ARE WORKSHOPS USEFUL?

Here is a story I have to illustrate this fact. As oppose to any kind of visual arts where anybody can claim “the vision”, it is hard to cheat at the same rate of success as for example on tennis court games. One day a receptionist called me saying somebody was looking for me. Apparently, it was a 16-year-old boy thin as a matchstick who was fresh from Belorussia’s tennis academy and was looking for some insight on the local tennis scenery. He told me that he wanted to continue his tennis studies in the US and asked if I have knowledge of a tennis club he could meet pros and promoters in (smart guy). “I’m just a tennis lover and utterly useless in regard of being any help” I told him. Realizing that he might need money to survive, I suggested to him to give me some tennis lessons. He agreed and the only thing I can tell you is that it was all but impossible to return his powerful balls back to him even during the warm up on the tennis court. It was obvious to me how much stronger his abilities were after just a few years in a tennis academy than my tennis buddies at the club who spent countless hours at the local tennis courts pushing the ball to each other. As we say it was totally different ballgame with him.

My advice to especially beginner and intermediate painters who are looking for improvement in their artworks, is to take lessons from professional painters who can help make your afterward long practice MEANINGFUL. I know that not all pros can teach. Most of the time they just do things without explanation WHY and HOW they do it. Only professional and very advanced painters will be able to learn from this kind of observation. For beginners and intermediate painters to learn from this kind of demonstration will be most likely useless. Another problem is that I saw too many students in my workshops admitting that they took too many classes and as a result completely lost their vision on how to make progress and most importantly lost their identity as painters.

The first red flag is if you see that the teacher gives you some magic recipes to improve the style of your painting. The second is when they teach you more technical aspects of color application versus the explanation of why it is done in the first place. Both times I encountered this when I was reading about workshops on how to paint water, smoke, kitty’s puffy hair etc.  Again, it might be of some use for trickery of detail but does nothing to address fundamental lapses in student education. Technically speaking after three or more workshops with teachers focusing solely only on visual aspects of presentation, your sense of self-esteem and artistic identity truly will become broken. What shall I look for in the workshops you might ask?

When we look at the great works of a master, I feel like I’m looking at the tip of an iceberg. The most significant part of an image lies below the obvious picture story and all that smoke and mirrors. Understanding how the light works on the surface of the objects, how it was manipulated, how the values and colors work together to bring the essence of the scenery and how it was interpreted should be the focus of any study. Shall I mention drawing and composition on top and foremost of things?

Without clear understanding of these things, your money and time spent will most likely not bring desirable results.

Truly yours, Vladislav Yeliseyev