Practice

January 4, 2015

Practice the parts that make up the whole.

The 30 day challenge coincides well with "Keys for Improvement" that I wrote about in my last blog.  So far I have kept up with the challenge, but admit to it being a pressure.  This time my theme is to practice something specific in each painting. 

On the last two paintings I concentrated on using the Anders Zorn palette of white, yellow ochre, cad red, black and cer. blue.   I was lucky enough to receive a book for Christmas with beautiful photos of his paintings along with the story of his life.  It is a gorgeous book.  (link to book)

(on an older blog I showed how to do the grids for Zorn colors).  If you do a search available in the right-hand column, you will find it.

The 30 Day Challenge with Leslie Saeta really reinforces the idea of daily painting and practice.  It's not too late to join in.  Here is the link to her blog:  lesliesaeta.blogspot.com/

January 24, 2014

I just listened something on  youtube, first seen on Facebook, that was very encouraging, especially when it comes to learning to paint.  I'm putting the link here. 

The topic is about how it doesn't really take 10,000 hours to learn something new.  It takes 20 hours to learn something new. 

The speaker breaks it down into four steps:  (of course, I was applying all this to painting as I listened).

1.  Deconstruct the skill.

2.  Learn enough to self-correct.

3.  Remove practice barriers.

4.  Practice for at least 20 hours.

LEARN to PAINT or anything you want to learn.

Thank you to the author, Josh Kaufman, of the #1 international bestseller, 'The Personal MBA: Master the Art of Business', as well as the upcoming book 'The First 20 Hours: Mastering the Toughest Part of Learning Anything.' Josh specializes in teaching people from all walks of life how to master practical knowledge and skills. In his talk, he shares how having his first child inspired him to approach learning in a whole new way.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5MgBikgcWnY

I'm still learning, but I know I've put in 20 hours.