Posts
©2009 Dave CaseySYD 01
Pastel & charcoal on paper, 17 x 14"
Available at my Etsy store. - $19.99
DG Casey's World of Art
Saturday, August 15, 2009
Syd 01
©2009 Dave CaseySYD 01
Pastel & charcoal on paper, 17 x 14"
Available at my Etsy store. - $19.99
DG Casey's World of Art
Friday, August 14, 2009
Learning To Draw
One of the things I've always felt about art was that the better you were with the pencil and charcoal, the better you would be as an artist overall. In my opinion, learning to draw should form the basis of your art education. Of course, I am also of the opinion that if you can sign your name and it is halfway legible, you can draw. About the only thing it comes down to is a desire to learn and the lesson plan.
Given this, I have decided to work on my drawing technique and wanted to start from the very beginning. I have been drawing for quite some time, years in fact, but I've never had any formal lessons in the use of the pencil other than one five week course at the local community college and it really wasn't all the helpful.
One of the crutches that I've used from the beginning was the use of a lightbox. Now, I don't feel there is anything wrong with using a lightbox. Professional artists have been using them for decades and even before then by holding a paper to a window with the sun behind it and transferring a design to a new sheet. But, the really good artists are the ones that could draw freehand and do it well, only using the lightbox when they needed to.
My freehand drawings are getting better and I am getting more and more comfortable with it, but I still go to the lightbox once in awhile to speed the process up somewhat. At the bottom of this entry you will see two drawings. The one on the left started on the lightbox and the one of the right was freehand. You can see that I have a ways to go with my freehand.
So, the question for me was, whose lesson plan should I follow. I have picked up a number of books from Amazon on drawing so I knew I didn't have to venture any further than my own bookshelves. I had the following books to choose from:
The New Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain
Pencil Drawing Techniques
Drawing the Head and Figure
Drawing Scenery: Landscapes and Seascapes
Keys to Drawing
Figure Drawing for All It's Worth (How to draw and paint)
I have heard nothing but good things about the Betty Edwards book, Drawing On The Right Side Of The Brain. So this is the book I've chosen to start this little adventure. Over the past couple of days I've gone through the first couple of lessons and can see that I probably will need to un-learn some of the things I've taught myself over the years, but I have time. I have all the time in the world.
Let's see how this goes over the next month or so.
Keep drawing and take care.
Given this, I have decided to work on my drawing technique and wanted to start from the very beginning. I have been drawing for quite some time, years in fact, but I've never had any formal lessons in the use of the pencil other than one five week course at the local community college and it really wasn't all the helpful.
One of the crutches that I've used from the beginning was the use of a lightbox. Now, I don't feel there is anything wrong with using a lightbox. Professional artists have been using them for decades and even before then by holding a paper to a window with the sun behind it and transferring a design to a new sheet. But, the really good artists are the ones that could draw freehand and do it well, only using the lightbox when they needed to.
My freehand drawings are getting better and I am getting more and more comfortable with it, but I still go to the lightbox once in awhile to speed the process up somewhat. At the bottom of this entry you will see two drawings. The one on the left started on the lightbox and the one of the right was freehand. You can see that I have a ways to go with my freehand.
So, the question for me was, whose lesson plan should I follow. I have picked up a number of books from Amazon on drawing so I knew I didn't have to venture any further than my own bookshelves. I had the following books to choose from:
The New Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain
Pencil Drawing Techniques
Drawing the Head and Figure
Drawing Scenery: Landscapes and Seascapes
Keys to Drawing
Figure Drawing for All It's Worth (How to draw and paint)
I have heard nothing but good things about the Betty Edwards book, Drawing On The Right Side Of The Brain. So this is the book I've chosen to start this little adventure. Over the past couple of days I've gone through the first couple of lessons and can see that I probably will need to un-learn some of the things I've taught myself over the years, but I have time. I have all the time in the world.
Let's see how this goes over the next month or so.
Keep drawing and take care.
©2008 Dave Casey
LIGHTBOX STUDY
Left - Graphite pencil on paper, 12 x 9"
Right - Charcoal on paper, 17 x 14"
LIGHTBOX STUDY
Left - Graphite pencil on paper, 12 x 9"
Right - Charcoal on paper, 17 x 14"
Saturday, August 8, 2009
To Sketch or Not To Sketch
As with a lot of artists, I struggle with the idea of whether I should sketch my ideas before setting brush to canvas. There are plenty of times when I just want to pick up a brush and start slopping paint on the canvas and see where my brush leads me. There are times when this approach can work and there are times when the finished canvas will make great kindling in the fireplace. But, no matter the outcome, the process is going to be fun.
When doing a figurative work, it is obviously desirable to start with a quick sketch. Getting proportions correct and all the parts placed properly is what is going to make a good portrait or figure painting a great piece of art. If these elements are not what they should be, the whole piece is going to suffer in the end. Unless, of course, you're trying to become the next Picasso. Then you can put body parts wherever you want and in whatever size you want because it really won't make a difference.
Even when doing a landscape I will do a bit of sketching, usually with either a watered down wash of color or a piece of vine charcoal. I guess I have Jerry Yarnell to thank for that. He and Brenda Harris are quite big on beginning with a sketch directly on your canvas. It is a difference that I noticed between these two and Bob Ross (one of my heroes, by the way). Bob would just start plastering paint wherever he damn well pleased and he made it work. But, he also worked from an image in his mind and that image would change as the painting progressed. But, if you're going to be painting from a reference photo or on location, this methodology rarely works and there is nothing worse that getting a good ways into your masterpiece and finding out that the elements of this work aren't going to fit on the canvas.
Now, when I say it's a good idea to sketch in your ideas before attacking the canvas with a brush I mean sketch, not draw. There is a difference. Sketching a 16x20 canvas shouldn't take more than a minute, with an extra minute to step back and take a long look at the canvas and making whatever adjustments are necessary. And that is a critical step. Step back and get a good look at the canvas from a distance. It took me awhile to learn this little item. It would be nothing for me to sit down at the easel and not get up for the next two or three hours, never once getting a view of the painting from a distance. And these are some of the most boring paintings I've ever done.
If you’re worried that your sketch may show through your transparent glazes, then use charcoal as your sketch medium and after getting the sketch on the canvas, take a fine, soft two inch brush and dry brush the canvas. It will take most of the charcoal off the canvas, but leave just enough for you to see what you are doing.
Sketching will help with your composition also. How many paintings have you seen where it looked like the artist just started painting and put everything they could think of in the painting and didn’t appear to care where they put those items? How many paintings have you seen where the artist appears to have not understood the idea of a focus point and proper placement of that focus point? Sketching is one way to work these bits of the composition puzzle out beforehand.
One contemporary artist that uses sketching quite well is the acrylic painter, Roger Bansemer. Check out some of his videos and you will see how he can take a small piece of wood and sketch out his plein air scene beforehand.
So, if you are finding that your paintings aren’t coming together the way you like, try sketching your ideas on the canvas first and see what happens. You might be surprised with the results.
Keep on sketching and take care.
When doing a figurative work, it is obviously desirable to start with a quick sketch. Getting proportions correct and all the parts placed properly is what is going to make a good portrait or figure painting a great piece of art. If these elements are not what they should be, the whole piece is going to suffer in the end. Unless, of course, you're trying to become the next Picasso. Then you can put body parts wherever you want and in whatever size you want because it really won't make a difference.
Even when doing a landscape I will do a bit of sketching, usually with either a watered down wash of color or a piece of vine charcoal. I guess I have Jerry Yarnell to thank for that. He and Brenda Harris are quite big on beginning with a sketch directly on your canvas. It is a difference that I noticed between these two and Bob Ross (one of my heroes, by the way). Bob would just start plastering paint wherever he damn well pleased and he made it work. But, he also worked from an image in his mind and that image would change as the painting progressed. But, if you're going to be painting from a reference photo or on location, this methodology rarely works and there is nothing worse that getting a good ways into your masterpiece and finding out that the elements of this work aren't going to fit on the canvas.
Now, when I say it's a good idea to sketch in your ideas before attacking the canvas with a brush I mean sketch, not draw. There is a difference. Sketching a 16x20 canvas shouldn't take more than a minute, with an extra minute to step back and take a long look at the canvas and making whatever adjustments are necessary. And that is a critical step. Step back and get a good look at the canvas from a distance. It took me awhile to learn this little item. It would be nothing for me to sit down at the easel and not get up for the next two or three hours, never once getting a view of the painting from a distance. And these are some of the most boring paintings I've ever done.
If you’re worried that your sketch may show through your transparent glazes, then use charcoal as your sketch medium and after getting the sketch on the canvas, take a fine, soft two inch brush and dry brush the canvas. It will take most of the charcoal off the canvas, but leave just enough for you to see what you are doing.
Sketching will help with your composition also. How many paintings have you seen where it looked like the artist just started painting and put everything they could think of in the painting and didn’t appear to care where they put those items? How many paintings have you seen where the artist appears to have not understood the idea of a focus point and proper placement of that focus point? Sketching is one way to work these bits of the composition puzzle out beforehand.
One contemporary artist that uses sketching quite well is the acrylic painter, Roger Bansemer. Check out some of his videos and you will see how he can take a small piece of wood and sketch out his plein air scene beforehand.
So, if you are finding that your paintings aren’t coming together the way you like, try sketching your ideas on the canvas first and see what happens. You might be surprised with the results.
Keep on sketching and take care.
©2009 Dave Casey
HUMMER WITH FLOWER
Colored pencil on paper, 17 x 14"
HUMMER WITH FLOWER
Colored pencil on paper, 17 x 14"
Friday, August 7, 2009
A New Chapter ...
As you may have noticed over the past couple of years, blogging has become the "in" thing when it comes to communicating your ideas with the rest of the world. It seems like everyone has a blog now and, it seems, they are just as bad about keeping it going and current as I am. Yes, there are many blogs out there that are added to daily or weekly or even hourly. But, there are even more blogs out there where you find the most current posting is over two years old, there are cobwebs in the corners, dust on the tables and a distinct echo when you call out to see if anyone is home.
And I am just as guilty of that as anyone. I have two other blogs and one hasn't seen me visit it in over six months. The other gets updated as I move from project to project in my second love of a hobby, gardening. My girlfriend and I just bought a house a few weeks ago and there was no backyard, so as an artist, it looks just like a blank canvas to me. When I get finished with my vision, even Monet will have to smile.
But, this is my art blog. This is where I shall impart all of my considerable wisdom in all things art. Should take all of about five minutes.
As an introduction, I am Dave Casey and I have just, in the past couple of years, entered into the second half of my life. A few years ago I came to realization that I wasn't doing some of the things that I had always wanted to do. I wanted to learn ballroom dancing. I wasn't much interesting disco or nightclub dancing, but ballroom has always captured my imagination. About four years ago I decided to take the plunge and have thoroughly enjoyed myself in the world of tuxedos and chiffon.
Other things I've placed on the back burner of the "someday I'd like to do this" stove hiking and backpacking. Now, I go every chance I get, which still isn't nearly as often as I would like. There is something about tossing my sketch pad and some pencils, some lunch and drink and maybe a book into a backpack and heading up into the hills for a day. I'm still trying to figure out how convince my girlfriend to go for some overnighters, but I fear that is a hopeless endeavor.
But one of the things that I have always regretted not giving more time to was my art. I've always enjoyed picking up a pencil and piece of paper and just seeing what I could create. I have been a pencil artist for as far back as I can remember, but I m only now starting to venture into paints and canvases. I have started to take my art more seriously.
I have always been self-taught and feel there is nothing wrong with that, but at the same time I like to see what other techniques are out there. I have, over the past year or so, amassed quite a collection of art books, both on how-to and on art history. I have browsed eBay now and then to see if I can pick up some back issues of various art magazines and now have quite a few years of issues of The Artist Magazine and American Artist.
I like to attend a weekly figure drawing workshop when I have time and, even though I feel quite inadequate when comparing my work to the others around me, I can definitely see a lot of improvement as I flip through my sketch books.
And tonight is First Friday. I think I'll try to make it down there and see if there is anything to inspire me. I've been down there a couple of times and I have to admit that I don't see much of anything that grabs my attention while I meander through the different museums and storefronts. I guess I am more of a classical artist and the new stuff is lost on me. I did see one fellow the last time I was there who was stuck at the end of a dark hallway with about a half a dozen figure drawings hanging on the wall. They were fabulous works. I couldn't afford to buy anything from him the last time I was there, but if he is there this time, I may just have to pick up a piece or two from him.
Anyway, this is the opening of my new blog and I am looking forward to exploring the world of art and my progression as an artist and if you'd like to go along with me, I would certainly love the company.
Until next time, keep on painting and drawing. Take care.
And I am just as guilty of that as anyone. I have two other blogs and one hasn't seen me visit it in over six months. The other gets updated as I move from project to project in my second love of a hobby, gardening. My girlfriend and I just bought a house a few weeks ago and there was no backyard, so as an artist, it looks just like a blank canvas to me. When I get finished with my vision, even Monet will have to smile.
But, this is my art blog. This is where I shall impart all of my considerable wisdom in all things art. Should take all of about five minutes.
As an introduction, I am Dave Casey and I have just, in the past couple of years, entered into the second half of my life. A few years ago I came to realization that I wasn't doing some of the things that I had always wanted to do. I wanted to learn ballroom dancing. I wasn't much interesting disco or nightclub dancing, but ballroom has always captured my imagination. About four years ago I decided to take the plunge and have thoroughly enjoyed myself in the world of tuxedos and chiffon.
Other things I've placed on the back burner of the "someday I'd like to do this" stove hiking and backpacking. Now, I go every chance I get, which still isn't nearly as often as I would like. There is something about tossing my sketch pad and some pencils, some lunch and drink and maybe a book into a backpack and heading up into the hills for a day. I'm still trying to figure out how convince my girlfriend to go for some overnighters, but I fear that is a hopeless endeavor.
But one of the things that I have always regretted not giving more time to was my art. I've always enjoyed picking up a pencil and piece of paper and just seeing what I could create. I have been a pencil artist for as far back as I can remember, but I m only now starting to venture into paints and canvases. I have started to take my art more seriously.
I have always been self-taught and feel there is nothing wrong with that, but at the same time I like to see what other techniques are out there. I have, over the past year or so, amassed quite a collection of art books, both on how-to and on art history. I have browsed eBay now and then to see if I can pick up some back issues of various art magazines and now have quite a few years of issues of The Artist Magazine and American Artist.
I like to attend a weekly figure drawing workshop when I have time and, even though I feel quite inadequate when comparing my work to the others around me, I can definitely see a lot of improvement as I flip through my sketch books.
And tonight is First Friday. I think I'll try to make it down there and see if there is anything to inspire me. I've been down there a couple of times and I have to admit that I don't see much of anything that grabs my attention while I meander through the different museums and storefronts. I guess I am more of a classical artist and the new stuff is lost on me. I did see one fellow the last time I was there who was stuck at the end of a dark hallway with about a half a dozen figure drawings hanging on the wall. They were fabulous works. I couldn't afford to buy anything from him the last time I was there, but if he is there this time, I may just have to pick up a piece or two from him.
Anyway, this is the opening of my new blog and I am looking forward to exploring the world of art and my progression as an artist and if you'd like to go along with me, I would certainly love the company.
Until next time, keep on painting and drawing. Take care.
©2009 Dave Casey
QUICK SKETCH 01
Graphite pencil on paper, 12 x 9"
Just a quick drawing I did this evening. When my girlfriend looked at it she asked, "how come her boob is pointing at the ceiling?" I told her it was because, "she's young and they're still perky." She looked down at her own chest and in a moment of remembering days gone by she quietly said, "yeah." It's hell getting old.
QUICK SKETCH 01
Graphite pencil on paper, 12 x 9"
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