Painter’s Hub

“Oh great creator of being grant us one more hour to perform our art and perfect our lives” – Jim Morrison .

Whenever I see this quote, one man pops into my head and you must have guessed that from the title. Yes. It is Vincent Van Gogh and by the end of this article you would come to know how aptly the quote suits him. 

“My youth was gloomy and cold and sterile…”-Vincent Van Gogh

Vincent left the school abruptly and went back home. He worked with an art dealer in Hague. He got his training and was sent to London. He was successful and happy. He was in love and his love was rejected. He became isolated, religious and highly emotional. To get some fresh air Vincent was sent to Paris and he hated the way art was treated which he started to express to his customers. He became Van Gogh-the jobless.

The pastor years.

He worked as a missionary in borniage, a coal mining district in Belgium. It is here that Vincent became increasingly interested in drawing and sketched ordinary people and everyday scenes.

In 1880, following his brother Theo’s advice he went to Brussels’s and studied with a prominent Dutch artist in the Royal academy of art. All he said about the training at the academy ward “you have to know just to be able to draw the least thing”. He wanted to surrender himself to the god through his art. After a brief period of married life and the death of his wife adding to his loneliness he moved to nuenen to live with his parents.

The Potato eaters.

He got devoted to drawing in nuenen and sketched the weavers. In the spring of 1885 came to the art world a masterpiece, Van Gogh’s major work-The Potato eaters. At first it looks like a dirty painting with ugly models. But as you look deeper it breaks your heart As it shows the harsh reality of the peasant’s life. It tells you “that they have earned their food by honest means.” In this period he used earth colors like brown and he is supposed to have completed numerous drawings and watercolors, nearly 200 oil paintings.

The Traveling Painter.   

From then on he went to Antwerp, Paris and Arles. It was during his stay in Arles that he painted some of his more famous paintings like The Cafe Terrace on the Place du Forum, Starry Night over the Rhone and the sunflowers series to decorate his Yellow house. While in Arles he invited Paul Gauguin and they painted together for a short while.

The missing ear lobe!

On December 23 1888, he stalked Paul Gauguin cut off his own ear lobe and gifted it to a prostitute due to which he was hospitalized. 

The Saint Remy period.

Vincent committed himself to a mental hospital in Saint Remy where he used to have two small rooms (Thanks to Theo). During this period, his subjects were mostly the clinic and its garden. It was at this place that he painted his most famous painting-The starry night.

Auvers-sur-Oise.

Vincent left the clinic and went to Auvers-sur-Oise. During his 70 days stay in Auvers-sur-Oise he did 70 oil paintings. It was time for Van Gogh to leave. During his last days he painted his Wheatfield with crows which is not his last work as is generally thought.

He shot himself on a wheatfield on 27 july 1890 and died two days later. Vincent van Gogh has influenced many famous painters like Henri Matisse and other German expressionists. Some of his works are in the list of costliest paintings on the planet. The paintings stated here were just very small fractions of his works. For the complete list check the link below. And he did all these by the age of 37.

How many more paintings do you think he would have completed if he was given one more hour ?!

Author: Mr. Hayavadhan

[ He is graphic designer and explores new art forms in traditional and digital media.]

I hope you would have read the last issue about drawing, in this issue lets us dig a little further. For drawing materials many books and art teachers recommend a good quality pencil and a eraser, but some time I have seen in my experience that any thing which can make an impression can be used to draw. For example, crayons or even colored powered can be used to create wonderful and stunning drawing.

Many ask me how to draw well? This is one of the most common questions and my reply is —- Do draw well you need to lot of practice and you need to observer the surrounding, your environment, and the things around you. Do not look at things instead observer things. Study the shape, the object placements, how light fall and how its affect to the object does. Does the object get direct light or reflected light?

Before you draw subject try to visualize the final picture in your mind. The mental picture is very important. Once you are sure about the vital issue you want to incorporate start drawing. But at the same time drawing is more than art, if you feel that in your picture a subject is not rendered properly try to fine tune it , nut do not over work, it will spoil the whole art work. Stop working once you feel the right feeling is achieved

Once you decide that you want to draw, you can select any subject matter. The whole world is full of subjects and you can select any thing that attracts you. The drawing can be traditional or abstract. To help you here is a list of subjects,

1. people
2. abstract
3. landscape
4. still life
5. flowers
6. animals
7. sci – fi
8. extra terrestrial

Tone

Any drawing should have life and emotions. The subject may not be people may be still life. But still it should have life i.e., when your viewer sees a flower he/she should feel the as if the flower is true as in nature. But when it comes to abstract drawings the feel given to the audience is different. The abstract flower should have life. How you do this and how much successful is your talent. This can be trained. Tone plays an important role in any drawing. Tone gives the view a sense of depth and volume. There are various shading techniques can be implemented in a drawing. Similarly, there are many different methods to achieve tone.

Introduction.

Drawing is a fantastic visual form to express your emotions and thoughts. The article explores the uniqueness of this art. Before the dawn of literature drawing was an important way by which people communicated between communities. This way of expression exists even today in the modern age. Drawing is a part of culture and tradition.

Raphael’s Drawing

Early development
It is very easy to draw but to understand how our brain understands drawing and how we develop the skill is very amazing. Drawing plays a major role in a child development and every child like to draw. They show more interest in drawing compared to other activities. 

The child develops to scribble and then slowly he/she defines shapes and size. It is a natural process, where any child can learn and master the skill. The drawing of a 2 years child does not have any proper representation of the world or any of its products. But very abstract and random strokes.

Slowly the child develops and it is quite natural that you will observer that the most common shape will be circles and by the time the child is 3 to 4 years they understand shapes and forms. In this stage the child draws his/her parents or his/her toys. The drawings are very crude.

A Childs Drawing

This evolution process in drawing is very fundamental in a child’s growth. Similar to a painting a drawing may or may not implement rules of composition. But it does attract our attention. Any drawing has to have a primary subject; subject that defines the core of the drawing. It can be a landscape or a figure drawing. In general the medium is always pencil but you can also use charcoal, pen, pastels.  The next is the materials you need to and most common is normal paper which we use for writing work but profession drawing paper is always available in the market and it do gives you excellent result. Different paper has different textures and you get excellent result due to the texture. You need a good quality rubber and a set of bold and hard pencils.

One of the most common questions my students ask me what to draw? Well, you have a lot of subjects before you to draw. You can draw the anything that you see. And most important is that your drawing should have life. Your art work should have sole in it, it should attract the attention of your viewer. Refer to Raphael image. See how the artist is capable to bring life.

The paper you use is 2D surface which has a length and breath, your drawing give birth to depth and at the same time you need to analysis the aesthetic of drawing.

Materials you need before you start

  Once you are ready , look for simple subjects you like to draw and start drawing it do not worry about the quality of drawing, just do it. Do not worry about the lines neatness or any other issue. Just feel free and do it. The most significant point is that you should enjoy your work.

There are a few rules of composition which is important while you make a drawing. We will see those in the next issue.