I can't draw! Just ask my students from many years ago.....I was the foreign language teacher who drew funny and weird stick figures on the board or who had to ask for student volunteers to help. In spite of an enormously accomplished, artistic family, I could NEVER draw anything! My mother was a talented artist in oil, acrylic, watercolor, pencil, charcoal...her drawings were amazing! My dad was head of the art department at Bulova Watch MANY years ago and then created and developed his own advertising and marketing business in NYC for many years. I never took an art class!
My parents never lived to see how their genes worked in me, and that does sadden me. I became "crafty" when I first had my children (sewing, decorating, flower-arranging, crewel, quilling, calligraphy, to name a few!), and I called them my "sanity-savers" while I was stay-at-home mom for 10 years. I made all my clothes and my daughters' when we were ridiculously poor and until the girls wanted jeans and T-shirts and my working enabled us to buy more. It was a good time. But work and motherhood precluded much in the way of creativity - except for the home - until about 10 years ago. That's when I started knitting again - and the rest is history.
But I always thought that I couldn't draw! Several artist friends assured me that drawing is a skill, and as with any other skill, it can be taught and with practice, you can improve. Perfectionist me......I wanted it all and immediately! So yesterday when I had Alexis Seabrook, a local friend and nationally-known artist/illustrator, here for lessons - with my daughter and a friend - I was frustrated and demoralized. The others seemed to be able to do it with much greater ease, relaxing, and enjoying the process. UGH!!!
We worked diligently on practice exercises: negative space drawings, upside down line drawings, value drawings. I sucked! But I committed to next week (mostly to encourage my daughter, who showed true signs of talent!) She's got incredible artistic genes from BOTH sides of the family, so that should be no surprise. My surprise was that she enjoyed it so much! I didn't!
She and my husband decided to copy from a card he had recently received of what looks to be a Tuscan landscape scene. I instantly said, "NO! You do it.....I can't" but later I decided to give it a try anyway. Here are the results! Mine is on the left; Roberta's on the right.
I guess you CAN learn to draw! More next week....I need to do some felting today!
Thanks, Alexis!
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