DrawTogether "Office Hours" Begins

Wherein I try to answer your questions about art, and life, and... well, what else is there? We start with Basic Art Elements and Abstract Art. Here we go....

Hey, my fine DrawTogether Grown-Ups Table friends.

Real quick: The DrawTogether GUT got some love from some of our favorite friends this week: Austin Kleon wrote a great piece on perfectionism and cited the GUT’s exploration into the subject, and the one and only Cheryl Strayed wrote about the impact the DrawTogether GUT’s 30 Days of Drawing made on her. So fun to find out who was at the party, right?? :)

Also, if you appreciate the existence of DrawTogether and the Grown-Ups Table, please become a subscribing member. It’s the only way I/we keep the lights on around here. ❤️✏️❤️ TYSM.

Alright, let’s get down to business. This week I begin answering some of your Big Art Questions (BAQ’s! LOL), and feature the work of one of my favorite abstract artists, the phenomenal Joan Mitchell.

DrawTogether’s GUT A.M.A. (“Ask Me Anything”)

It’s a modern-day miracle that I can use a platform like Substack to communicate with such a large, international, varied group as we have here in the DrawTogether GUT. It’s also totally bizarre to teach art in a one-way tunnel. And while the GUT Chat (aka The Gut Art Share) provides a space for conversation between DrawTogether members, and

Art Auntie Kathleen

does an amazing job TA’ing the space (thank you, AA!), you and I don’t have any opportunity for any back and forth. No Socratic method. No DT office hours. No bueno.

So let’s change that.

On Tuesday, I asked you if you had questions for me about drawing, art-making, my work and career, general art life, etc… and boy, did you. You submitted a bucketful of smart, thoughtful, honest, relatable questions about all things art-related and beyond.

I spent some time grouping your questions into themes. Several subjects came up again and again:

• Supplies and Studio

• Foundations of a Drawing Practice (does it matter?)

• Developing personal taste and style

• Big feelings around the world “Artist”

• What does it mean to be an amateur vs a professional artist?

• How to break into drawing professionally (how to publish and get paid)

• Moving through creative blocks, especially perfectionism

• Mediums and Techniques

• Developing and sustaining creative relationships

I mean honestly, that kind of covers all of art and life, doesn’t it?

I was going to answer a bunch of questions quickly here this week, but your questions are all so important and universal that I think each subject really deserves its own dispatch. Also, after nearly two years of driving the GUT train solo, I really like the idea of you all taking the wheel now and then.

So, here’s what I’m going to do. Today I’m launching….

DrawTogether “Office Hours”

(The artist is in.)

Today’s dispatch will address one area of your questions. Then, in a few weeks, I’ll address another. Then, a few weeks after that, another. We can call these dispatches office hours. Or something. (Have a suggestion for a better title?) If the great questions keep coming, maybe we can make them a separate feature on a different day for members or something… Sound good? What do you think?

Also, should this be for paying GUT members only? Let me know what you think in the comments. (I’m leaving this post public to get a sense of how something like this could work from everyone - paying GUT members, and all you freebies, too.)

While in real life I can sometimes be a know-it-all (so annoying! Working on that!) I certainly do NOT know everything. When I can’t answer your questions, I’ll go find someone who can. This will keep me learning, too, and make it more fun for both of us. So ask hard questions! About all sorts of things! And ask more than one!

Have a new questions you want to ask? Great. Leave your Q’s in the comments of the dispatch titled “Ask Me Anything, For Real” and I’ll add them to the rolling list. This way, we can continue to create more of a back-and-forth between you and me and all of us together. More like a real, actual art room office hours. How does that sound? Cool? Cool.

Alright, without further ado, let’s begin the first official DrawTogether GUT office hours (official title TBD.)

Here are answers to your questions about the learning the foundation of drawing and art making.

Q: Is it necessary to be proficient in the foundations of drawing before creating abstract, less realistic work?

Here are a couple of questions from GUT members that inspired this first Q:

Do I need to first learn how to draw something as close to realistic as possible before breaking the rules and drawing more whimsically/less realistically? I just don’t know if I will ever be able to draw photographically realistic but should I keep trying? Thank you!

- GUT Member Tina Barbour 

I’m getting more comfortable capturing moments through drawing, but a nagging voice within says I should first build a foundation through more formal, academic techniques (block-in, measuring proportions, etc) before breaking away from realism and draw in looser, expressive way like I gravitate towards. The voice is loudest when the sketch looks off—e.g. the perspective or angle doesn’t seem quite accurate. My aspiration is for the drawings to lead into painting in abstraction or abstracted realism. Would love to hear your thoughts and advice!

- GUT Member Anastasia Chung

I love these questions because they call everything I make, do, and teach into question. No biggie.

When I was in art school, it felt like many of my studio teachers just wanted us to learn to do what they did. How to make paintings like they made. How to create video art like their video art. I found it frustrating and narrow, and I really don’t want to do that with any other DrawTogether classes for kids or adults. My goad is to inspire you to get curious, connect, and create, and give you the skills to look with your own eyes and make your own art. I am trying to give you the tools for “you to do you.”

And with that, in response to the question: “is it necessary to learn the basics of art - more representational kind of stuff - before making abstract and less realistic work?”

My Answer: NO. And YES.

The “No” Part.

Look, this is art, not the military. You don’t have to do a damn thing you don’t want to. Nor is it math. There is no right or wrong answer. There is no definitive outcome. We are literally making stuff up as we go.

As we say all the time here in DrawTogether, there are “no rules in art.” We are no longer living during the Renaissance when, if you wanted to be an artist, you had to leave your family and become an apprentice to an artist for X amount of years, learn to draw exactly like them before you go off on your own, and then always be known as so-and-so’s prodigy.

Today, you can do whatever you want. You can go rogue from the jump. So if you want to start down your path of art making by creating abstract, splatter paint conceptual work. YOU DO YOU. I will cheer you on, and fight anyone who says you *must* do anything otherwise.

No. Rules. In. art.

The “Yes” Part.

Artists need rules.

I know, I know. I just said “no rules in art.” Hear me out.

Any artist will tell you that without creating rules for ourselves - also known as constraints - making art is all but impossible. We make work by being 1. propelled by something and 2. pushing with or against something. We may be propelled by a feeling, a moment, an idea, a belief, a connection. And we may push with or against something literally (ie charcoal with/against the grain of the paper) or ideologically (like against a theory about color or a traditional concept to create something new).

If we aren’t propelled by something and pushing with/against something, making art can feel like floating aimlessly through space, overwhelmed by the infinite possibilities, nowhere to start, and no destination.

Artists need something to work from, and something to work with or against.

This is why I believe it is so important to understand the basics of visual art. Once we understand these basics, we can ignore them, argue with them, destroy them, forget them, or use them. But they are a place to start, and a way forward.

The Basics Elements of Visual Art

In visual art there are seven basic elements: line, color, shape, form, value, space, and texture. Across all visual art mediums, those are the seven elements that artists use in their work. That’s it. That’s the whole thing. (Well formally speaking, at least.)

Just like it’s important for a wannabe writer or orator to learn (own!) the basics rules and structures of their language in order to have the freedom to play with it and make it fit their needs, it’s important for a visual artist to understand how to work with and/or against these seven elements.

Does this mean you have to use these seven elements to create a realistic image before? ABSOLUTELY NOT.

Let’s look at an example.

Joan Mitchell

“I could certainly never mirror nature. I would more like to paint what it leaves with me.”

The abstract artist Joan Mitchell (1925-1992), one of the most influential artists of the post-war era. Is Joan’s work realistic? Heck no. Does it reveal a deep understanding of the basic elements of art? Heck yes.

Tree (1), 1980

What did Joan work from? She used repeated elements in her work, including water, trees, dogs, poetry, and music.

"I paint from remembered landscapes that I carry with me—and remembered feelings of them, which of course become transformed. I could certainly never mirror nature. I would like more to paint what it leaves me with."

What did Joan push with/against in her work? Formally (meaning: the form of the work, as opposed to the ideas it contains), her paintings considered every visual element: line, color, shape, form, value, space, and texture.

Can you find an example of each of these elements in her painting below?

Joan Mitchell, Sans neige, 1969

When Joan was asked by interviewer Yves Michaud how she creates a composition, she said,

“I want to paint the feeling of a space. It might be an enclosed space, it might be a vast space. It might be an object.…”

She also wanted to create the feeling of a space, or field. She used the basic elements of visual art to create that space with paint. She continued,

“I ‘frame’ everything that happens. I can see you now. This will be a photograph in my head: you against the sky, and that way I will remember you, but I won’t see you moving around, dropping that recorder, or having lunch. You are living and I keep you in one still piece alive. It will be like a painting. It’s not only a piece of life, it’s an image, a real image.”

Joan Mitchell, Parasol, 1977

“Because when I do paint, I am not aware of myself. As I said before, I am ‘no hands,’ the painting is telling me what to do.”

She is propelled by a feeling, and working deeply in conversation with her medium.

How do you see things like color, negative space, line, and shape being played with in her painting above? How about the one below? “Ici” below is giant: 102 3/8 x 157 1/2 inches. How does scale impact all these elements?

“Ici”, 1992

I’ve searched high and low for example of Mitchell'’s early work, before she entered the Art Institute of Chicago, but no luck. I’m so curious to learn how she started drawing and painting, and what her work was like before she started making the works she is famous for. I will keep digging….

Regardless, Mitchell’s work is a great example of how a deep knowledge of the basic elements of art gave her a visual vocabulary for an abstract conversation.

How can we learn the seven elements of art?

One of the easiest ways to learn these seven elements is by using them to look at the world around us. In most art schools, the first thing you’ll learns is basics of drawing. Why? Because it teaches us to look at the world with fresh eyes. To see what is REALLY in front of us, not just what we THINK is in front of us. By learning to see the world through drawing, we learn the seven elements of art making through practice. And since much of art making is something we do with our bodies, it’s good to learn through doing.

Here in the GUT we have explored most of the basics of drawing. here are links to each of the lessons in case you missed them:

• line

• color (there are a few, but this is a good place to start)

• shape (yes I am giving you a kids lesson for this one, and it’s so fun. the assignment is for kids, so you can go rogue and do your own using SHAPES.)

• form

• value

• space

• texture

If you are interested in learning the foundations of drawing, which is also to say LOOKING, go back and read the GUT lessons on each element. Do the assignment. You’ll be well on your way to learning the basic elements of art so you can work with or against them. But at the very least you’ll SEE them, and then you can choose to ignore them entirely.

Or hey, choose to ignore me entirely! You do you.

No rules in art. :)

And with that, let’s draw.

Our GUT Assignment

I’m giving you two options this week.

Door #1. If you have not done all the basic art element DT GUT lessons above, choose one of the basic elements of visual art, and do the lesson/assignment associated with that one. Consider how it pushes your boundaries and how it might inform your work into the future.

OR

Door #2. If you have done all the DT GUT lessons on the basic elements of visual art (or most of them at least!) create an abstract drawing that uses many (maybe all!) of the elements, but in an abstract way. This can be inspired by nature, a feeling, etc. Take note from Joan Mitchell! Think of something to work from, and something to push with/against.

Share your work in the DT GUT CHAT! (That is a link to the chat thread for this assignment.)

When you post your drawing to the GUT chat, please tell the group which you did, and how the experience was for you/what you learned/if it’s useful. Love to hear how this goes for everyone. Also, let me know what you think of this Office Hours idea in the comments below, and any suggestions you have to make it most helpful/useful.

Okay, all! Thanks for being part of the ever evolving, growing, deepening, emboldening DrawTogether Grown-Ups Table.

I will be in Mexico next week looking at art and celebrating

Kyle Ranson-Walsh

‘s bday (!), so hoping to write a dispatch and offer some inspiration from there. Stay tuned!

xoxo

w

ps - what do you all think about including a section like this below in future Office Hours?

Further reading

Here is a book related to our subject today that I’m dying to read that may be of interest to you all: “Ninth Street Women: Lee Krasner, Elaine de Kooning, Grace Hartigan, Joan Mitchell, and Helen Frankenthaler: Five Painters and the Movement” profiles five women, all abstract painters, who changed the direction of modern art.

Here is a great book on Mitchell’s life, work and paintings published with the SF Museum of Modern Art.

Here is a great book by the astounding artist David Hockey titled “A History of Pictures” that offers a dedicated layperson a history of visual art that addresses all the basic elements of visual art, and how they came to be (and so much more.)

PPS. If you get something out of DrawTogether and the Grown-Ups Table, please become a subscribing member. It’s the only way we keep the lights on around here. ❤️✏️❤️

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Below are a few drawing GUT members created while watching some really special TED talks by Titus Kaphar, Aziz Abu Sarah and Maoz Inow, Sir Ken Robinson, Liz Gilbert, KC Chein, and yours truly. These are in response to last week’s dispatch from An Artist Goes to TED:

Bronwyn Thank you so much Wendy MacNaughton for sharing the talk by Peace Activists Aziz Abu Sarah and Maoz Inon. I watched it three times and found it so clarifying and inspiring. And so many powerful visual metaphors too!

Beth Flynn Titus Kaphar’s talk made me think about how radically our “fields of vision” can differ from each other. I wanted to depict that. Those closest to the center have access to the most privilege and resources. And due to proximity (in field of vision terms) see less. Alternatively, those on the margins (the marginalized), have the widest field of vision (necessarily for survival).

Dacha’s Notes From A Balcony I watched (again 😊) Wendy MacNaughton‘s TED talk. And drew her (& myself) in blind contour. I teared up some… I’ve used Draw Together lessons when doing drawing sessions on Zoom with Ukrainian kids in the beginning of the war . It all just came flooding back. Thank you for everything Wendy! 🎨

Claire Curtin The surprise word that emerged from Liz G’s talk - faeries - is one that I’ve encountered about 20 times this week. Yikes, I better pay attention to it then. Here’s a faery circle that I’ve seen in my head. I’ll now keep my eyes open when I’m in the forest!

Cátia S 

Anne Kenny Wendy’s talk on Dorothea Lange at the National Gallery of Art is wonderful.

Barbara Rohde I really enjoyed Titus Kaphar’s talk & art work, but didn’t draw much as I was looking. And I had watched Wendy’s before, I think I’ll take time to watch again

D’Lena I watched KC Davis’ “How To Do Laundry When You’re Depressed” because I recognized her from TikTok. I was most struck by the reframe of “I’m failing” (because I can’t manage household tasks to my standards right now) to “I’m having a hard time right now, and people who are having a hard time deserve compassion.” And the way that connects to a more broad path to finding compassion for yourself. Possibly.

Hilary Hattenbach Never heard Sir Ken Robinson speak before and I loved his wit and message about creativity. I immediately watched another one of his Ted Talks afterwards. Been scrolling through this thread and I love seeing all the different artistic interpretations of these subjects! Just delightful.