Teachers and learners

I used to think that a painter is made only through some teacher; the better teacher you could find in a school, or wherever else, the luckier you were. I still believe the second part of this phrase to be true.

It seems to me after so many years that the basic concept of drawing, is to perceive what you see. To study what you see. Then to try to see it clearly, try to see it from the outside. But if you try, try, try, then you can get somewhere. As it happens with everything, a teacher will show you, but your constant effort is what will lead you where you want to go.

And as for the teachers, well, they can be found everywhere. Like in the overloaded bookshops for instance. Not all books are good, but some of them are. Now if you give them some time, some of your time, they will teach you something. Something new every time. A technique about color, about shape, about light. The real treasure is hidden in some books that don't even mean to be instructive. But to these I will mention in another post.

I post below a sample of pages from the book of Ms. Linda Ravenscroft named "How to draw and paint fairies".

And that's because I include the sketch that it inspired me to make. It was a study, worked rather rapidly, and looking at it I think that I paid more attention to the leaves than to anything else. But as I said, I learned things by making it.

My sketch (apparently!)

You can visit the following link if you want to access two fairy art tutorials that Mr. Raverscroft supplies free on her website:  Linda Raverscroft Fairy Art Tutorials.

It's worth a tour, her sketches are surely enchanting.