It’s Like Building a House

A lot of people are frustrated because they can’t all of a sudden do a great representational painting. I try to tell them that they need to develop their drawing skills, after all, painting is drawing with a brush. Then I try to convince them that it is a process like building a house – first, you do the framing. The framing in art would be learning to draw, such as the picture on the left. Next, you hang the sheetrock – learning to do shading and working with value like the picture in the middle (by the way, he’s sure ugly. My wife married him though.) Lastly, the building is finished with the paint, brickwork, carpeting, etc. – see the portrait on the right done in oil. The first two steps have to be taken to achieve the last one.