My first steps in the world of art / Mis primeros pasos en el mundo del arte - (#club100)
Hi friends!
And since a good part of the participants is Spanish-speaking, I will try from now on to publish with a Spanish translation.
I hope this can be useful and encourage you to immerse yourself in the world of art.
Aunque me resulta bastante incómodo hablar de mí mismo, haré algunas excepciones para estimular e inspirar a quienes participaron en el desafío que acaba de finalizar.
Y como buena parte de los participantes son de habla hispana, intentaré a partir de ahora, publicar con una traducción al español.
Espero que esto pueda ser útil y te anime a sumergirte en el mundo del arte.
Many years ago (1995), I lived for a short period in Galway, a very beautiful city in Ireland.
I enrolled in an art academy to study drawing.
After several lessons (a bit expensive) I aborted my attendance because my expectations were to improve my drawing skills which were not very good at the time. I left the academy disappointed because my teacher always found all my drawings good and used them to teach others how to draw. I was aware that my drawings were not good enough and I wanted to progress, but my teacher always said to me: "very good", "nice", "beautiful", or "keep up" even though I insisted that I was not satisfied with my work.
At the same time, I studied watercolour, self-taught at home, from watercolour books.
Here I show you the first watercolours that I ever painted.
Today I see these pictures and find many flaws in all aspects but what's done is done.
Hace muchos años (1995), viví por un corto período en Galway, una ciudad muy hermosa en Irlanda.
Me matriculé en una academia de arte para estudiar dibujo.
Después de varias lecciones (un poco caras) aborté mi asistencia porque mis expectativas eran mejorar mis habilidades de dibujo que no eran muy buenas en ese momento. Me retiré de la academia decepcionado, porque mi maestro siempre encontraba buenos todos mis dibujos y los usaba para enseñar a otros cómo dibujar.
Yo estaba consciente de que mis dibujos no eran lo suficientemente buenos y quería progresar, pero mi maestro siempre me decía: "muy bien", "bonito", "hermoso", "sigue así", aunque yo insistía en que no estaba satisfecho con mis trabajos
Paralelamente estudié acuarela, de forma autodidacta en casa, a partir de libros.
Aquí les muestro mis primeras acuarelas que alguna vez pinté.
Hoy veo estas fotos y encuentro muchos defectos, en todos los aspectos pero lo hecho, hecho está.
Nothing spectacular as you could see (they're not terribly bad either, to be honest).
Nada espectacular como pudiste ver (tampoco son terriblemente malos, para ser sincero).
Then, some years later I moved to Belgium where I lived for several years. There I enrolled in an Art Academy in Brussels.
One of the courses that I was going to follow was, of course, drawing, I took "Monumental Art".
To my disappointment, my teacher, from the very beginning began to flatter me with the words that you may have already guessed: "pretty", "beautiful", "I like it", etc, without giving me instructions on how to improve my drawings.
I got out of that course.
Luckily, I also took sculpture lessons.
The experience was great from the first moment.
My teacher told me: "I need to know what you want to do and what you can do. So I'm going to ask you to make something, whatever you want, but on one condition: you must make something that has two components, one geometric and one organic, combined."
I chose clay to model what you will see in the photos below.
I made it inspired by the memory I had of a painting by Dalí "Geopolitical child watching the birth of the new man". I started my first modelling in clay, combining the geometric shape of an egg and the body of a man struggling to get out of it.
The result would intentionally resemble to some of Breughel's characters more than the motif painted by Dalí.
Since those days my teacher (Angelo Scafoglieri, an Italian) never let me down.
He taught me to observe. Thanks to him I learned to observe proportions, light, shadows, and the soul of things. My teacher wouldn't let me finish my work, he would always find something a little wrong and he would show it to me and gave me tips to fix it. And again, he taught me to observe.
My fellows told me that they looked at my work and thought that it was almost finished and, horrified, they saw how I took off parts of it and started again and when they saw the result they realized that it was the right thing to do, they verified that it could still be done better.
I owe that to my sculpture teacher and every day that I draw or paint (because in the end, I didn't dedicate myself to sculpture) I appreciate what he taught me: to observe.
And I thank him that he never flattered me, he always told me honestly what he thought of my work.
I learned from him, not from the others.
Luego, algunos años después, me mudé a Bélgica, donde viví durante varios años. Allí me matriculé en una Acedemia de Arte en Bruselas.
Uno de los cursos que iba a seguir era, por supuesto, el dibujo, tomé "Arte Monumental".
Para mi desilusión, mi maestro, desde el principio comenzó a halagarme con las palabras que ya habrás adivinado: "bonito", "hermoso", "me gusta", etc, sin darme indicaciones de como mejorar mis dibujos. Abandoné ese curso.
Por suerte, también tomé escultura.
La experiencia fue desde el primer momento genial. Mi profesor me dijo: "necesito saber lo que quieres hacer y lo que puedes hacer. Así que te pediré que hagas algo, lo que quieras, pero con una condición, debes hacer algo que tenga dos componentes, uno geométrico y otro orgánico, combinados".
Elegí arcilla para modelar lo que verás en las fotos de abajo.
Lo hice inspirado en el recuerdo que tenía de un cuadro de Dalí "Niño geopolítico mirando el nacimiento del hombre nuevo". Comencé mi primer modelado en arcilla, combinando la forma geométrica de un huevo y el cuerpo de un hombre luchando por salir de éste.
El resultado se parecería, intencionadamente, más a un personaje de Breughel que al motivo pintado por Dalí.
Desde esos días mi maestro (Angelo Scafoglieri, un italiano) no me decepcionó nunca.
Me enseñó a observar. Gracias a él aprendí a observar las proporciones, la luz, las sombras, el alma de las cosas. Mi maestro no me dejaba terminar mis trabajos, siempre encontraba algo un poco mal y me lo mostraba y me daba consejos para solucionarlo. Y de nuevo, me enseñaba a observar.
Mis compañeros me decían que ellos miraban mi trabajo y pensaban que estaba casi terminado y horrorizados veian como yo deshacia y comenzaba de nuevo y al ver el resultado se daban cuenta de que era lo correcto, comprobando que aun se podia hacer mejor.
Eso se le debo a mi profesor de escultura y cada dia que dibujo o pinto (porque finalmente no me dediqué a la escultura) agradezco lo que él me enseñó: a observar.
Y le agradezco que nunca me halagó, siempre me dijo con honestidad lo que pensaba de mis trabajos.
De él aprendí, de los otros no.
I do not keep this work because it was bought by a collector during the end-of-the-year exhibition.
Esta obra no la conservo porque fue comprada por un coleccionista durante la exposición de fin de año.
Dedicate to:
@adeljose, @adriancabrera, @alejos7ven, @ana07, @anowarhoussain, @astilem, @barski, @beautiful12, @burnsteem25, @crismenia, @devi2021, @dilialy, @doriscermeno27, @eglis, @enamul17, @eumelysm, @gabrielagg, @growwithme, @idaali, @jannatmou, @josepha, @josephdaniela, @josevas217, @karianaporras, @kunwal, @lanegra2804, @liasteem, @lili21, @lirvic, @mcarol19, @m-fdo, @mvchacin, @nadiaturrina, @naka05, @nancy0, @noelisdc, @pandora2010, @preye2, @richard-p, @rmm31, @saini88, @senehasa, @shohel44, @simonnwigwe, @steemdoctor1, @ternuritajessi, @theatrorve, @victornavarro, @walictd, @wyleska, @zhanavic69
Hello, Jorge, you are a brave man.
Not every artist is ready to show his first imperfect works. To do this, you need to become a mature person who is not afraid of criticism and perceives it as help.
There is, of course, criticism from a sense of envy, but this is no longer criticism, it is an attempt to denigrate and you can easily distinguish one from the other.
There is also a lack of constructive criticism under creative posts here on the platform and in our community. But it's also a comment problem... we talked about it. Too much empty flattery and chatter :)
Thank you for showing your first works, it is always interesting to observe the beginning of a long journey. By the way, the work is not so weak, there is something to work on in the details, but it's very good for a beginner. For example, I can't do that :-)
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Привет, Хорхе, ты отважный человек.
Не каждый художник готов показать свои первые несовершенные работы. Для этого надо стать зрелым человеком, который не боится критики и воспринимает её как помощь.
Бывает, конечно, критика из чувства зависти, но это уже не критика, это попытка очернить и ты легко сможешь отличить одно от другого.
Здесь на платформе и в нашем сообществе тоже не хватает конструктивной критики под творческими постами. Но это ещё и проблема комментариев... мы говорили про это. Слишком много пустой лестной болтовни :)
Спасибо, что показал свои первые работы, всегда интересно наблюдать начало большого пути. Кстати, не такие уж слабые работы, в деталях есть над чем работать, но для новичка очень даже не плохо. Например, у меня так не получится :-)
Hello dear @bambuka,
Thank you very much for your kind words!
Yes, it was a bit difficult to make the decision to show those works because I am aware of all their weaknesses.
However, in this context, I think it's worth it if it helps some people take well-intentioned criticism positively and learn from it.
These works will never be part of an expo.
You are right, I am very disappointed to see both the level of posts and the level of comments. As you say, too much flattery and empty talk.
You did the right thing, Jorge. The presentation of early works should motivate novice artists to strive to improve the technique and approach to drawing. Artists are not born, it's hard work :)
On the one hand, mass involvement of platform users is good, increasing activity... but when it is a formal and empty activity... this is not the result that I would like to see.
On the other hand, if activity becomes a need, formalism will gradually begin to leave it... after all, it's just boring. But in any case, activity is needed, even if one out of 10 is normal, this is already good))
Yes, I agree with you. Perhaps later we can analyze the development of these contests, both our participation, as well as that of the contestants.
Yes, there is something to think about here.
Thank you Jorge for sharing your experience and it was interesting to know what people like you who dedicated their life to Art feel and what boundaries they need to cross.
I absolutely agree there is always something that we need to learn, of course, generally we can say: you are good, it is nice and so on. But that will not help us to improve. We know how it is in museum when the viewers are going and while studying each piece, there is always something that such neutral view my notice but that will be something that probably we even do not pay attention.
In inner us, we know our weaknesses but we hope that others do not see it. Of course, we can flatter and tell that this is good and so on... to keep our relationship up but this is not something that will help us to improve ourselves.
Seeing your watercolour works I noticed that your trees are too dark, although they are further in background, should not they be more lighter in colours, also the greens of trees have such sharp edge, without nice smooth transition area, like watercolour should have.
The second one with trees, the trunk of tree in lower part is also very dark and looks more monochrome. I like the background it is peaceful and has harmony in it.
The last watercolour painting is too pale, the colour of water is the same in background and front.
These are first impression from looking at the paintings.
By the way, I have my first experience with watercolour too, will post it tomorrow.
The sculpture looks cute, how big it was?
Thank you for this post and was interesting to learn more about your journey into Art.
Hi @stef1!
You are absolutely right, that is why I should have overcome the shame that showing my first watercolours causes me, because I'm aware of all the observations that you have made on them.
These watercolours have never been shown in an exhibition and never will. I have no idea where they are,
At the same time, I'm very glad to be able to receive your accurate analysis on these works due to your extensive knowledge of this technique.
That little clay model must have been about 20cm long.
I think it will be nice to see your first watercolours!
I must say that I was proud of those works at that time, due to my limited capacity for observation. This is something that happens to all of us, in all fields. The senses must be educated!
I'm sure that you, in an x-ray see an enormous amount of information that I'm unable to distinguish.
Of course, people can flatter other people's work without technical knowledge, that's absolutely acceptable.
We do that, always, especially in art. In music, for example, everyone likes or dislikes some piece of music or song and that is natural, nobody cares about the notes, music bars and so on. That's for the pros, sure.
For visual art it's the same, you like it or you don't like it. It is valid, that is the goal of art, to arouse feelings, but not for those of us who call ourselves "professionals".
An expert may or may not like some work, but can distinguish levels of quality independent of personal taste.
We support quality posts, and good comments anywhere, with any tags.
I like the approach and I think it shows that you are a critical thinker which can be both a blessing and a curse 🙂 Do you always seek perfection in everything you do and when you finish, you look back and say "that could be better" and you'll either change it or learn and use it the next time?
Has anybody reached the point where they continue to find fault and it starts to annoy you?
Hi @the-gorilla, thanks for reading my post and for your kind comment!
One thing that motivates me to keep working on art is its difficulty and that there is always something new to learn and do better.
Dalí said: "don't be afraid to look for perfection, you will never find it"
Fortunately, I can sense when the criticism is well-intentioned or comes from a feeling of envy. This feeling is very strong and common among people in the field of art, perhaps because some people cannot overcome their own abilities or limitations.
Greetings!
We support quality posts, and good comments anywhere, with any tags.
Thank you very much!
Lovely read. It is good that did not stay with a teacher that is always saying about everything that it is nice.
And moving from country to country, culture to culture, that must be strange and maybe even hard.
On the other hand, exploration is fun.
Thank you for sharing. I'd love to hear more. I am guessing there is a lot more to that story, after so many year.