Deciding where you want to go - and then going there

[Barbareola]

Have you ever stood in an art supply store and simply felt overwhelmed?

All the possibilities, all the choices.

I have a similiar feeling when I need to decide what to approach next. And while it is an exciting feeling, it is also scary and paralysing.

It is not that I don't have long term goals. I want to draw and paint people, flowers and animals, preferably a combination of them in fantasy settings.

I also know where I am *now*. Not having done anything like drawing or painting for decades and not having being any good at it even back then, I have no illusions about my chances to get where I want to go with my art or the time it will take me.

And I am *fine* with that. Really. The way is also the goal. I am on a lifelong journey and I am having fun with every step on it.

Now - what is troubling me is where to place the next step and then the next and the next. Should I draw face after face in pencil until it starts to resemble something humanlike? Should I work on my pencil drawing skills by drawing a face, then a cat, then rose and maybe a face again? How much time should I spend on one skill until I have found that for the time being I won't be able to improve it further? I could spend a lifetime just drawing human faces or roses.

Of course I could simply follow my guts. Drift this way, then that way. Try a face in pencil, then in acrylics, then whatever strikes my mind. And I am sure that - given enough time - I *will* improve and get closer to my long term goals. But that doesn't seem to be the most efficient way. I already squandered decades that I could have filled with art instead of wasting them. While I realize that there isn't the one way or a short cut, I would like to map my way with more than "instinct".

So how do you good folks deal with this? How do you break long term goals down into short term goals and from then to projects that will challenge you without setting yourself up to fail?

[fritzie]

A friend of mine made tremendous progress drawing a face a day for thirty days. If one thing you want to do is draw faces, you cannot lose with this approach.

Not beng trained in art, I had drawn cartoons but never from photographs. A few years ago I opened a book of photos by Steve McCurry and drew maybe a dozen or twenty faces from it. I felt very glad to have done it for practice in realistic faces.

I know people without formal training who have really enjoyed doing Betty Edwards Drawing on the Right side of the Brain. That approaches drawing in a different way than repetition of one subject.

I think that if you know, though, the subject you want to do, doing one or several a day and dating them will allow you to see your progress from that approach.

[artyczar]

I had a similar problem up until last night! Talking to one of my artist friends really helped to put me back on track, probably because she and I have such a similar art-making process.

I have been floundering lately about what sort of body of work I should do next. I had an idea about it, but I felt unsure about it until I spoke with her.

She asked me some key questions about it that made me think about it more clearly. She asked me what was interesting to me about the idea, and I found that there wasn't anything specifically interesting to me about it, and therefore, it was not a good enough idea for a whole body of work.

I realized, I was putting the cart before the horse, so to speak. And I was thinking too much about what would be interesting for others instead of what was going to hold my own interest. It's very important (for me) to be very engaged in the painting process, and to also have fun - while also challenging myself. I work instinctively usually, so making such a plan before I had even started on painting one was not the way I like to work.

I saw that it is much better for me to take it one at a time, because if I have an idea for one piece, after it is completed, it usually informs the next. The organic evolution then takes form and I will inevitably create an entire body of work that will wind up looking good together - without thinking about it so much.

I was thinking too much! You can't force these things, at least I can't, which was why I was so stuck. What was interesting to me about my idea was not the imagery itself, but the narrative behind the forms - which is actually what was more exciting to me. Therefore, I won't be creating a body of work that resembles the forms I had in mind, but I now see the "look" will be entirely different now if I address the story behind how the forms came to be. From there I can make the first piece, and that's all that matters. Because the first will inform the next - and rather than a laid out plan, I will watch and discover what comes into being. THAT is more exciting to me than a plan.

I don't know if this has made any sense to you, but I thought I would do my best to explain this in hopes that you might want to take a similar path. I'm sorry I'm not very specific about what I'm talking about. (I can be if anyone is interested) but I figured WHAT I will be painting is a lot less important than how I approach it.

The rest is a matter of trusting myself to pull it all together as I go along. It's very important that you ignore all the self-doubt or outside validation in cases like this. That's my .02 anyway.

[leopard58]

Hi Barbareola:

I wish I knew the answer because I'm going through something similar so it will be interesting to see the responses.

At the moment, I too feel overwhelmed and paralyzed by the paradox of choice! My problem is that when I get interested in something, I then have to buy all the supplies, books etc. I'm interested in it for a bit of time, and then move on to something else that catches my fancy. As a result, I have tons of supplies and I spend a great deal of time ooowing and aaahing over other people's skills, wish I could be that good, collect reference photos.....then do no artwork!

And, on top of that, I feel guilty for all the money I've spent, all the time I waste not doing artwork and then get totally discombobulated because I don't know where to begin and in which medium. Am I to be a jack-of-all-trades and master of none?

So here is what I've come up with so far and I hope you find it helpful:

1) I know for sure that I want to be really good at art. The only way to do that is to practice, practice, practice.
2) My primary media will be CP's and acrylics.
3) I will practice drawing every day! I don't want to be a pencil artist, working if graphite because I love colour! However, since drawing is the foundation of all artwork, I really want to be able to draw well. I want to be able to look at a photo ref or something from life and be able to draw it as a foundation for a painting.
4) I also like mixed media work and this I can do as play time...after I've focused on the above 3.

I think this plan might work because it doesn't limit me to just one thing, which would make me feel too restricted, but it does contain me enough that I can focus.

Best of luck and I hope this helps.

Allison

[WFMartin]

Practicing only improves one's performance if one is, indeed, practicing the right things.

I would decide upon what genre I would like to pursue, and then do my best to gain practical information regarding how to do such work. I would pick an artist who paints the way in which I'd like to paint, and then I would do my best to emulate the style and method of that artist. That actually may encompass several artists, if you are ambitious; you may appreciate portraits by one artist, landscapes by another artist, and still-lifes by yet another artist. That is true in my case, actually.

Realize that I'm not recommending that you copy painting after painting of that particular artist. What I'm recommending is that you study the work of that particular artist, and then do your best to employ those techniques in work of your own.

Buy books by that artist, study paintings (both photos, and real-life) by that artist, even perhaps copy one or two of the works you appreciate the most, and then apply that knowledge toward the completion of your own paintings.

[Chromaman]

I agree with Martin
choose a role model thats close to what you want with your own art, It can serve as a vehicle on your journey to exploration in the right direction.

[Iuvien]

You have a very clear vision of what you want to be able to paint, so you just practice that. You want to do fantasy settings, so you design your creatures till they look like you want them to. You want to be able to paint people, so you practice anatomy, 30 second sektches, 1 minute skletches, 5 minute sketches, till you can draw them properly. Then you want to have a character with expression, so you practice faces, take pictures of yourself or friends with a certain expression and sketch that, till you can see that expression you imagined on paper. If you get bored or tired of one, switch to the next.

Practice what you want to be able to draw and practice what you aren't good at. If you ever thought "I would want a dragon with a rider in the sky" but you know you won't be able to do it, you just found something you can practice. Practice the dragon, then the rider and then the sky. It's important you take note of things you would want to paint but your head says "well you can't do that". That's exactly what you need to practice. If anything ever seems too hard, that's what you go for. If it doesn't look right, do it over. Don't be lazy, this is for you, you want this!

[byron]

the greatest thing you could do for yourself is understand shadows. core shadows cast shadows highlights reflected light. a comprehension of how shadows work will open up a world to you . it did for me. i went from feeble stiff drawings to photo-realistic in a matter of weeks(though what I consider feeble others often viewed as good) in time i started discovering myself artisticly abandoning others styles in the realization that I actually enjoyed drawing my own way. I used to revere sargent and schmid and rubens, then it was pollock kiefer and giacometti. now I have begun to find ways of expression to create the art that I was looking for but could never really find going through books. unfortunately I also discovered over the course of a decade that often I was most creative while I was lovesick. during my dryspells I still paint plein airs (they are just exercises it copying what you see which becomes boring and routine for me) and going to life drawing groups regularly to practice portrait painting and figure drawing waiting for fleeting inspirations. I ALWAYS have a small sketchbook and pen ,like a woman has a purse, so that I have at least the potential to capture those elusive moments of inspiration where I just must draw. I consider myself a hobbyist and have little interest in selling my paintings though many people are interested in my work

[CSForest]

I understand perfectly!
I sometimes sit in my studio and anxiety attacks to the point of paralysis (figuratively speaking, not literally). I want to cry. I don't know what to do. No, it's not that I can't think of anything to do. It's that there is so many things I want to do I just go crazy sometimes trying to decide what to spend my time on because I can't do it all. And then I have the problem of getting excited about something, starting it, then, when it's not going the way I want, I want go start something else. I eventually have half a dozen paintings in progress and feel pressured to finish something instead of jumping from one to another.
Oh, yes. And then there's the practicing. Like a musician playing scales, I often feel I should just sit down and draw (insert animal name here) a thousand times. It does work. I did that a few times where I devoted an entire sketchbook to one animal and there was a huge difference between the first and last pages.
However, I get no painting done that way. I can spend all day just practicing sketches.
So where do I spend my time?
I go nuts sometimes!

[Keith Russell]

Originally Posted by CSForest

I understand perfectly!
I sometimes sit in my studio and anxiety attacks to the point of paralysis (figuratively speaking, not literally). I want to cry. I don't know what to do. No, it's not that I can't think of anything to do. It's that there is so many things I want to do I just go crazy sometimes trying to decide what to spend my time on because I can't do it all. And then I have the problem of getting excited about something, starting it, then, when it's not going the way I want, I want go start something else. I eventually have half a dozen paintings in progress and feel pressured to finish something instead of jumping from one to another.
Oh, yes. And then there's the practicing. Like a musician playing scales, I often feel I should just sit down and draw (insert animal name here) a thousand times. It does work. I did that a few times where I devoted an entire sketchbook to one animal and there was a huge difference between the first and last pages.
However, I get no painting done that way. I can spend all day just practicing sketches.
So where do I spend my time?

Balance...

I go nuts sometimes!