Is quantity, quality, or is both that are important when it comes to learning to paint with watercolor or sketch with pen & ink?
Learning a craft is much like playing a sport—to get good at it, one must practice, practice, and practice some more. Sports legends like Michael Jordan, Tom Brady, and Tiger Woods spent hours, days, and years practicing their sport to get to the level they have all achieved.
Contrary to popular belief when it comes to art, practice is what makes a hobbyist into a professional; an unknown into a Picasso or Van Gogh. Certainly each of these artists had amazing talent, but had they not put brush to canvas, charcoal to paper, and spent hours, days, and years practicing their craft they would be just another of many unknown, but “good” artists.
When I decided to get serious about taking my doodling and scribbles to the next level, I knew I’d have to make a habit of practicing my hobby. Over a year ago I decided, after a short watercolor workshop in Florida to continue my education. This lead to the goal of sketching, drawing, painting, making art every day.
I had learned in the military, for example, that to become a good flyer or a good shooter took what’s called “muscle memory”. Repetition of a task such as shooting a pistol or landing an A-10 caused my mind and body to react, over time, naturally and each shooting session and each landing got better and better.
This brings me back to art.
One of the first things I had to reckon with was not worrying about the quality of work. Let’s face it, like most human beings we’re never completely satisfied with what we’re doing. Most of us have that inner urge to do good and enough self-esteem to want people to look at our art and say, “Oh, that’s good.”
Fortunately I stumbled upon Steven Reddy and his book Everyday Sketching & Drawing. In his book he makes a point, as an art instructor of many years, that one should enjoy the ride not the result. Draw, sketch, paint because one enjoys it, not for accolades.
Putting brush to paper and pen to paper on a consistent, daily basis is what has built my “muscle memory” and over that time I’ve seen improvements and a unique “style” develop.
Quantity
The more the merrier! On June 1st I’ll begin a new challenge, World Watercolor Month: 31 Watercolors—31 Days #worldwatercolormonth . Each day I’ll be prompted to complete a watercolor painting and the challenge is to complete a minimum of ONE watercolor each day. It’s not for the quality, it’s for the quantity to build muscle memory. Wish me luck!
Quality
At the same time, I need to build a collection of QUALITY sketches and paintings. Our art club, Die Künstler von Fredericksburg (the Artists of Fredericksburg) has a fine art show & sale in November and I’m hoping to participate. The Fredericksburg Art Guild has a show as well in February of 2020 and I’m planning on entering a few paintings so naturally it’s quality over quantity for these events.
Both
So at the end of the day it’s easy to see it’s both quantity and quality to improve my skill as an artist. Over the next few months I’ll be practicing, practicing, and practicing and working on both quantity AND quality.
Over the next month I’ll keep up with my posts, one a week, and add a few of my paintings. In the mean time—Go Make Some Art!