Problem
I had been on a Writers' Holiday before, tried the painting holiday but hadn't learned much. This year I wondered: Will I learn anything new, or be reminded of techniques, so that remember anything I knew but have forgotten?
Answer
Yes. Success. I did Susan Alison's course at Fishguard Bay Hotel on Writers' and Artists' holiday. The rule with learning anything, is to find a teacher, whether it's every day in school, once a week in a course, or once a year on a holiday. Then practise what you have learned every day in between.
With art, once you have been taught or reminded to look for highlights and shadows, you can look around a room at the contrasts. Even if you are not drawing, you are noticing the direction of the light, training yourself to observe, storing images in your memory.
In July 2017 I gave a speech at a Toastmasters International meeting about what I learned on an art holiday. My speech won the best speech ribbon.
First I described the way the foreground is darker and larger. In this photo, the frame itself is casting a shadow.
I had been on a Writers' Holiday before, tried the painting holiday but hadn't learned much. This year I wondered: Will I learn anything new, or be reminded of techniques, so that remember anything I knew but have forgotten?
Answer
Yes. Success. I did Susan Alison's course at Fishguard Bay Hotel on Writers' and Artists' holiday. The rule with learning anything, is to find a teacher, whether it's every day in school, once a week in a course, or once a year on a holiday. Then practise what you have learned every day in between.
With art, once you have been taught or reminded to look for highlights and shadows, you can look around a room at the contrasts. Even if you are not drawing, you are noticing the direction of the light, training yourself to observe, storing images in your memory.
In July 2017 I gave a speech at a Toastmasters International meeting about what I learned on an art holiday. My speech won the best speech ribbon.
First I described the way the foreground is darker and larger. In this photo, the frame itself is casting a shadow.
Drawing nature outdoors, and still life, means everything is still. However, a human being adds human interest.
I wanted to draw somebody, but all the other artists were busy with their own paintings. I should have asked the course organiser to put out an appeal at breakfast or lunch or dinner for a model. A few people had told me that they were exhausted by the effort of the morning's courses and wanted to sit and do nothing in the afternoon. Maybe one of them would have volunteered to sit still and be drawn and painted.
Fortunately I must have told the teacher, Alsion, in advance, that I wanted to draw caricatures. She said she had brought a mirror specially for me. I drew exactly what I saw, including the mirror.
When I got home, I looked at my face, and my good side, the right or the left side. But in the picture what appears to be my right is actually the left. Doesn't the right hand go on the right hand side? I look left-handed. I am right-handed.
I heard about this years ago, but had forgotten it until I looked at the painting.
The next Writers' and Artists' Holiday is in February 2018.
www.writersholiday.net
Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, illustrator, speaker. I have other posts on painting and Wales and Welsh language. Please bookmark and share your favourite posts.
