JeniBlogs

Thinking Ahead

28/11/2015

watercolours from last Saturday's life class session

Nobody actually seems to have noticed, or at least not commented, on the fact that I stopped writing my weekly blogs quite a while ago. I originally started them as a New Year’s resolution, wondering if I could find something to write about drawing every week. I managed it for two years, which I think is quite an achievement really. I also agreed to re-publish them in
b-c-ing-u , an online magazine too. Because of Google’s plagiarism regulations, I had to edit and rewrite each article too.

I was spending so much time writing and putting articles and blogs together that it was eating into my painting time. b-c-ing-u is republishing them all from the beginning (they are on number 9 at the moment). You can catch up with them there if you wish. I am thinking of making them all into a book, but I wonder if I have the patience to re edit them all over again. And does the world really need another book about drawing?

I like writing, I like teaching, but painting is what I love most of all. Teaching helps to pay my bills, so it’s the writing that has to go, at least for now.
I am planning a new series of classes next year, which will take place in my studio in Manikata.
On Saturday mornings I will run my popular six-week basic drawing and watercolour techniques course interspersed with creativity workshops for those who would like to experiment and push their boundaries a little!
So here is the plan –

January 16th, 23rd, 30th – 10am to 12.30pm – a three week structured course in basic drawing techniques, covering everything I can think of to help you draw well and confidently. Total beginners always surprise themselves!

February 6th – Creativity Workshop - 10am to 1pm – come and have fun with some new and unusual approaches.

February 13th, 20th, 27th – 10am to 12.30pm – a three week structured course including a basic colour wheel, watercolour techniques and planning a painting.

March 5th – Creativity Workshop – 10am to 1pm – more fun!
On January 12th I will start the classes at Le Meridien Hotel in Balluta Bay, St Julians on Tuesday mornings from 10am to 12.30pm. These are drop in classes and help to put the basic techniques into practice.

Beginning on Thursday 14th January – 10.30 to 1pm - I will be back in Gozo, as long as the ferry is running! Classes have so far been running at the entertaining Ta’Mena Estate in Marsalforn, but I have an exciting new venue for the winter months. Watch this space!

From Friday 15th January – 9.30 to 12pm - I will be back in the wonderful gardens of Villa Bologna in Attard. If the weather is inclement we have plenty of indoor shelter.

Each class normally costs 20 euro, but next year I am going to introduce ‘packets’ of classes; 6 sessions of your choice for 100 euro, to be used within 3 months.

Here are some comments from students

Meanwhile, I am recycling paper bags and a roll of brown paper I found in the studio into Christmas wrapping paper....... and I have decided not to send Christmas cards this year to save a few trees from annihilation. If we all did that we could save FORESTS. We have so many free ways to send each other pictures and wishes on, why spend money and use trees?

Life Class

13/10/2015

Watercolour and soluble crayon 45 euro

My favourite subject is probably the human figure. I paint and draw many other things, and love doing them too when the mood takes me, but trying to capture an impression of another life endlessly attracts me.
Perhaps it’s the discipline. Artistic Licence allows you to move trees or buildings around in a landscape painting. You can play around with perspective, rearrange a tree’s branches and add or subtract flowers to suit your scene, but if you’re going to distort the human figure it still has to feel ‘real’ on some level. Modigliani’s elongated women retain a very believable quality. Even Picasso’s extreme distortions carry a real sense of human emotion.

I instantly fell in love with the genre of life drawing at my first experience of it, during my foundation course at Hull Art College in the 1970’s. It is such an honour to have the opportunity to stare at a naked body, studying its smallest details, finding the uniqueness and the beauty in it.

This seems to makes non-artists nervous, and silly jokes are made about male models having erections and artists finding the sight of a nude body irresistible. In reality, nothing could be further from the truth. For a start, it’s very difficult to draw and talk at the same time (it’s a brain thing, which I have talked about before) so most life sessions are silent, except for the music that might be playing in the background.

As for the model, it can be incredibly boring unless they are good daydreamers or meditators. It is also very difficult to keep still for any length of time on purpose. Especially when you know that a bunch of people – often strangers – are staring at your body, not you, and noticing all your lumps and bumps. And the pose which you thought you could hold for the required 15 minutes slowly becomes more and more painful as your leg starts to ache and your arm goes to sleep. It’s hardly a time for erotic thoughts, believe me.

All artists should model sometime; it really makes you appreciate what models do for you. When I am teaching life drawing I make students sit or stand in the same pose as the model for a few minutes before they start to draw. They can then feel where the weight of the body is pressing down most, where the balance or imbalance is, where the muscles are tense or relaxed.

Watercolour and soluble crayon 45 euro

I attend life drawing sessions whenever I can. Groups differ in the set up of their sessions. Some have a few quick poses first and then settle into a long pose for more detailed study. The group I go to on Saturdays likes to do quick poses for the whole two hours, which I really like. We may give a few directions such as ‘could we have a back view next?’ but other than that the only comment is the timekeeper saying ‘next pose please!’

10 minute paintings from last Saturday's session

I don’t distort figures when I draw/paint them. Well, not on purpose, anyway! I like the challenge of trying to draw exactly what I see, but after so many years of drawing practice I know that if I use static media such as pencils or pastels, the results are going to be quite predictable. To make things interesting I choose materials which don’t always stay where I put them, usually watercolours and soluble pens and inks. I also like to work on paper with a thin layer of gesso on it, which makes it semi waterproof. I am only just in control as everything slides around and the results are often surprising, which is why I find it an exciting way to work.

When I’m doing this kind of fast work I find myself in a strange place where I am watching my hand making marks but I’m not really ‘there’. The processing, left side of my brain switches off the mind chatter and I simply follow the lines.

I have to get out of my own way so that I can tell exactly how long, or thick, or curved a line needs to be. When you have practiced these methods for as long as I have they become second nature and your hand connects directly to your eye. This never fails to fascinate me. After working in this way it’s like surfacing from a dream. I am surrounded by drying pieces of paper that I only half remember painting. Some work, some don’t – some I try to ‘fix’ and usually ruin, some I throw straight in the bin, but some just have a fresh and lively quality that I like.

Years of study support me of course. Previous blogs have explained my methods of measuring (Blog Archives, ‘Drawing on Good Measure’ April 2014; ‘Drawing Figures from Life’ August 2015), seeing shapes and perspective (Blog Archives, ‘Drawing from a New Perspective’ ‘Drawing Flat Out’ March 2014).

Class Update –
Tuesday mornings at Le Meridien in the Kudeta lounge 10am – 12.30pm we explore different techniques and approaches to drawing and painting.
Thursdays 10.30 – 1pm we meet at Ta’Mena in Gozo to draw and paint in the extensive grounds
Fridays 9.30 – 12pm we always have a good time in the gardens of Villa Bologna in Attard!

I am going to start a Saturday morning basic drawing and watercolour class in my studio in Manikata soon - please let me know if you are interested or want any more info.

Copy, right? On Copyright

27/9/2015

from a series of London Transport sketches

A baby’s vocal chords and mouth is perfectly capable of reproducing the sounds of any language, from Chinese to Arabic, Russian to Portuguese, but will obviously only copy the sounds it hears.

Gradually the child will learn to string those sounds into words and phrases, and then sentences. The necessary movements of the tongue, mouth and vocal chords will be strengthened. The ability to make the ‘foreign’ language contortions will fall away with underuse.

Isn’t that interesting?

We are all born with the potential to do or be anything at all. We have individual traits and gifts, which pull us towards certain interests, but so much depends on the environment we are born into and how we are socialised.

We humans learn by imitation. As children, we watch adults and older children around us and do as they do, so that we fit in. We are socialised by copying the norms of the society we are born into.

At school we are generally discouraged from copying each other’s conclusions and results. Art and creativity, however, flourish in an environment of free exchange and cross fertilisation. In this way we support each other in exploring the boundless extremes of human imagination. We can adopt an appealing technique, a style, an approach, to help our own process.

The internet has given us limitless access to images and ideas from all over the world. We can learn new techniques for free on YouTube, join online forums and display our work in global galleries. The potential audience that we can reach and interact with is countless millions. Anyone who has access to a computer can contact anyone else with one. That’s both wonderful and daunting, isn’t it?

Mellieha valley, watercolour 30 x 21 cms. 45 euro

'Seated Girl' mixed media 53 x 37. 45 euro

The downside for artists displaying their art on the internet is that their images are exposed to theft and unlawful use. It’s so easy for anyone to download pictures, and there’s little or nothing that can be done to prevent it.
It's one thing to be inspired by someone else’s work, but quite another to pass it off as your own, or to use it commercially.

Under international copyright laws, when an artwork is sold, it becomes the property of the buyer. He or she can do what they like with it; even destroy it if they choose to. BUT, unless a formal contract is signed, the work cannot be reproduced in any way shape or form without the permission of the artist. This also applies to pieces donated to charity and to work that is found, gifted or auctioned. An artist automatically retains the copyright on every single piece of work that they produce unless they agree to sign it over to a third party.

As I said before, it is virtually impossible to prevent your work being downloaded from the internet. The only thing that you can do to protect it from being reproduced is to post only very low resolution images. This means that they will pixelate, or blur, if enlarged or printed.
It’s worth learning how to ‘resize’ your images on a site such as Photoshop or Paint.net.

Informal Vernissage, 26th September

3/9/2015

Every year I set my easel up at various events and try to capture the atmosphere, the sound, colour and movement around me. I have painted dancers and actors, circus acts and dog shows, but I like painting jazz musicians best of all.
I think it's because of the abstract qualities of jazz, the improvisation and unpredictability.

Musicians become one with their instruments as the music carries them out of the everyday and into the extraordinary. Jazz is a conversation in rhythm and sound - the communication and connection is palpable in the charged air. THAT'S what I try to paint....

On Saturday 26th September I am pleased to host a preview of this year's jazz paintings at my home/gallery/studio in Manikata.

It promises to be a fun evening; besides the paintings everywhere (there will be landscapes and other subjects on show as well) I am expecting some musicians to come and jam along too.

This is also going to be an Internations event, so it will be an opportunity to meet some people new to Malta as well as my friends, students and fellow artists.

The entry 'ticket' is a bottle of wine; some nice volunteers will help me provide snacky things.
Door opens 7.30 til 11.30pm

Address is 'Dar Il-Mistrieh' 15, Old Church Street (Triq Il-Knisja Qadima) Manikata
MAP LINK

Call me on 99458286 if you get lost or would like to reserve a painting.
or CONTACT ME here

'Children of the Light'

Lionel Boccara

Soweto Kinch Quartet

The paintings are approximately 70 x 50 cms, in acrylics on gesso paper.
Unframed they are 270 euro each plus P&P to anywhere, free delivery in Malta.
To preview the collection click HERE

Drawing Figures From Life

22/8/2015

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Instructions for drawing figures give measurements such as ‘the average human body is 7.5 head-lengths tall’. It’s funny that even that measurement seems to vary from source to source though. They then tell you how many times the same head-length will fit into an arm, a leg, the width of the torso, etc. Quite honestly, I have always found these measurements useless. How many times will people stand bolt upright for you to draw them? How interesting would that be anyway?

Figures are interesting to draw when they sit, lie down, curl up. When their limbs stretch towards you or away from you. Comparing head-lengths to their height or arm length is no help at all. Knowing how many times a head-length should fit into the length of a leg is not useful if that leg is in any kind of unusual position. This approach even reinforces the left brained, logical, linear idea that drawing can be helped with formulas. It will leave you struggling with the seemingly impossible optical illusion of foreshortening.

Foreshortening is the term used for perspective when applied to the figure. It means that a foot can appear to be several times larger than a head if it is closer to you in space. Or much smaller if it is further away.

To draw well, we need to overcome and discard the idea that it can be achieved by using a series of steps. Drawing is not logical. It is a creative process and every drawing demands new observations and adjustments to what you think you ‘know’. You actually know nothing when it comes to a drawing; there are no formulas. Each and every drawing is different and unique.

In my opinion, the only useful method for drawing realistic figures is the same one that applies to drawing anything else in three dimensional space; pretend it is flat.

A hand is the same length as a face - this chap's hand is far too small!

Why do we think that copying photographs is easier than drawing from life?

Because they are already flattened for us and the task seems easier. The problem is that cameras distort space very subtly, and we carefully copy the distortions without realising it. Our literal left brains find it hard to accept that photographs can lie. Photographs can also confuse you with a lot of information that is not necessary to make a good picture. Less is usually more.

Think about this; you are drawing on a flat surface. It is impossible to draw into the paper or canvas. You are trying to capture the illusion of three dimensions on a two dimensional surface. The easy way to do this is to approach your subject in a two dimensional way. Convince yourself that everything is flat when you are trying to draw it.

Your brain will probably find this a terribly difficult concept at first. It will give you symbols and shortcuts to make drawing faster, at the expense of accuracy. It is trained to help you to achieve tasks as quickly and effortlessly as possible, using past experiences and learnt responses.
This doesn’t work with drawing. We know that every face in the world is different. So is every single body. There are certain guidelines that all faces and bodies fit into, but it is the differences that make everyone unique. Guidelines don’t help at all when it comes to foreshortening, or drawing figures that are in any kind of odd position.

Pretending that you are looking through a screen, or a window, can make translating three dimensions into two much easier. Doing this literally is a good way to start, and will help you to understand the concept.

To make a ‘the world is flat’ viewfinder, draw a grid onto a sheet of cellophane with a marker pen. The boxes can be any size, as long as they are regular. Attach the cellophane to a card window. An old picture mount is ideal. Look at your subject through the screen with one eye closed and you will see that, say, the point of the elbow is directly in line with the model’s eye in a horizontal sense. Or the outside of her knee is on a perpendicular line with the inside bone of her ankle. Distance doesn’t matter with this approach. The body will form angles and curves inside the boxes. Nature has no straight lines!

To do this without the window, hold up your pencil at arm’s length, close one eye.....

(Why close one eye? Have a look at your subject with one eye closed, then keep your pencil still and look through the other eye instead. You will be amazed at how things seem to have moved! This is because we have two eyes, which combine images to give us a sense of depth and space, which the one-eyed camera cannot)

... and look past the pencil to the model. You can see how things align in a perpendicular way if you hold the pencil upright. Turn it on its side and you can see horizontal alignments. Move it like the hands of a clock (it is vital not to point your pencil into the space, towards the model) and you will see the angles and curves too.

To make useful measurements, hold the pencil in the same way – arm’s length, one eye closed, flat in front of you – and align the top of it with, say, the top of the model’s shoulder. Slide your thumb down the pencil so that it aligns with the model’s elbow. You can now gauge how many lengths it is to another point on the torso. If the foot is stretching towards you it might be four or more head lengths. If it is stretching away from you it might only be a quarter of a length. Remembering to keep the pencil flat like a clock face is the most difficult part. Master that and you can use it to draw figures, buildings or any other subject at all.

If you practice this method well, you will find that in time you don’t actually need to physically hold up the pencil so much (although this does make you look like a Proper Artist!); you will begin to measure and ‘see’ things as they really are.

I think that the logical part of your brain is overridden and it stops trying to tell you how things ‘should’ look. Instead you can see, and are able to draw, what’s really there in front of you.

I hope that this has been helpful - enjoy practicing!!

Classes Update

Besides Tuesdays at Le Meridien and Fridays at Villa Bologna, both mornings, I am very happy to announce that I will be starting both outdoor and studio classes at Ta' Mena in Gozo from the end of September. At the moment I am planning to run a Wednesday afternoon class in the lovely grounds, and a Thursday morning class which will be more structured and studio based.

If you are interested please ask for more details!

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Am I Finished?

10/8/2015

1 Comment

Is this finished? I quite like it just like this....

I am serious – you need to switch off and then on again. Now turn and catch the picture by surprise.
You will suddenly see it more objectively and hopefully any mistakes or hiccups will be much easier to spot.

I am often asked ‘how do I know if my picture is finished?’ There isn’t a simple answer. My annoyingly flippant reply is ‘about ten minutes before you asked the question!’ In other words, as soon as it crosses your mind, stop. Put down your brushes, and take a step back. This is just one of the advantages of working with an easel; you can move away from your work and assess it more easily. Excuse the pun.....

Try propping the picture up where you can see it and walk away from it. I turn my back and go to the other end of the studio. Or several feet away if I am outside. Then distract yourself - look at your phone, have a swig of water, jump up and down – do Something Else.

Another trick is to look at your picture’s reflection in a mirror. This is the reason for the large mirror in most artist’s studios; it’s not there for reasons of vanity, honest! Some people also carry a small pocket mirror as part of their kit. By turning away from the picture and holding the mirror up to look at the picture over their shoulder they see a reversed, smaller image. It can be quite a revelation. This is a great way to check perspective, and also portraits, especially of animals. Cat’s eyes seem to pose a huge problem for many people. Use a mirror!

To assess design and composition, the arrangement of tones, shapes and colours and whether the picture hangs together in an abstract sense, turn it upside down or on its side.

I also like to put paintings on the floor and look down at them. I even continue working on them like that sometimes; it gives me a certain distance and freedom of movement.

If you’re still not sure whether your picture is finished or not, take it away from wherever you have been working on it. Put it somewhere that you will see it while you’re distracted by other things. Talking on the phone is great – it occupies your logical, linear, language brain and leaves your creative brain free to evaluate your work in a really helpful way.

pegboard is really useful

You can also put the work away completely out of sight for a while. Weeks, months or years. I often come across half-finished works that I hadn’t known what to do with. Seeing them again with fresh eyes – and maybe more experience – often brings an easy solution.

adding a mount can help too

Watercolour in particular loses its vibrancy and flow if it is overworked and controlled too tightly, so it’s better to stop earlier rather than later. It’s always possible to go back and add a little more here and there, but not so easy to take things out. Too many washes just turn to mud. Even ‘cheating’ (which is always a good solution) with white paint, gouache or pastels, must be handled with care.

Slaving over a picture, trying to get it ‘right’ can often be counterproductive. We often become so tightly focused and involved with it that we hunch closer and closer over it, fiddling with the tiny details and worrying it to death. Stepping back to see the overview, the overall effect, can give a whole new perspective. Perhaps those tiny details really don’t matter so much? It’s the bigger picture, the sum of the parts, which holds the story together and has the greater impact.

Perhaps that’s true in Life too?

Classes Update -

We are STILL meeting at Villa Bologna on Friday mornings - the trees there have special A/C, I swear!

For the unnatural kind, Tuesdays in the KuDeTa bar of Le Meridien, St Julians is almost as good :-)

Less is often more.....

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Thinking Ahead

Life Class

Copy, right? On Copyright

Informal Vernissage, 26th September

Drawing Figures From Life

Am I Finished?

Jeni Caruana

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