to use the right side of our brains. Dr. Betty Edwards wrote about this in her book – Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain.

But the ability to understand this process can be transferred into everyday problem solving. Why? I think the simple answer is this – we quickly learn that everything is connected. Not one element of the composition we are creating within the two-dimensional space we have chosen may be altered or corrected or deleted without affecting another element.

One of the greatest challenges I ever had teaching involved a woman who was very frustrated that she could not follow my instructions. One of my laws, for a lack of a better term at this point, the first my Seven T’s to Drawing© is Do not think – just do what the teacher says. This comes as a bit of a shock to most people. It’s not a power trip! Although I’ll get into this law more specifically in a subsequent posting, not allowing students to think at the earliest stages of their development as proficient observers and mark makers is that the logical part of our brain is always trying to override reality.

Back to the student - we discussed whether or not she was just listening to me and not thinking. She said she didn’t believe that she was thinking, just doing what I instructed. I found out she was a mathematician by profession. Don’t meet too many of those! I told her that because of her training and occupation that I believed that she was indeed not completely listening to me. Even though I believe art and math are closely related, in this case it was interfering with her progress because she was innately proofing instead of just listening. Yes, although they are very similar and highly related, there was still a process that had to be learned.

Part of that process was not to think. It was law number one and it was a law because I had to regulate the student completely. I know it sounds creepy but, look at it from this point of view; laws are used to regulate or assure expectations. If a student really wants to learn to draw, my expectation is that they comply while their expectation should be to trust the instructor, the system and themselves. In fact, Trust is also a law.

E. O. Wilson stated that, “Both fine art and mathematics employ the use of patterns to create order out of chaos. Mathematicians and artists both create something out of nothing, one starting with a blank sheet of paper and the other a blank canvas... Both think inductively, moving from specific details to general conclusions and end products.”

The student was trying to make sense of the problem without considering the outcome. She was not aware of the - everything is related to everything concept - in art as it is in math yet, though similar, it requires a slightly different approach than solving a math problem. Once she stopped, she was startled at her progress.

Proofing as it pertains to math is: a sequence of steps leading to a valid conclusion. She was putting the cart before the horse. I hope to explain this a bit better in future posts.

The Seven T’s to Drawing©

1. Teacher – Listen, don’t think

2. Trust – You need to totally trust the teacher and the method

3. Time – As with anything of any value, the more time invested; the better the outcome

4. Tools – Mark making tools and body mechanics

5. Talent – Why it’s overrated

6. Technique – A system not a style

7. Temperament – Patience is required

The First T is for Teacher – Listen, don’t think

In the last post, I spoke briefly about the first of my Seven T’s to Drawing!© I presented it as Do not think – just do what the teacher says. Most students have a problem with this because it’s very difficult to do. It is, for a lack of a better example, similar to meditation. You have to turn off the voice in your head. You must focus on following the instructions of the teacher.

In the movie, Forrest Gump, his boot camp drill sergeant compliments Gump:

Sergeant: "GUMP! What's your sole purpose in this army?"
Gump: "To do whatever you tell me, Drill Sergeant?"
Sergeant: "Goddammit Gump, you're a goddamn genius. That's the most outstanding answer I've ever heard. You must have a goddamn IQ of 160! You're goddamn gifted, Private Gump"

Believe it or not, Gump’s answer was correct - To do whatever you tell me, Drill Sergeant? This is not a matter of blind obedience it is about the ability to focus. A drill sergeant’s mission, directive and duty to his recruits is to meld them into one cohesive unit that acts, reacts and responds in a specific manner to a specific situation. Learning to draw is no different. The drawing instructor’s mission, directive and duty is to separate the students from their thoughts in the early phases of their drawing instruction in order for them to evolve into true students of drawing.

One of the first things I do in one of the very first “free draw” sessions of the very first classes, is to set up a motif (still life) with the central object purposely off-plumb (slanted, on an angle, not straight up). I allow the students to draw the motif to the best of their ability. The “free draw” session has several purposes. One is to allow students to express themselves without the restrictions of the group exercises and to illustrate the reason for this first of eight rules is as follows:

RULE NUMBER ONE - Teacher – When the student is willing, the teacher appears (a Zen Proverb)

Listen, don’t think.
The first stages in learning to draw require no thought.
Paying close attention to the teacher’s instructions and following them is crucial.
If you doubt this rule – refer to Rule Number Two – Trust.

The other reason is to illustrate how they cannot nor should not trust their brain (reasoning and logic sometimes get in the way) because it lies. You see, nearly 80 percent of all students will draw the off plumb central still object ramrod straight (plumb). Their consciously studied approach to observation is incorrect.

Therefore, their drawing is flawed because what or how they thought they were looking at was misinterpreted. In reality they did not see because they were thinking more than they were looking.

Back when I was in art school, my instructors utilized their own experience, talent and insight to give us the tools we needed to be all that we would be. Did I doubt them? Yes, I did, at first. Did I learn to trust them? Yes, I did! Why? My skill level increased, as well as, my level of understanding. I began to understand the madness of their method. Because of them, when I was forced to teach my first drawing class as a graduate student, I did to my students what was done to me. I know that sounds harsh. I debated using the word for instead of to but there is a difference.

Let me explain. I was a first year graduate teaching assistant. The teacher I was supposed to assist was diagnosed with cancer and I ended up going solo. It was a great and bittersweet opportunity and I was scared to death. All I could do was teach the freshman drawing class as I had been taught; to do what (I thought) had been done to me. The students trusted me. I felt confident and I soon discovered how superior my education had been. Jerry Winter, my department chair, stuck his head in my studio one morning looking for something.

He saw a stack of drawings on a table and asked if Gene Mason, the senior drawing instructor was getting lazy. I didn’t know what he was getting at and asked him what he meant. Jerry wanted to know why Gene hadn’t brought his student’s drawings down to his own studio on the first floor instead of dumping them in my studio, which was across the hall from his class.

When I told Jerry that the drawings were from my freshman class he was flabbergasted. Up to that point, I had felt that I was surviving in my class as a new drawing teacher. Jerry paid me a huge compliment and gave me the encouragement to continue teaching with greater confidence. The methods I learned were the ones I was using to teach my students, although they needed constant coaxing; they hadn’t revolted yet. The one indication - no, the ultimate aha moment – was on day-one when I discovered that I liked teaching drawing more than anything else in the world and Jerry’s comment nailed it for me.

I loved teaching drawing more than doing my own art! Those guys at Southeastern Massachusetts Technological Institute (when I started and Southeastern Massachusetts University when I graduated), Cummings, McCoy, MacAffee (the rose among the thorns), Elliott and Togneiri had taught me a lot. Before I write another word, it’s only appropriate that I thank each and everyone of them because what they gave me shaped my entire life. I stand on their shoulders, the shoulders of giants. When a student asks me why I went into teaching, I tell them it’s because teaching is my only shot at immortality. My teachers live in me. If I honor them, I will live in my students.

I’ve employed what I’ve learned from them in my own drawing classes, taking my experiences and adjusting where necessary and I’ve developed a few of my own methods. And now, I’m ready to launch Look-See-Achieve© But the one thing I learned, that I didn’t know I learned then, I could only have learned teaching marketing.

You see, as a Fine Art student, I was taught how to think progressively. I can’t completely describe it right now, but I will eventually in this blog site. Progressive learning is what scientists employ and it follows something like this:
Problem

Identification
Awareness
Definition

Solution

Approaches
Evaluation
Accepted

Drawing employs something very similar in that a negative (empty) space on a sheet of paper, a canvas or a wall, cannot be altered without causing a problem. Picasso said that an act of creation first begins with an act of destruction. Once that blank (negative space) page has been altered by the first mark a problem has been created which must be identified depending on what the mark represents. The first lesson all students learn is to understand that every solution to an identified problem creates another problem. It’s a mental balancing act between every mark you make on the page. Making those marks is very sensual and very spiritual. It is a battle between logic and reason with the right answer or solution being one of harmony or balance.

The student will progress when they recognize that everything is connected to everything else and, in order to get to this state of awareness; you must listen to the teacher – do not think! The first stages in learning to draw require no thought. Neither did learning to walk. You just did as you were encouraged by your parents. You trusted them because, even though you didn’t know why you wanted to walk, you were determined to. Learning to draw is no different. The painter Cy Twombly said, “When I work, I work very fast, but preparing to work can take any length of time.”

T Number Two - Drawing a Spiritual Connection

“Ernest Hemingway believed that, “The best way to find out if you can trust somebody is to trust them.” As a student, regardless of your previous drawing experience(s), you will need to forget everything you know, as well as, everything you thought you knew.

This requires not only trust but a level of faith as well. “Faith is to believe what you do not see; the reward of this faith is to see what you believe,” So said Saint Augustine.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe said, “As soon as you trust yourself, you will know how to live.” On that thought, may I add: as soon as you trust your instructor, you will verify that you are trusting yourself. At that point, you will begin to know how to learn to draw.

Rule Number Two of my Seven T’s to Drawing!© is Trust – You need to totally trust the teacher and the method:

Regardless of the student’s previous experience(s)
The method is unfamiliar and uncomfortable
Trust is the only option
Students need to believe in the teacher’s Integrity, strength and ability
Confidence in the teacher will raise the student’s confidence

Ah, it sounds way too complicated already you say? As such, after reading this, you’re thinking that you can’t get through this beginner level drawing course. It’s way more than you bargained for. So, you’re going to give up before you even try. This is what usually happens when a prospective student approaches drawing as purely a mindless, simple or even silly little diversion. They signed up just to have something to do on a Wednesday night; to get out of the house.

It’s a break from the work to home to work routine. How about if it was a lot more? What if I told you that it offered you a spiritual connection as well? Since I’m on a quote role, Khalil Gibran said, “Art is a step from what is obvious and well-known toward what is arcane and concealed.” Actually, it’s a series of little steps and each and every step requires you to trust the instructor.

Maintaining a level of trust is especially necessary because my methods will be unfamiliar to you and uncomfortable as well. One of the methods I employ is a specific way of holding the drawing tool. Mostly every student I’ve ever had has hated the monkey grip as I call it. The monkey grip is just one of many new and uncomfortable things you will learn to understand and utilize. Many eager drawing students fail because they fail to hold their mark making tool correctly. Drawing requires employing your specific bio-mechanics and the monkey grip is just one of the elements of the mechanics.

As a student, you need to believe in your teacher’s integrity, strength and ability. I know it sounds pretentious and a bit bombastic but, a teacher learns, does and teaches. If teaching is imparting knowledge, then a teacher makes known, relates or discloses secrets. Secrets are simply what is not known. A teacher then, shares and gives their students what they themselves have learned.

The student succeeds if and when they wish to learn the secret(s) their instructor has learned. Some of the secrets of drawing are discovered through rigorous instruction and that is where the spirituality comes in. If you will allow it, drawing is a spiritual journey. It is a form of meditation or prayer. Drawing is a very sensual experience and in some circumstances, sensual almost to the point of being sexual. And when it reaches a level of sexuality, it does so almost to the point of being spiritual.

I might have lost you back there. But, you hung on to figure out where the sex comes in, right? This fine line between sexuality, spirituality and sensuality is well evidenced in [PHOTO - detail of the sculpture] Gian Lorenzo Bernini’s - The Ecstasy of Saint Teresa.

If, drawing was as I mentioned in my earlier Aha – Eureka – OMG! posting, the earliest of religious rites did indeed encompass sensuality – line is beautiful – and so may reach a sexual level but not the kind of sex you might be thinking of. Sex in ancient religions was about fertility. Fertility was about continuity.

According to artist Sandy Davison, “Drawing is intimate and reveals exactly where we are, and in a culture that isn't comfortable with that, it frightens many. You just cannot cheat when you draw.” When done properly, when you draw, you may, depending on the subject matter, reach a level of extreme sensuality. What’s wrong with that?

Drawing is line. Line is alive. Line defines space, mass and contour. Edgar Degas said, “Drawing is the artist's most direct and spontaneous expression, a species of writing: it reveals, better than does painting, his true personality.” How can you believe any of this? How can you be sure? Trust yourself to trust.

The Third T of Drawing - Time!

The more time invested; the better the outcome - T Number Three. Kenneth Clark, the art historian remarked, “It is often said that Leonardo drew so well because he knew about things; it is truer to say that he knew about things because he drew so well.” The reason he drew so well is because he drew often. Anything worth your time is of value to you.

So then, anything of value to you is worth your time. Balthus the controversial Polish-French modern artist believed that, “One must always draw, draw with the eyes, when one cannot draw with a pencil.” In this sense, Balthus supports the fact that learning to draw is about learning to see.

So, here we are at Number Three of the Seven T’s to Drawing © - Time. The more time invested; the better the outcome. Here are a few things to keep in mind - there are no short cuts.

Proper Instruction...

Requires a specific time investment
Is sequential
Is related to past, present, or future instruction
Has specific periods of duration

You learn something new every time you draw! Why is drawing important and why does it require time to perfect? To take a thought from Zen philosophy; you will never perfect your drawing skills. You will only realize that you are improving when you know you must improve more. Drawing is much more than a graphic exercise or a visual expression represented by lines or the representation of objects or ideas with a mark-making tool in order to delineate mass and form within a two-dimensional space.

I know this concept of delineating mass and form within a two-dimensional space seems vague or foreign or scary to you. It may be now but, the act of drawing is not as important as the process is. Drawing was the earliest form of writing. It evolved from writing the picture or object, to writing the idea of an object to writing the word itself. This is perhaps why newer Paleolithic cave art seems more crude than that of older examples. The visual integrity of the image wasn't as crucial as language developed.

A well-observed and well-rendered representation of objects, whether, animals, plants or humans was necessary for survival. Regardless of whether or not drawing was a form of magic, it was sensuality, sexuality and spirituality combined into one act of communal communication. As language evolved so did drawing. Images depicted were now more about the idea of what objects looked like. Finally, drawing split into to fields; drawing (art) in a supportive position within religion supporting identity and instruction and ,writing which became the word representing the object or the idea itself.

Drawing, by my definition and by historical evidence, is a visual problem solving exercise. The exercise of learning to draw and drawing itself is a problem solving system. And, in my opinion, the process employed to teach drawing may also be used to solve non-visual problems and puzzles, which all require time, patience and skill development.

Time is very important when it comes to drawing. Time to be patient. Time to listen. Time to understand. Time to learn and time to do. It is very important. However, the passage of time is of equal importance and signifies the individual's commitment to developing the skills required to learn to draw. With that in mind - eagerness is not a sin. It is just undisciplined and misdirected energy. The first thing an eager student needs to realize is that there are no short cuts and no instant gratification when properly learning how to draw. Learning to draw requires time. That’s why it's one of the Seven T’s to Drawing ©.

Instruction comes from the instructor but, if the student does not listen to the teacher or trust the teacher, no amount of instruction or time investment will be of any benefit to the student. The course(s) is broken down into specific sections and sessions, which cannot be skipped or glossed over. The instruction is sequential and is delivered to the student in a brick-by-brick fashion which are interwoven with and related to past, present, or future lessons. Each of the sections or sessions requires specific periods of duration.

You learn something new every time you draw! Stay tuned for the next four T's - Tools, Talent, Technique and Temperament.

Mark Making Tools & Body Mechanics - T Number Four

THIS IS T NUMBER FOUR – TOOLS. THE FIRST T WAS TEACHER. THE SECOND WAS TRUST. THE THIRD WAS TIME. Now I’m not any kind of sports buff or enthusiast. But I do find this observation by Bill Toomey, the 1968 Olympic decathlon champion, intriguing: The East Germans first used biomechanics. This meant that rather than guessing about technique and form, they could apply changes to athletic performance based on science.

I find the discipline or science of bio-mechanics completely suitable to teaching drawing. In my There’s 2 Types of Drawing – Keep Them Separated! post, I outlined how your height determines how your easel should set-up. I also wrote about how properly holding your drawing tool determines your easel attitude, which is, specifically about being aware of where you stand and what you see while making your marks. The physicality of drawing requires that the student/draftsman is fully conscious of their body, the easel and the mark-making tool. Making intelligent marks goes beyond the wrist to the entire body. Where you stand in relationship to the easel does determine whether you are Drawing or Not Drawing.

Drawing is a holistic endeavor. Vincent van Gogh said, “I believe that it may happen that one will succeed, and one must not begin to despair, even though defeated here and there; and even though one sometimes feels a kind of decay, though things go differently from the expected, it is necessary to take heart again and new courage. For the great things are not done by impulse, but by a series of small things brought together. And great things are not something accidental, but must certainly be willed. What is drawing? How does one learn it? It is working through an invisible iron wall that seems to stand between what one feels and what one can do.”

He defines what my Seven T’s to Drawing © is all about - a series of small things brought together. He also defines the philosophy of my system - great things are not something accidental, but must certainly be willed. The invisible iron wall that seems to stand between what one feels and what one can do - is the human mind. This invisible iron wall is the greatest of all challenges presented, especially to the beginner. That’s one aspect. The other is your body. Your body is a tool; from your toes to the fingers of your hands. Your body is your most important tool.

To outline the importance of Tools - the fourth T of my Seven T’s to Drawing © - remember

The human body is a machine and a tool
Specific outcomes require specific tools
The actual mark-making tool is an extension of the hand and the mind

The human body is a machine and a tool – and everyone is not the same. Some of us are left-handed, while others are right-handed. We come in all shapes and sizes and because of that, we have to be aware of our drawing bio-mechanics in order to draw as well as we can. Drawing is much more than a just graphic exercise or a visual expression represented by lines of objects or ideas with a mark-making tool in order to delineate mass and form within a two-dimensional space.

Specific outcomes require specific tools - the act of drawing is a process; a visual problem solving exercise. The actual physical exercise of learning to draw and drawing itself requires time, patience and skill development. And since the drawing instruction is sequential, it is delivered to the student in a brick-by-brick fashion. When it comes to instruction about the use of tools, it is interwoven with or related to every lesson. The only outcome that is the objective of each lesson, guided by the Seven T’s to Drawing © is a conscious and intelligent feeling of self-satisfaction. It’s the ultimate self-actualization.

The actual mark-making tool is an extension of the hand and the mind – it is perhaps, depending on your perspective or experience, second only to sex or a religious (spiritual) awakening. It is, as those who have experienced it, an odd mixture of learning practical skills, as well as, a purely aesthetic behavior. On the practical level, it offers a sense of control and assurance. But as van Gogh said, it is also a kind of decay where things go differently from the expected and, it is necessary to take heart again and new courage. Drawing is about the aesthetic experience which offers our emotions a controlled outlet.

The greatest challenge I have in the classroom is enforcing the hated and dreaded monkey grip. It's simple enough. Make the thumbs up sign and insert the mark-making tool in your curled fingers. Guide the tool with your thumb. It is an awkward way for most students to hold a drawing or mark-making tool. However, it is the foundation of the body or bio-mechanical aspect of instruction and central to the Seven T’s to Drawing ©.

The Monkey Grip has a specific purpose. It forces the student to alienate themselves from, or separate themselves from, the habit or behavior of holding the drawing or, mark-making tool as if they were going to write a letter. In fact, it all starts with the grip, which allows for greater finger, wrist, arm, shoulder and waste rotation flexibility. It also literally and figuratively serves an arms length purpose.

With the drawing or, mark-making tool in the Monkey Grip, the student with their arm fully extended, has a better (more productive) view of the drawing surface and the subject, motif or model. This covers the gross motor skills. As for fine motor skills, it offers more, better and a finer (delicate) control of the drawing or, mark-making tool. This in turn offers the student what van Gogh spoke of, the difference - between what one feels and what one can do.

Talent – Why It’s Overrated - T Number Five

TWO MORE TO GO*! TALENT IS THE MOST MISUNDERSTOOD OF THE ARTIST STEREOTYPES. ANYONE CAN DRAW – REALLY – HERE’S HOW. Get it out of your head. You don’t need talent to be creative as in drawing.

Anyone can draw but first, they have to overcome a huge obstacle – their perception that they don’t have any talent. The same goes for the concept, the idea and the belief is that you must be naturally creative in order to be creative in order to create. Wrong!

The dictionary defines talent as: a special natural ability or aptitude. Perhaps it’s the natural part that’s getting confused. There are two types of drawing or, creativity. The first is observational. Some people, for whatever reason, are just more observant than others and because of that, yes, okay I’ll admit it, drawing comes easier to them in particular. The second is imaginative. There are really a lot of imaginative people in the world who insist they are not creative!

So what’s the deal? The more I study this subject the more amazed I am and hopefully more enlightened as well. I started this blog for lots of reasons but the main one was to hopefully finish my life the way I had intended on starting it. Enough about that. Thinking and writing about learning to draw hopefully will make me a better instructor. One benefit of all of this commitment is that I learned so much more about what it is I really love to do. For example - what if there were two sides to drawing (art and creativity)? What if it were looked at in the way you would look at a gene?

Samuel Butler, the English novelist who dabbled in the subject of evolution said, “The hen is the egg’s way of making another egg.” Is it possible then that the artist is art’s way of making more art? What is art? Why was it part of human evolution? How did it become fused with religion and magic? What then is its real purpose? Is that purpose genetic? Yeah, I think so. You see, I believe that drawing (art) is humanity’s attempt to reconnect. If you can grasp the Biblical concept of the Fall of Man in the Garden of Eden for just a moment not as going from a state of innocent obedience to their god to a state of guilty disobedience but as, in more of a Greek drama sense, making a bad choice and suffering the consequences.

I’m not certifiably insane! If you can also grasp the concept that Adam and Eve traded immortality for knowledge by exercising their free will and choosing to eat of the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil; well that’s the basis for my belief. If only a god or the Judeo-Christian (I guess that term has to be updated to the Judeo-Christian-Islamic) God can be a supernatural entity because the qualification for such a status is possessing both immortality and knowledge, then you can see Adam and Eve’s dilemma. That dilemma was passed down in genetic memory. We have a mission!

Reconnecting – We have been trying to reconnect to our immortality, our other half, since we chose intelligence) (knowledge over it. As humans, we could have one or the other but not both. To possess both would make us gods and that would work in the Divine Plan because there are no gods without worshipers. I our Judeo-Christian-Islamic situation we must worship because we believe in attaining or rejected immortality in the afterlife. The afterlife, now there’s something I want to follow up on from this drawing as a spiritual act point of view.

I know. I know. This post has gone way beyond being instructional to being philosophic. Look, it’s my belief, and you don’t have to agree, but drawing is one way of reconnecting with our lost immortality through the use of our intellect and our intelligence is strengthened through drawing. The more we draw, the smarter we become to figure out how to regain our immortality. Our genes are our immortality.

If not talent then what about natural ability or an aptitude for creativity? If anything, this natural ability is the ability to feel, to observe and to connect with our environment through our senses. Talent is nothing more than our ability to feel our environment. We’re all born with it! Natural does mean a certainty or suitability to succeed. Ability is about having possession of the power or capacity to do or act.

Jails are full of talented people. As I’ve quoted Calvin Coolidge before, “Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful people with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts…”

Talent is Overrated

Everyone has a natural ability, aptitude or capacity for success
The ability to listen and follow instruction is the only talent you need

When I attended the Cortaulds Coating paint school in Houston several years ago, I took away one thing that still amazes me. The number one reason for paint failure has nothing to do with the quality of the paint or the skill of the paint applier. The number one reason for paint failure is the failure to read, understand and follow the directions on the can! Whit this in mind, the number one reason for failure to learning how to draw is no different. It is the failure of the student to:

Listen to the Teacher (T Number One)
Trust the teacher (T Number Two)
Devote the Time required (T Number Three)
Use the natural Tools properly (T Number Four)

Drawing is more about seeing than making marks on paper. Drawing is about the external world. Drawing is about how we learn about the external world. Vincent van Gogh said, “What is drawing? How does one learn it? It is working through an invisible iron wall that seems to stand between what one feels and what one can do.” Together with Technique and Temperament, the Seven T’s to Drawing © are one way of getting you through that invisible iron wall that van Gogh spoke of. It’s not about talent!

Technique – A System NOT a Style - T Number Six

I DON’T KNOW WHICH I DISLIKE THE MOST; THE WORD TALENT OR THE WORD TECHNIQUE. If you’ve already read my Talent post then you know why I dislike the preconception or perception that it takes talent to draw or do good art. Actually, I blogged on his particular subject twice. The first was in my Talent: Nature or Nurture post.

As for technique, I don’t where people got the idea that it’s all about the technique. Good artists have good technique. Good art is the result of good technique. No! No. No. No. Well, yes, but no, not really. Technique is a manner an artist possess or an ability they employ but it’s, from my point of view, the accumulation of the knowledge of materials and methods of their discipline through exercise and practice. The technical skills, or technique, are the bi-product of learning specialized procedures or methods.

For example? Depth. Rather than use the dreaded/hated term technique, let’s use the word method. There are several ways to create an illusion of depth in an artwork. Making the foreground elements darker and juxtaposing them to lighter elements and so forth. The light-to-dark, or yes, dark-to-light method can be employed alone or in concert with perspective (there’s more than one) such as single-point perspective. It can be used alone or with the light/dark method. So, as far as calling these methods techniques – no.

To me and maybe only to me, techniques are more like tricks or, more correctly, tricks of the trade. Even using that word here puts me on a slippery slope. A trick to me is a learned or instructed maneuver or strategy. Every craft, every trade and yes, every art has them. You learn them on your own in an aha moment or, someone shows you. Yes, these tricks can also be discovered quite by accident!

Some of the tricks in my drawing classes have already been discussed in previous posts. They weren’t identified as such, however. There’s a time and a place for everything. My Seven T’s to Drawing © is a system. How you setup your easel, where you stand in relation to the easel and the subject, motif or model; these are all learned or instructed maneuver or strategies. The same goes for how you hold your mark-making tool and the list goes on. I don't teach drawing. I teach you how to learn to draw.

Why am I so cranky about the term technique? Students have innocently but, annoyingly asked questions such as, “How can I draw eyes better?” My annoying response is usually something like, “The same way you draw feet.” Their reaction is usually, “But what do feet have to do with eyes?” “Everything – you don’t draw them any differently.” There’s no trick. Just look at what is in front of you. Okay, maybe there is. Just look at what is in front of you and really look at it and understand it instead of imagining you’re seeing what’s in front of you. A bit of Forrest Gump-esque advice. It’s pure and simple and exactly what you need to know, “Keep your eye on the subject, motif or model.”

Seven T’s to Drawing – T Number Six

Technique – (and Tricks) It’s a system not a style
Beginning students have no need for technique
The instructional system is central to a student’s success

Another annoying answer I give is, “Well, I hope,” to the question, “How can I draw shoes?” You don’t need talent to learn to draw. Anyone can draw. You don’t need techniques to learn to draw. You learn the techniques by drawing - and, drawing and drawing some more. What you do need, however, is a good temperament and that’s more than just patience.

As a student, you will be required to possess or develop a proper level of openness in order to learn to listen and follow instruction. You must also learn to first trust yourself and almost immediately; the teacher. The temperament part comes in devoting the time necessary to learn and advance. When you begin to understand the tools and drawing system – you begin to pick up the tricks. Maybe the reason I don’t like the word technique is because I believe most people untrained in the arts think it’s a quick fix in this instant gratification world we live in.

Temperament – The last T – T Number Seven

LAO TZU SAID: ACTIVITY CONQUERS COLD, BUT STILLNESS CONQUERS HEAT. With that advice in mind, let’s investigate the last of the Seven T’s to Drawing © - Temperament. At one time as late as the Twentieth Century, it was considered a waste to educate women because they didn’t have the correct temperament for it. They were, it seems, far too high-strung and excitable.

Temperament is a combination of our mental, physical, and emotional traits. In fact, its Latin root is temperere – to mix. At one time, a person’s temperament was thought to be the result of the Four Cardinal Humors. Each of the humors were associated with a bodily fluid. The four fluids were blood, phlegm, choler (yellow bile) and melancholy (black bile). These humors varied in each individual and were detected by the complexion. Those with and ideal temperament had the best mixture of the four. Too much of any one of the fluids and the individual would be considered to have either a sanguine (blood), phlegmatic, choleric, or melancholic disposition or character.

For example, a choleric person was yellow-complexioned and quick to anger. A sanguine complexion revealed someone who was passionate, cheerful and confident. While those with a phlematic, or rosy complexion, are considered unassuming, agreeable and intuitive. Finally, there is the melancholic with ashen grey skin; they are perfectionists who are often self-reliant and independent

What does any of this have to do with learning to draw? A lot! Your personality is what I have to identify in order to be a better teacher to you. Let’s not forget, however, that the Four Cardinals Humors are the basis of Medieval psychology. There is some truth to it from my point of view. With that in mind let’s explore the challenges. Sanguines often lose interest in a new hobby when it ceases to be engaging or fun. As the instructor, I’ll have to keep you engaged and on your toes. Cholerics like to lead and be in charge of everything. In that case, I’ll have my hands full.

As for Melancholics, they become overly involved in what they are doing they forget to notice what’s going on around them. I have to teach them the virtue of perspective and not just drawing perspective. Phlegmatics can be passive-aggressive. As an instructor, I have to make myself aware of this personality type because if or when they become angry or frustrated, which is completely normal, instead of being open about it, they will quietly sabotage their abilities while being inwardly hostile.

Students must have or develop a proper level of patience in order to:

Learn to listen and follow instruction
Trust themselves
Trust the teacher
Devote the time necessary to learn and advance

What does all this mean? Drawing is much,much more than it appears. Anyone can draw but not everyone will. The greatest impediment – the gorilla in the room – is the student’s state of mind. Learning to draw can be an emotional and spiritual journey. But, it can also be physically challenging because you’ll be standing or holding the mark-making tool in a way that your body is unfamiliar with.

Psychologically you may be battling yourself and the voices who tell you you’re not cut out for either the practical or aesthetic challenges of learning to draw. Let’s not forget the other demons of Fear, Urgency and Doubt and their children; Greed (inappropriate expectation), Selfishness (caring only for oneself – being the center of the instructor’s attention), Impatience (intolerance of delay in speediness of learning), Laziness (resistance to required exertion), Vanity (excessive pride in an ability that may not yet exist) and Ignorance (knowing better such as listening, understanding and following instruction but ignoring it).

By the way, if the student successfully continues with the course, their traits, although possibly being somewhat abated as a result of learning to draw, will be present in the work. A choleric draftsman will tend to draw with very expressive line. The sanguine draftsman will display an affinity for gestural line. A phlegmatic displays their obvious ability as an observer and will render with great depth. The melancholic tends to be very detailed oriented with almost perfectly realistic drawings.

You really don’t need talent. Anyone can draw. But, you do need the right mix of character and an open minded disposition. As Lao Tzu said about stillness conquering heat; be still and be willing and allow the teacher to appear and instruct you how to control the heat and fire of the desire. Learning to draw is a step-by-step process that continues on for a lifetime.

Drawing One

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