Lately, beginning from last month, I have been making brief trips to my university's central library. Scanning through the bookshelves in cold air, I've been searching for more and more literature that can aid me in studying about oil painting.
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Right. Let's stop for a moment to clear things up. To begin with, this semester I have chosen to take a class I've been longing from last year but never have dared enough to actually take it. It is the painting class, one subject that obviously wouldn't befit to show up among the list of taken subjects in my academic transcript.
Imaginary conversation with interviewer.
Interviewer: Let's see.. Basic of Propulsion Systems..Robotics.. Finite Element Method..
...
Hey, what's a Painting subject doing here??
Me: Well uh, yeah, to broaden my experience, sir..?
It's been a long while since I have a desire to up my game from simple sketching with pencil and paper. But painting for me felt so distant, so grand, so insurmountable a thing to take without proper teachings and commitments and time. And for a brief time starting from last year, I averted my eyes from it by actually focusing in learning digital painting. It's a logical shortcut, I think. Really, to take a virtual canvas and a virtual brush and actually create something inside a small 17" screen. And to add to it, you can always repair a broken step by using undo and redo. What could go wrong? And for months I plunged myself, learning all the methods, the skills, .. to find that this medium feels the least intuitive for me. No real brush to grip, no real hand movements to be controlled, and mixing colors in digital way just follow a very different rules from mixing it with actual pigments.
Before long, I took the leash out. But not before I created some artworks. Now don't get me wrong, it's not I give up on digital painting, it's just that I feel I have to build my sense of color and forms in ACTUAL world first before I convert it digitally. I still have a plan to go back to to my trusty Photoshop and tablet pen, though this hiatus must go on for indefinite time for awhile.
A quick link for my major artwork done digitally.
Zoom this shit in and you'll see how crude it is, yet I've decided to put this study on hold.
And so, I set my mind again in painting. The fact that one of my friend (in the same mechanical engineering major) has actually took the class in earlier semester kind of encouraged me, but if it isn't for another kind of drive in the beginning of this year I would maybe still ponder the possibility of taking this class while doing my final project.
Let's just say that because of this drive I went and signed for painting class anyway. I have two considerations. Firstly, I already know I am such a procrastinator; that if I just kind of informally learn to paint there'll be many excuses to be faced: prices of tools, lack of actual guidance, TIME.. the list could go on. So the best thing I can do is to actually create a study plan which allocates all the time and money, and to be committed to the plan thoroughly. That's where the significance of taking this class kicked in. By actually taking the formal (kind of) education route to study painting, I'll be kind of FORCED to go through the study plan (albeit considerable freedom is maintained, especially about learning the basic with our own pace) lest I'll have a bad grade, either because I neglect to learn or because I abstain from lectures often.
So without further ado, and with the hopeless knowledge that there'll be no one among my friends that I can ask to join me in this rather daring endeavour, I signed for the class and gave a rather eloquent note to my thesis adviser to ensure that he'll agree to my choices of subjects this semester. Amazingly, he agreed. But not without slight warning that I should not neglect my thesis.
"I guess that's fine, although painting can evoke a certain 'artist's spirit' that is extraordinarily slothful.."
No kidding. My thesis adviser actually wrote the exact letters in his reply (above photos for illustration purpose only)
I bracingly went to the first lecture (this was only my second time I went inside Arts Major building ever; and as far as I know, I know no one there) only to find out that I'm the only engineering student who took the class (others are from business and management, yet still others are from interior design, multimedia, etc). I was about to scratch my head and throw a rather mild surprising look until I noticed that I was also the only guy there other than the lecturer (a big deal for a guy who spent his senior high school education in an all-boys school, then found himself in an undergraduate major which also have the least women in the campus). Needless to say, it was the most hellish social situation I've ever experienced.. yet. But it must take more than that to deter my mind.
At one point in the first lecture I even went out for a short while,
took a seat on the corridor and screamed internally, "What have I gotten myself into?!"
I found out that the framework of the lectures themselves is rather informal: there's just a brief three week study about the basics and fundamentals; the rest is up to the students to broaden the knowledge themselves and sharpen their skills through practices. The lecturer already gives a clear assignments: four paintings by the end of the semester. Additional learning can be achieved by continual lecturer's assistance and advice for the students' progress for each painting.
Eventually I noticed how alarming a challenge that presented itself right unto my face: not only my other fellows in this class actually have previous experiences dealing with brushes and canvases, the impromptu nature of the lectures is actually quite a miss for me who is the type that learn best when there's clear guidance and/or step-by-step approach. But of course, it is to be expected if you're studying a subject that have no objective evaluation such as arts. But the matter is, even the study of basic techniques and technical aspects of painting didn't follow a structured plan..
I would surely be overwhelmed by the feeling of devastation had it not come into my mind that I have ample resources to self-study. The most powerful of them all, is, of course, the internet. There are tons of videos in YouTube which discuss the basics, and vast kinds of subjects about painting in e-books or simply websites in the net. I could also have the option to ask someone I know to teach me.. although in the end I didn't go down that path. I have always been most comfortable studying from the silent teacher: books. And that was the beginning of my frequent visit to the library, attempting to drown myself in beginners' subjects, as well as in the masterpieces of classical artists such as Cezanne, Degas, Delacroix...
(to be continued)
..and don't forget about a painter who cut his own ear.
(to be continued)
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