“Sorry to bother you.
I had a question and thought maybe i could ask for a professional artists advice/opinion..
Anyhow…I have been drawing for what seems like forever but recently i decided to jump back into the world of acrylic painting..
It’s been years since i painted as seriously as i draw…and i don’t think i’ve ever taken painting as serious as my drawing..
However,I want to paint,seriously..and i have been making every attempt i can to spare time to do so..
My question is this….
Every single time i paint my work doesn’t even pale in comparison to my drawing abilities..
It’s like two complete extremes..I’m usually somewhat content with my drawing abilities,though i keep pushing myself to get even better..
where as my painting abilities are just nowhere near what i can do with a pencil or pen..
It’s very discouraging and frustrating…to say the least.
Is this something typical? Where an artist can having great drafting abilities but when it comes to paint…not so much.
I dunno…it’s something that just bothers me because i want to be just as good at painting as i am at drawing..
I would appreciate any advice…or opinion you can give..
Anyhow,thanks for reading and your time..
-James”
James, thanks for sharing this insightful questions. I think I can help. When I was taking drawing lessons at Art Center I thought I was really good with drawing, but when I arrived in NYC, I was blown away at how bad my drawing was in comparison to the professionals art techniques around me.
This is what I did to get good and develop my chops in drawing lessons and oil painting lessons. I focused on turning my weakness into my strengths.
I used to body build some time ago, and we would call this “X-training”. This was where we would draw a mental X over our least developed muscle groups, and then go ballistic to overtrain that group into perfection. We did every excersize and technique we could think of for that one specific area. After about 6 weeks we would evaluate our progress compared to an old image or photo. This is exactly like what it takes to train and develop yourself with art techniques. Now sometimes it’s hard to see for yourself how you have developed over the time, so having a trustworthy friend or mentor is helpful.
- Find your X or weak points.
- I follow the technique to this very day. I constantly look for my own “X” and keep them on a list. I then spend a portion of each day single mindedly developing that one area in my art.
- Build your wall of skill one block at a time using your new art technique.
Learn the specific strategy that your X requires to best solve it. Oil painting lessons have a totally different strategy than drawing lessons. You may not be comfortable working in a new way of at first, but with practice it will soon become your own.
I think the most important principle to recognize is that each time you invest energy into developing one skill, it does not mean that you lose the other. So make sure to give yourself plenty of slack when you are still learning new art techniques.
I hope this helped you out a bunch,
I wish someone would have told me this stuff when I took drawing and oil painting lessons,
instead of having to figure it out on my own.
All success,
Evan P
