I am a self-taught artist. I did not go to art college, did not attend any art courses to date. I just figured out things for myself. Mostly the hard way. However, I always had this yearning to learn more, and learn from a professional artist. A lot of changes happened in my life recently, which made me rethink what I was doing and how I was doing it. And one thing I realized, I should go from the passive yearning to the act of doing.

I looked around for opportunities, and quickly realized that no mater the drive at this point in my life an actual face-to-face course would not fit in. I needed more flexibility. I wanted to take things at my own pace and from home. Luckily there are so many courses you can experiment with nowadays!

I think I found what I was looking for in Will Kemp Art School. I really like his free Youtube tutorials, in fact I painted some of them already. I like Will’s pace, his method of explaining his ideas both visually and verbally, so it was a natural step for me to take one of his more formal, advanced courses. I started the Landscape Sketching Course and I am really enjoying it!

I thought I’d take you on a visual journey with. For one, you’ll be able to see my progress, and maybe, hopefully you’ll pick up a pen and start drawing yourself!

We are exploring quite a few concepts regarding composition. One of the ideas we looked at was the play lights and darks might have in a landscape. Here I just needed to quickly capture how the contrasts resonated in the scene, and whether that might bring some interest to a finished piece or not.
Another aspect we looked at was perspective in a drawing and how that could be achieved with color. I did not use the greys suggested for the assignment, but I think the blues add a touch of reality to this quick sketch.
Talking about perspective. I’ve always had such a hard time figuring out how to properly represent perspective in a drawing! It just never worked out, and ended up looking funny. Will gave me 2-3 tips and voila!

I am ready and eager, in fact I feel pumped to continue with the course! I have even re-considered my former viewpoint on plein air drawing. Now only the weather needs to cooperate!

To be continued…