A few weeks ago I started to go to an art club and being a beginner I was full of doubts about my ability to draw. Even though I’ve enjoyed the sessions, I felt as though I’d been dropped in the deep end with sketching then painting a view of Bamburgh Castle in watercolour. I got the proportions all wrong, but it didn’t look terrible even if it didn’t look like Bamburgh Castle.
So I decided to see what books we have that would help me to improve and found this little book which looks excellent.
It is The Right Way to Draw Landscapes by Mark Linley. He introduces the book by describing it as:
… a complete course for beginner artists who want to learn how to draw landscape pictures. Step-by-step instructions are given for most of the drawings used as examples within these pages. You will start with easy-to-do studies which have been created to boost your self-confidence, and to show you that anyone can learn this skill. If you have never drawn anything except breath, don’t worry. I have ways of teaching you! (page 7)
It seems that thinking success is the secret. We have to think ‘I can’ and we really can:
Where so many people go wrong is that they allow self doubt to interfere. They worry about whether they can draw something, more than how to do so. If you think you can’t draw a landscape, you will be right; you will fail. This wrong instruction (“I can’t”) will be acted upon by your subconscious mind – your “computer” – just as quickly and as powerfully as when you have “I can” working for you. Unfortunately, many of us seem to be brain-washed to think negatively. Perhaps lack of encouragement during our school-days has resulted in what has become a bad habit. Bad habits can be changed! You just have to know that we all have unlimited potential. (page 10)
So, I shall be testing this out and see just how much I can improve with the help of this little book – I may even post the results!
Teaser Tuesday is a weekly event hosted by MizB where you share €˜teasers’. I’ve adapted it a bit to include more information about the book and longer teasers.
BooksPlease 