I signed up for an online watercolor class. I paid $175 to take this 6 week class. Each Friday the teacher releases a new lesson with text, video, and assignment. The lessons are well thought out, well laid out, and I am learning things.
Learning things is the easy part, I find it hard (painful, even) to do the work. I want to skip school. I want to throw $175 away. I also want to learn how to paint a damn apple.
Lesson 1: Fruit was released on a Friday. The following Sunday night, I still hadn't started the assignment. I keep my materials in a box. Before going to bed that Sunday night I put the box on top of my keyboard so when I woke up the next morning I would know I meant business.
Voila! The somewhat pathetic first step. The frame around the painting was required. It is not meant to be in perspective. It is just a frame, the instructor's whimsy, ostensibly to add interest. Surely I could do perspective if required? Right? Well, maybe. We'll see.
Today is Sunday again. I haven't started Lesson 2: Leaves. I can't believe I have to do this again.
OH!! You should be so encouraged - your apple is fabulous! Better than fabulous! Extraordinary and the framing is brilliant, the colors are wonderful, This is a fine piece!! You ought to be getting a refund , you already know how to paint!
ReplyDeleteThanks for your kind words! They mean so much.
DeleteSpeaking as someone who would be challenged to draw that box, I'm deeply impressed by your apple.
ReplyDeleteFunny, I was just writing today about attempting new endeavors later in life.
Thanks. I'm trying.
DeleteSome people need the pressure of a looming deadline. Maybe you're one of them! I think that apple turned out great! Definitely better than I could do.
ReplyDeleteI do, actually, need a deadline.
DeleteI love that apple. You did such a fine job. As Marty wrote I would also be challenged to even draw that box. Really lovely art, Colette.
ReplyDeleteThank you! Now I need to get up the courage to paint a green leaf.
DeleteThe apple is superb. Some real artistic talent there.
ReplyDeleteAw, shucks. Thanks, Nick.
DeleteWow! Your apple painting with shadow and highlights and luscious color and sensitive lines shows an artist's hand and eye. When the student is ready, the teacher appears. It seems that a good teacher appeared for you. I'm so happy to see your apple today!
ReplyDeleteThanks, am. Knowing how talented you are, I appreciate the encouragement.
DeleteYou definitely show talent. As a teacher you know how to schedule assignments.DO IT!
ReplyDeleteHahaha. I was never a teacher. I was an office manager. I can easily schedule other people's assignments. My own, not so much.
DeleteYou can do it, Colette! Go, Girl, Go!
ReplyDelete(can you tell I was a cheerleader back in 8th grade?)
That apple look ggrreeaatt!! Keep going! Don't give up!
I can. I will. I won't!!!! That was fun, getting in the spirit.
DeleteThe Deadline Artist! You can copyright that!
ReplyDeleteSo.......so........impressed!
ReplyDeleteThanks, Linda.
DeleteColette: Come on, Babe. Isn't the US supposed to be the "can do" society? You know the sort of thing: "You wannan indoor pool, solar-heated? Gimme four weekends but some other jerk'll have to do the tiling."
ReplyDeleteQuick suggestion: second week and you're reluctant, it's not your thing (although the apple looks OK to me and you've immediately jumped to Lesson 56 with the oh-so-clever signature - just like Van Gogh except he used the brush). Burn your paint tubes and force yourself to meditate, preferably in the pouring rain. What actually does race your motor? And don't confine yourself to a conventional range of subjects, especially not macramé. It could be plumbing; don't tell me you haven't been fascinated by the principle of the olive joint. Astronomy? Teach-yourself brain surgery?
One disrecommendation: singing. For one thing you lack the essential monomania. For another you'd have me emailing you morning, noon and night about progress, guilt-forcing you into the Queen of the Night aria. You suspect I'm a bore, learning the ascending triad warm-up and posting about it would confirm your suspicions. For I, my dear, do have the essential monomania.
I love the drawing part of this process. I have never been good with color, though. This is new for me. It's hard not being good at something right from the start. That's my REAL problem. But, as my father would say, it's good for my immortal soul. I'll do this. At least until the end of the class. I'm not promising anything beyond that. But we'll see how it goes.
DeleteIn fact, I do lack the essential monomania. It's hard for me to focus. If anything, I have too many interests. Which reminds me of something a Mathematics professor once told me. He said mathematicians aren't necessarily smarter than other people. They just have the ability to focus on one problem for as long as it takes to solve it. I found that interesting.
Same with me. Drawing (especially when it leads to pen and ink) attracts me mightily but I am having to push it to one side; my creative abilities - essential for novels and for singing - are leaking away with age and I need to stick to things where I do have a track record. I'm also lousy with colour.
DeleteI sympathise about focus. Are there times of the day when you concentrate best? The mathematics prof (I've dabbled a bit in his field) is absolutely right. And he could well add that although maths is driven by the question How?, the question Why? (applied to certain abstract techniques) tends to get neglected.
I was going to keep this short but an insight popped up during my singing lesson this morning. I've been having a problem with a six-note phrase; doing music "by ear" before I started taking lessons means that bad habits are pulling the relationship between the fifth and sixth notes away from what's written into a simpler (but wrong) interval. I explained this to V saying the fault was so basic to music - yet difficult to resolve - that I wondered whether I was in the wrong line of business. Almost like a potential suicide on the phone to The Samaritans. She came up with all sorts of comfort but I realised she was worrying about me worrying. So the pupil briefly became the teacher. "After all," I said, "not singing is easy. Anyone can do it." She laughed which is what I wanted to see.
One tip for you: be prepared to waste tons of expensive art paper. Leave it in crumpled balls on the floor until you're done for the day. It's proof that you're capable of recognising defective work and that's the first step towards improvement.
Honest, I wish you well.
You did well with Lesson #1 and I hope you have started Lesson #2.
ReplyDeleteThanks. I have started it. And started it again. I'm determined to get something I can stand.
Deletethis is what you call pathetic? Gee I couldn't even do a stick drawing of a fruit. Great job!!!
ReplyDeleteOh thank you, Margaret.
DeleteGreat! Amazing. I wish I could even think of attempting something like that. Keep it up.
ReplyDeleteI'm going to try really hard to end up better than I started. Or at least more comfortable. Practice is what I need to become comfortable with. Practice and more practice.
DeleteI think it is fantastic for a first, reluctant effort.
ReplyDeleteBe bold, don't be intimidated by color. Just think of color as fancy grays. ;-)
I haven't painted since college. I am itching to get back to it, I just don't have the room.
Congratulations.
Thank you, Middle Girl! I'm trying hard to get used to working with colors.
DeleteWell, good for you. I suspect I'd also want to quit.
ReplyDelete