Thursday, September 22, 2011

HOW TO MANAGE YOUR LEARNING TIME

HOW TO MANAGE YOUR LEARNING TIME
Study versus
painting time
This is how I try to manage my own learning. During the week I will divide my
time into painting time and study time.
Painting time
In my painting time I do not think about what I am doing, but paint instinctively
and spontaneously (using my right brain). Usually I paint quickly, trying to
capture my feelings about what I am looking at on the canvas as quickly as I
can. I do not need to think during this time since I am using knowledge that I
have internalized during hours of past study. As a result, the paintings often turn
out to have expressive brushwork. In fact the very best paintings are usually the
ones that take the shortest amount of time. These paintings are, by the way,
almost impossible to repeat. I once heard that art forgers have the most difficulty
with copying expressive works that have loose brushwork, rather than the highly
refined techniques of painters such as the classic realists, whose work is much
easier to copy.
Study time
In my study time my goal is not to complete a painting, but to study some aspect
of nature. It might be to try to capture the color relationships on a particular
evening landscape scene, or on a bouquet of flowers in a still life setup. Some
other exercises I go through are:
♦ study the structure of a particular type of tree or a type of rock formation, or
any particular type of object.
♦ explore the notan (dark/light harmony) design possibilities in an intimate part
of a rocky cove, or the design of shadows on an old stone wall.
♦ improve my understanding of form by painting a still life.
♦ do some compositional studies from the old masters to explore how they used
particular organizational structures in their work, or how they created an interesting
composition out of the scene.
In all of these activities, my focus is on learning, not on producing a finished
painting. This takes the pressure (to do a “good” painting) off me and helps free
me up to be more adventurous. As a result I learn much faster. As one of my
teachers told me, the students who paint faster and looser, learn more quickly.
Dividing your time So how do you divide your time between painting time and study time. This is
up to you. Personally I spend 90% of my time as study time and 10% of my time
as painting time. This is partly because of my own personal drive to become a
better painter, but also, I suspect, because I’ve noticed that many of my “best”
paintings were produced during the study time. It seems likely that you do your
best work when the pressure is off, and you are more adventurous.

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