WANTED: A Clear Mind

[Lainie_N]

I started painting a year ago when I got some supplies for my birthday. So far I have only made 6 pieces worthy of a mention. The biggest obstacles for me would be over-thinking the art process, criticizing my work before it's done, and not being able to find inspiration. If I see a photo in a book, magazine, or newspaper I will get out my painting supplies and try to turn it into art. However within the first few lines I'm frustrated and angry that it doesn't look like the photo. By the time I get the paint onto my brush, I'm disappointed and suddenly the hobby turns into a monotonous task. I would like to take art classes in the future, but for right now I just need some assistance clearing my mind.

I often try and be like/compare myself to a relative of mine who can draw/paint detailed images. I just wish I could sit down, picture a scene in my head, and paint it. I know I need to start small since I'm only a beginner, but I just keep raising the bar too high. Any advice on how to overcome these obstacles as a new "artist?"

[fritzie]

If you want to be able to make a faithful reproduction in paint of a photograph, should you begin by practicing drawing from photographs before painting from them? Or is that aspect already simple for you?
Have you obtained a beginning painting book which you could follow? I know some people don't believe in that sort of approach, but I think looking at such material can start you off with good habits, while self-teaching sometimes can give you a lot of practice at bad habits that then can be hard to break.

[Keith Russell]

My advice is, give yourself constructive criticism. Also, work to finish whatever you start. Once it's done, only then allow yourself to really look at what you've made, and ask yourself simply how can you learn from "this piece", to make "the next one", better.

Originally Posted by Lainie_N

I started painting a year ago when I got some supplies for my birthday. So far I have only made 6 pieces worthy of a mention. The biggest obstacles for me would be over-thinking the art process, criticizing my work before it's done, and not being able to find inspiration. If I see a photo in a book, magazine, or newspaper I will get out my painting supplies and try to turn it into art. However within the first few lines I'm frustrated and angry that it doesn't look like the photo. By the time I get the paint onto my brush, I'm disappointed and suddenly the hobby turns into a monotonous task. I would like to take art classes in the future, but for right now I just need some assistance clearing my mind.

I often try and be like/compare myself to a relative of mine who can draw/paint detailed images. I just wish I could sit down, picture a scene in my head, and paint it. I know I need to start small since I'm only a beginner, but I just keep raising the bar too high. Any advice on how to overcome these obstacles as a new "artist?"

[Clive Green]

Comparisons are odious. Painting in any medium is not simply a matter of creating an image but also of developing and becoming at ease with a technique. If you must be judged then judge yourself, as Keith suggests, against your own work. Remember that that the goals you set yourself must be realistic and achievable within a reasonable time frame.

[Use Her Name]

There are also inexpensive how-to books at places like Hobby Lobby, or Micheals, if you have any of them around. The Library is a great source of art technique books.

About the "realism" level. How realistic the painting is depends on your ability to draw. Painting is like coloring with crayons, the outline dictates whether an object looks real or not.

[mame]

Okay.....think about this realistically. Would you be ready to perform intricate surgery on a human brain if you'd only been practicing at home for a year on 6 squirrels with a butter knife?

Take it easy....give yourself a break and some TIME - and by the by - paint about IDEAS and things you relate to in your own experience. Photos are fine but find them in art books of artists who particularly appeal to you - and use them primarily for the study of art elements - values, composition, etc.

[Tammar]

Originally Posted by mame

Okay.....think about this realistically. Would you be ready to perform intricate surgery on a human brain if you'd only been practicing at home for a year on 6 squirrels with a butter knife?

This is the funniest thing ever - and yet so true!!!

[Greg Long]

Originally Posted by Lainie_N

However within the first few lines I'm frustrated and angry that it doesn't look like the photo.

Why try to make it look like a photo? Why not just try to get it to look like whatever subject it is you are painting?
Creativity is not about copying a photo in paint, crayon or whatever else you are using. (It should be pointed out that some materials cannot reproduce a detailed copy of a photo, no matter how good the artist is.) It is about conveying the essence of your subject or ideas. Aim to do this, and you will soon be producing works that will please you.
You say you cannot paint in the same way as a relative, but the point is that we all work differently and in differing styles.

[LGHumphrey]

Some people paint from their imagination, some don't. Gauguin did, Vincent van Gogh didn't.

So if you can't see something in your mind that you want to paint don't worry, just copy what you see like Vincent did.

[Rob't Emmet]

The beauty of painting is it's subjective nature versus the objective nature of that photo you are trying to copy. No matter what you do with a camera, use wild filtration, do HDR, etc., it reflects a moment captured in space and time, but constrained by the laws of optics. If I was to paint the most photo-realistic portrait of your face with every skin pore and hair in place, it is still my artistic impression of you, and completely subjective. Given 6 tubes of paint, 5 brushes and a knife, I can come up with 30,000 + combinations and permutations of hue, tone, and texture, etc...Learn to love and embrace your artistic impressions of those photos you like, learn from your mistakes and triumphs and continue on. Good luck. º¿º

[artyczar]

First off, you have to at least clear your mind of your relative and others you are comparing yourself to. That is no good. Comparing yourself to other artists can drive a person mad and that is not clearing your mind for you to listen to your own voice for you to create original work.

You have to look at it this way - no matter where you are, beginner or where ever you might be, you have a special and unique hand that is going to come across differently than your relative's or anybody's - and you WANT that. You don't want to be anything like this relative, so comparing yourself is a path shouldn't even be a path you would want to be taking. Run the other way if you see your work resembling theirs!

You want originality. Remember that. Be excited about what your hand is about to show you, untrained or not. You are discovering your own style just as you are purposely creating it. It's a strange phenomenon actually.

I hope that tidbit of information can help you a little in clearing your head. Instead of thinking about all the stuff you've been thinking about, watch what is happening in you. You'll be surprised in what you'll find if you approach it that way.

[Use Her Name]

I wanted to add that copying photographs is an academic exercise, and it has it's use. People who do that to the exclusion of all else totally miss the point of art, and may as well buy a camera, and become photographers. To try to find, and be happy with your own thing is a very important phase in the formative years of a new artist. Notice I said "years." You could be charitable to yourself and stop stressing, requiring immediate gratification, and realize that it may take 5 or 10 years to get your thing going.

Great expectations often ruin the actual growth and nurturing of talent. Many emerging talents have been killed or retarded by wanting what is beyond humanly possible. Be kind to yourself and give yourself a break.

[Aires]

Three people seeing an accident will all remember it differently; artists are widely varied in the way they see things as well as in their styles of painting so comparing your work to someone else isn't much help.

My suggestion is to forget over thinking a planned painting, just get in and do it as spontaneously as possible. Then after two or three weeks go back and look at your painting with fresh eyes, note both the good points and those that you need to work on. Until you reach a place where you feel less stressed, keep those paintings that have challenged you and taught you something new. Keep painting, practice is what turns plunkers into musicians and its the same with artists - no substitute for practice. At the end of the year review your paintings and compare them to your latest painting. (Dating them on the back helps in reviewing progress). In my earlier days of painting I found this yearly review very encouraging as well as painless. (I keep a very early oil painting just for the satisfaction in seeing how far I've come since I struggled with that particular painting). --- Keep challenging yourself, keep painting and you will be surprised at your progress. Over thinking will stymie you at every step - just paint and work out the kinks as you go. Happy Painting!

[La_]

all art pieces have a gangly stage ... that ugly in between stage that is just awkward and looks like a big mess of 'holy cow what have i gotten into here'

think of it like the puppy stage of owning a dog - if you can survive the first year, you generally get a decent dog. with artworks, sometimes it's only a couple hours or a couple days that you have to deal with that mess.

or the child rearing stages of having a two year old - ack! but worth it, right.

take some time looking through the works in progress forum and you'll see all different sorts of gangly stages.

the trick is to push past that, to keep refining and adjusting, beautiful things Will become of it, honest - but you Have to be able to survive the ugly stage, the skeletal stage, the mapping, planning, placing and blocking in, in order to build up to the beauty of the piece that attracted you in the first place. you Must Embrace the Process!

what medium (type of paints) are you using? watercolor? acrylics? oils?

la

[La_]

oh, and i Strongly suggest working from paintings (images of) - not photos

a painting of a landscape, for example, instead of a photo of that landscape.

this way you get to see the brush strokes and the sometimes messy way to create beauty ... photos are toooo perfect sometimes, toooo precise, and Very hard to reproduce perfectly - you're not a photocopier, right, you're an artist - there's a big difference.

la