Monday 29 October 2012


As I already post my paintings on several different websites I figured I'd like to try to keep this blog as a vessel for my thoughts as well.

Studying is hard. Everyone who takes this form of art seriously - wether it is to do this kind of things for a living or just for the pure fun of it - comes across studying at some point. This seems to be a hard thing to comprehend for some people to whom I try to explain my goals and methods. Some people seem to think of art as just something that you can do, something that doesn't have that much to do with actual studying but more so with something inborn stream of talent that generates beauty out of nothing. Still, all of the people doing these things realize the improtance of studying in various forms. The more I try and the better I become the more I feel like I don't know what the hell am I doing. This is true for the aspect of doing the actual paintings but also for studying. The more I study I am filled with the thought that I have absolutely no idea how I should be studying. What kind of subjects should I study? Am I thinking about the study enough whilst doing it? Am I doing the studies in the right way? Maybe I should try to focus more on this instead of that. These kind of thoughts fill my head every time I'm doing studies and after each one the main thing in my mind is: "Well, I just ended copying what I saw and didn't think enough. I learned nothing."

Making these kind of realizations - wether they are actually accurate or not - has value on its own, I just wish I could manage to grab something more 'real'. Unlike subjects that are more concrete and easily digested - like for example  studying for various school subjects - in art your hard work doesn't bear fruit instantly but over longer periods of time. It's difficult to go over the things you've learned over the day. This makes the whole process of art even more tedious.

Studying the masters - old and new alike - really makes you realize how little you know. There is still so much to learn.

Excuse my rambling, I'm just trying to organize my thoughts.

Have some studies! After our beloved Richard Schmid. I highly recommend his book, "Alla Prima." The book is mainly about oil painting but practically all of his teachings work with digital stuff as well.




2 comments:

  1. Nice work Kvenh!

    Interesting read about studies too.

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  2. Very nice studies. I also like Richard Schmid and even after years of studying I'm still amazed of his use of broad but expressive strokes.

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