Week 1 of My Art Studies: Basics and Fundamentals of Art
Week 1:
This was the first week that I decided to fully dedicate a part of each day to drawing and practicing my art skills. As you can imagine I felt a bit rusty and it was a little bit embarrassing to be starting from scratch again. I practiced drawing shapes and forms and then moved onto 3D shapes as well. These were all things I had practiced in high school (and when I was even younger), so it was humbling having to start over. If you have ever played snakes and ladders, it felt like I had landed on a spot with a snake and had to go all the way back down to the beginning.
Some things did come back to me, just like riding a bike. As an adult you feel like by now, you should know how to do certain things. That is why it is usually easier for kids to learn things. They go with the flow, they are not afraid of making mistakes. As adults we have learned that there is a certain way to do things or we feel embarrassed when we don’t know things we should or have forgotten how to do them.
However, it was good practice and definitely needed because it is true that these basic shapes make up everyday objects. All the great artists past and present have started from learning the basics. And a lot of present day artists still do some of these things as a daily warm up.
Basics and Fundamentals of Art:
I learned about warm up techniques. Yes, you need to warm up for drawing just like you warm up before a workout. I will discuss some of these techniques that I learned about in my research. By the way, I did do research for each week during the first day or even before, so that I knew what I would need to do for the upcoming week. I will link videos and art youtubers that I recommend and that I have been learning from. I hope that you will also enjoy learning from them.
The Warm Ups:
This part was interesting to me. I don’t think I actually remember practicing this step in high school, but we did draw still life and practiced shading 3D shapes. During this week I drew circles, semi-circles, different patterns, etc. I also learned about using your whole arm to draw circles vs using your hand and seeing the difference that it makes. Below I have links to helpful videos that teach you about the different warm ups you can do. These are by different art youtubers and I have found these videos very helpful. Please feel free to also check out other art exercises.
12 Drawing Exercises to Improve Your Art Skills! Warm-Up Practice - Jess Karp
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WRQ8_oVt9nM
Learn How to Draw for Beginners - Episode 1 - Brad’s Art School
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wz6DrQeQ5rI
What I liked:
It was fun letting loose and drawing again. It was not about making art at this point, it was more about relearning to enjoy the process of making art or rather the process of getting ready to make art again. But even that was fun.
What I didn’t like:
Like I have stated previously, it was humbling to be starting again from zero, but other than that it was good getting back into the creative flow.
The Takeaway:
This practice in the end felt freeing. Learning to let go of perfectionism (which is a big weakness to many artists) and loving the PROCESS of MAKING art was a joy. I hope that you will enjoy the art process as well, no matter where you are starting from.
Any art exercises that you recommend? Please let me know, thanks!
Introduction Video To My Art Channel - Raeclair De Lune:
