The Artist's First Steps

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What does it mean to get the lines right? Well, it usually means getting the lines closer to what you see when you look at the object in the real world. However, artists like Picasso and Cezanne would often leave lines within their work that didn't line up. They liked showing the objects within their paintings from different angles. So when considering whether a line is good or bad, right or wrong, what you are really contemplating is whether you like it or not. You are the artist. You are the decision maker for your own art. That is why we should not give free advice to a younger artist that has not asked for it. It is their art and if they like it, then we can appreciate its qualities as well. They may like it for entirely different reasons than what we notice about the picture. 

So with a note of caution let's talk about how to judge our own picture when we do not like a part of it. What exactly are we looking for? What exactly should we change? That's the topic of my...

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Thank you for joining me today. Have you ever thought about how many times we make art to show others our ideas? If your art is to communicate to others, people must see your ideas on paper. People cannot visualize what you say with words in the way you imagine the idea. So, now and in the future, it will be important that you develop a way of drawing that is easy for you. 

I want you to be able to draw any object that sits in front of you with lines on paper. I want you to know where to start and how to change lines that you see to make the lines match more closely what you see. I want you to always start with one of the three plans before developing any one part of the picture. Drawing with a plan was covered in #007. Today, I use a new plan, a grid. The grid lines are used just like we use the outside edge of the paper to mark distances. The grid lines give us more fixed points to make judgments about distance, so that we can be even more accurate in our drawings. I...

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Some people worry about making mistakes when they draw. I don't look at lines as mistakes, so in that way there really are no mistakes in drawing. The first lines tell you where the next lines should go. The next lines will probably be better than the first lines. Lines lead you to the solution. In that way of thinking, you can only improve your lines to match closer and closer to what you see. 

Others of you do not worry about mistakes in art and that puts you in a good place for trying new ways of drawing. You do not see lines as being wrong, but as a flexible tool that can be changed, erased, or made better. Taking risks by trying new methods may not turn out as good as you'd imagined or they might turn out better than you imagined. They may lead to a way of working that you like and continue. Risk taking is a part of art. We can imagine what the results will be, but until we get our marks on paper in the way we imagined, we won't know.

Enjoy Drawing!

Brenda Ellis,...

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In this video I talk about awareness. Yes, you think you are aware of everything around you, but in fact, unless you have purposely set out to see everything around you, your brain is editing out a lot of details that aren't important to your survival or interests for the moment. It does this so that we aren't faced with overwhelm or too much information. This allows us to focus on what we want to do. 

Today you can purposefully look at something that is always with you, but that you pay little attention to. Watch the video and find out just what I'm talking about.

Enjoy Drawing!

Brenda Ellis, author of ARTistic Pursuits.

HERE'S WHAT YOU'LL DISCOVER

• How to wake up the brain so that you pay attention to what you see
• Looking for the new to find good subjects for art
• How to see the familiar in a new way

Note: The sled on a snowy hill is a reference to a topic discussed in #001 to show how a task gets easier the more often we do the task. Like going down a...

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What happens when we step back and take in a full view such as a landscape or a busy street? It can be overwhelming. Young artists typically shy away from this type of subject and focus on one tree or one object within their view. That's okay, if that's what you want to draw. But, there might be occasion when you want to show a subject and what surrounds it. 

Today, I will show you how to approach a complicated subject like a landscape. This photo was taken near the Rocky Mountains. Objects fill every part of it, including a pretty complex group of clouds in the sky. But all can be handled easily when we know how to look at the objects within. I always tell my students, "We can draw anything we want, but we can't draw everything." There's a reason we don't start with drawing every leaf that we see. 

Enjoy Drawing!

Brenda Ellis, author of ARTistic Pursuits.

HERE'S WHAT YOU'LL DISCOVER

• Our skills in art are never improved with information alone. We...

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Children will draw an object by giving attention in their drawing to what is important to them.  We all draw the things that are most important to us. While adults and older children may be very interested in drawing an object to look three-dimensional, young children will be far more interested in drawing that curved tail, because what is a dog without a tail? Here is where we get to be grown up and not criticize or even point out that strange third-dimension that is so important to us, but may have no meaning to a young child. Every drawing is unique. Every person is unique. I love it all. 

With that said, I do want to point out the third dimension, depth, for my older audience. So jump into the video and you'll see that drawing depth at times is just drawing lines where we see another edge.

Enjoy Drawing!

Brenda Ellis, Author of ARTistic Pursuits.

HERE'S WHAT YOU'LL DISCOVER

1. Drawing from observation lets us draw ANYTHING we see in our world.
2. ...

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I hope you can practice intentional wandering today, even if it is in your own backyard or a nearby park. Today we talk about walking with a purpose and how that purpose, the act of looking for something specific, helps wake up our brain so that we pay more attention to those things around us. Design your trip. What will you look for? Will you draw outdoors? If so, a simple clip board or any hard surface to back up your piece of paper is all you'll need to add to your pencil, copy paper, and eraser. 

Happy Wandering!

Brenda Ellis, Author of Artistic Pursuits.

HERE'S WHAT YOU'LL DISCOVER

Seeing is building a body of knowledge that we can pull from as we create on paper.

A basic drawing strategy is to:

• start with a sheet of paper that is one or two inches larger than the small object you want to draw.
• use light lines when you first begin to draw (so that they can be erased or moved easily)
• focus on the edges of the objects you see, drawing simple shapes to get...

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We have drawn a lot of small subjects and improved our drawing skills by reaching for that goal of making our drawing of the objects the exact size of the actual objects. I've designed your course this way to help those who drew too small, and to heighten your awareness of the edge of the paper and distances to that edge and the edges of objects within the space. 

I should mention, however that you can draw an object larger or smaller than it actually appears. I can put a whole quarter mile of train track within a 9 x 12 inch piece of paper if I want to. I can also draw a dime the size of a baseball. So please do not feel like you can only choose small things in every drawing. 

With that said, today we will draw to size, so find some objects that will fit within the space of your paper and tear the paper to make it smaller if necessary. 

Enjoy Drawing!

Brenda Ellis, author of ARTistic Pursuits.

HERE'S WHAT YOU'LL DISCOVER

• How to draw an object to size
• Use...

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Today we will discuss making a plan, but I want to emphasize that there are always options in art. Each person is an individual and will want to make a plan that fits their personality and drawing style.

I want to remind our older students that you can select a more difficult subject to draw in order to challenge yourself with these drawing assignments. You might pick two or three objects and draw them in a group. 

I want to remind our younger students that your drawings are beautiful. Don't compare what you can do with my drawings or the drawings of others in your family. I love what you see. I love what you draw. We all draw differently and that's the beauty of art. I love the art that you create!

Enjoy Drawing!

Brenda Ellis, Author of ARTistic Pursuits.

HERE'S WHAT YOU'LL DISCOVER

Three types of plans

• line to identify the edge
• shapes to reposition easily
• marks to identity top, bottom, and side to side

Using the shape plan to ensure that all the effort put into...

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I'm so glad you joined me today. Some people think that you can only be self-confident if you can do something the right way every time. But think about any sport that you watch. These people don't always get it right. They have a bad play, stumble, miss their goal, and yet they don't give up. They go right back to the task. That is how you can approach making art. 

In this lesson I am demonstrating a practice that can help you use the big movements we need to draw. Tracing may seem like a strange practice, but I've seen it help many who fear making bold marks, big marks, and working quickly and smoothly. Here I point out how timid marks can actually make drawing harder. Have you ever tried to ride a bike slowly? It's much harder than riding the bike with some speed. These are just ways to explain how drawing is better with a little self-confidence. Tracing around the shapes of photographs this week will create muscle memory so that you feel better about making swift,...