I have interesting ability to see things, I saw before in a new light, every time is a first time. I forget how it looked before. This why I am never bored. (May be everybody is like me?) So this how I saw the place, where we usually go for cat food, this time, with dramatic shadows and bits of red. Watercolor (Japanese) and ink in Arches book.
Uncle Bob 12:22 pm on August 11, 2010 | #
I can understand what you mean about seeing things. Before I started painting I used to look at things, such as skies, but never really saw them – if you know what I mean. Now I can see colours, patterns and other details which I use in my sketches and paintings. I have learned, in a small way I suppose, to observe more readily. I often say I have wasted much of my life.
Nikira 8:38 pm on August 11, 2010 | #
Bob, when I was studying, I was told that average russian school student sees 10 colors and average japanese- one million. This is based on cultural differences. I am reading interesting book, explaining how to shift brain into creative R-mode “Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain ” by Betty Edwards. Did you read it?
*We didn’t waste, we had experience.
Uncle Bob 1:50 am on August 12, 2010 | #
Yes Nikira. read this book a long time ago. Its become almost compulsory reading for students of art over here.
Nikira 5:44 am on August 12, 2010 | #
Friend of mine said she also used it in college,she said it helped. I want to read and use it for couple of my friends, who are learning now.
roseindigo 12:23 pm on August 12, 2010 | #
LOVED THAT BOOK! And I took the course with Betty at Long Beach State. What an eye opener that was. People came into the class drawing nothing but stick figures, and by the time they finished the course they were drawing beautifully. There was only one poor soul in the class who never did get the concepts she was teaching.
I find, however, that unless I re-read the book I fall back into bad habits. Right now is about time when I should re-read it again and so some of those exercises she presents so well.
I’ve always believed that anyone can draw if they are taught, even though the naturally creative person might take it farther along eventually. My father, who was schooled in Germany where drawing was taught as any other subject at the time, was not an artist but he taught me the rudiments of drawing when I was about 5 and let me cover pages and pages of scrap paper for practice. When he felt I was ready he taught me the art of shading something which he had learned in school, and what a revelation that was to a 5-year-old—to be able to make an object “round” on paper. It was wonderful!!!
I’ve drawn off and on in my life ever since, and now that I’m in this gorgeous country where I live it does help me to notice more and “see” everything, and it’s become a form of meditation for me to draw whatever is in front of me and really “see” it with gratitude. Once you’ve drawn an object or a flower it is yours forever.
Betty surely hit upon something wonderful in that book, and opened a whole generation up to being able to draw instead of just wishing they could.
roseindigo 12:26 pm on August 12, 2010 | #
By the way Nikira this is a lovely watercolor. Just love the shadows and your color choices. It also looks like you used a sepia pen which is a gorgeous contrast with the blue-gray.
roseindigo 12:36 pm on August 12, 2010 | #
Also wanted to mention that “seeing color” is often a matter of training the eye. I have a friend who simply refuses to see “purple” mountains. He says they are BROWN, and that’s the end of it for him. So I tried to explain to him that the combination of reddish-brown earth with the blue haze of atmosphere in the distance does make purple, especially when the sun is at certain angles He said he would try to see it, but his mind was so closed to it that I doubt he ever will.
I actually believe that most people go through life blind like he is, and it is only when something or someone triggers us that we begin to become open to the light and atmosphere and what that does to color. Personally I feel sorry for all those who cannot or refuse to be open enough to “see”. Not that I’m so great at it myself, but at least I try.