Summer offers longer days, warmer weather, and a chance to dedicate more time to a craft that’s calling your name. Have you thought about painting or drawing but are unsure of where to start? We talked to NYU SPS instructor and artist, Meera Thompson, who is currently teaching The Art of Drawing: From Da Vinci to Degas, about her art practice and suggestions she has for beginner artists.
1. Start Simple
You may be tempted to tackle a large-scale drawing or render a subject in extreme detail, but it’s important to start simple. This is particularly true if you are trying en plein air (painting outdoors). Have a minimal setup and loose parameters.
“[Have] a small little sketchbook, some pencils, maybe colored pencils, or some pens,” Thompson advises. If you’re based in New York City, she suggests going to MOMA or the MET to draw or using the city’s landscapes for inspiration.
“Draw in the park,” Thompson says. “I have in the past, drawn on buses, drawn in the subway, drawn in restaurants…” But Thompson also says that you don’t necessarily need a specific environment to start drawing.
“I don’t think you need a particular locale or even a particular subject in order to paint,” she says. Thompson references artists like Albrecht Düre or Cezanne who found subjects at their fingertips. Düre, famously sketched his pillow in various positions. Cezanne, filled his sketchbook with drawings of his thumb or the backs of chairs.
Look for images and vignettes that inspire you, your artwork doesn’t necessarily need to be grandiose.
2. Stay in the Moment
Painting can be a mindful practice, and sometimes the medium demands undivided attention. This can have a calming effect, in which everything but you and your subject fades from view.
“[Think] of watercolor and en plein air painting as a way of being in the moment, of recording, not necessarily rendering,” Thompson says. There is something to be said of capturing something the way you see it, as opposed to the detail of a photograph.
“The [watercolour] paint is very liquid, meaning it moves very fast,” Thompson continues. “Because it is transparent, in other words, anything that’s underneath continues to show… you have to be decisive in watercolor.” The more in the moment you are, the more aware you will be of what is happening to the medium in front of you.
3. Remember It’s About You
Cherish your artistic intuition. You are the only one who can render a subject in your eyes.
“I’ve always said subject matter, whether it’s the ocean or the river or three flowers, is merely a threshold over which you pass. Every drawing, every painting is really about you,” Thompson explains.
One exercise that Thompson sometimes gives her students is to draw the same subject with three different intentions. Take a vase of flowers, for example, and see what happens when you draw it with three different emotions in mind. This could be anything—joy, anxiety, or tragedy. What do you hope the viewer will feel? Can you express that through the flowers?
4. Keep it Joyful
At the end of the day, art is about joy. If painting isn’t bringing you joy, step away. You will likely do your best work when you’re having fun.
“Anything that takes that joy away should be avoided,” Thompson says. “So that means boredom. That means fatigue. That means, criticism, judgment, expectation.”
Thompson has been painting for many years, and she has begun to see the act of drawing as a way of comprehending other artistic forms of expression.
“Drawing is the language in which artists think, whether they’re making figurative work or non-objective work, whether they’re sculptors or photographers or filmmakers,” Thompson concludes. To understand how to draw, is to some extent, to begin to understand all art. Drawing gives you a framework to comprehend the world of art in front of you.
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