Always buy the big box of X-Acto knife blades, you’ll wind up using them all.
Any Billy Wilder movie is probably going to be really good.
Better materials, especially certain paper and paints, actually do make a big difference.
However, when you find a material where a cheap version is just as good as an expensive version, TAKE FULL ADVANTAGE.
The way you ruin most drawings is by getting detailed too quickly, before you get the basics down first.
Will this stop you from getting to the details too quickly? No. You’ll keep doing this over and over although you know better. Just TRY not to.
Color Theory: Color is relative. That is, the same color can look like two different colors depending on what’s behind it. Congratulations! That was a semester of color theory.1
You don’t have to like an important work of art just because it’s an important work of art. You also don’t have to shit on it just because other people are.
Why you, personally, love a work of art is a fascinating question. Why you hate a work of art is even more fascinating, and often easier to articulate for some reason.
Conversely, “what is art?” is an incredibly boring question. If you ever find yourself trapped in a conversation about it, immediately change the subject.
The most important thing I learned in art school does not fit in a nice click-bait-y list, however. The lesson arrived during a critique in a painting class. A fellow student was presenting her oil painting, a beautiful still life of an orange or maybe an orange peel. At one point in the crit, I mentioned how she could add a hand or something, some indication of a narrative or backstory.
I thought I was being clever, of course. But the professor shut it down immediately.
“She could do that,” he said. “But then it wouldn’t be her painting. It would be your painting.”
The ultimate lesson: judge art on its own terms, not yours. “This is what I would have done,” is not a critique. What’s the goal of the piece? Is it achieving it? Why or why not? That probably applies to a lot of life advice, too. If it were me, I’d do this generally does not take into account the fact that the other person isn’t you.
Did you go to art school, or study art? What are the lessons you still think about to this day? Let me know in the comments!
Show announcement
If you live in the DC Metro area, I have a gallery show at the Goodwin House in Falls Church. The title is, “Mostly Cartoons: Cats, Turtles and Other Characters” but the breakdown might be more 50/50, now that I think about it. There’s also an opening party on 9/26 where I’ll be giving a talk about my work, with light refreshments.
Mostly Cartoons: Cats, Turtles and Other Characters
On view through 10/3
Opening Reception & Artist Talk
Saturday, September 26
3:00PM – 5:00PM EDT
Goodwin House Bailey’s Crossroads
3440 S Jefferson St
Falls Church, VA 22041
Now just figure out how to namedrop Josef Albers in a conversation, and all of those student loans will have been worth it.
I did go to art school and sometimes I think it was a great experience and other times it was excruciating.
Here’s 2 things I remember:
1. my senior year a professor told us that in 10 years, only 1% of us would still be making art. I decided I would be in that 1% and 10 years after that only 1% of those people would still be making art (I am)
2. in graduate school I had the great fortune to have Jacob Lawrence as one of my advisors. Once during a critique he said: “Don’t paint a wall like you’re painting a wall.”
Meaning, if you’re putting a large flat surface as part of your painting, there should be a transition in color and/or value as you move from one side to the other.
I graduated from graduate school over 40 years ago and am still a full time artist.
I love this. “The ultimate lesson: judge art on its own terms, not yours. “This is what I would have done,” is not a critique.”
It’s the disease of all criticism of any kind. You didn’t make it … the other person made it. If you don’t like it, fine. go make your own thing.
And I love this too. “That probably applies to a lot of life advice, too. If it were me, I’d do this generally does not take into account the fact that the other person isn’t you. “