I CAN’T DRAW... WAYS OF LOOKING ART FOR BEGINNERS #01 HANNAH TOFT S
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I CAN’T DRAW...
WAYS OF LOOKING art for beginners
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10 weeks x 2 hours on a tuesday in a village hall... first steps in having fun
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For adults of all ages who are scared but dare to try, for those who want to see if they can, for those who want to have some fun...
Explore your own creativity... follow what we did and
be inspired
...experiment with colour, making marks, learn to look, not think, play with paint, let your expectations go, be bold, dare to lose your fears, have fun! There is no right, there is no wrong. There are no rules...
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Everyone was shy and nervous: “I was told I wasn’t any good at Art at school.” “I can’t do it right.” “Everyone’s better than me.” “I was never allowed to paint at home, it was too messy.” 8
“I’m so slow, I can’t keep up with the others, I feel like giving up.” “I’ve never used so much paint before, are you sure it’s ok?” “I liked Art... but was told I should do Latin instead.” “I’m worried I’ll make a mistake...” “This is like being a child again...” “I don’t dare tell my husband I’m doing this Art class, he’ll think it’s a waste of time.”
“I’ve never ever painted, even as a child...” “I never thought I could.” “I just don’t have the confidence.” “I’ve never drawn on a wall, never on a window!” “We were never encouraged to do Art at school...” 9
“It’s terrible, I’m going to tear it up...” “You mean... those drips and splashes can stay, but they’re just messy.” “I’m so embarrassed...” “I just can’t make it look right.” “Can’t I rub it out and start again?” “What? No rubbers???” “I can’t draw!”
This is what we did:
For who, where and how?
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Week 01 - making colours
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Week 02 - clashing colours
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Week 03 - drawing with paper
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Week 04 - making marks
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Week 05 - looking at line
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Week 06 - monoprinting
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Week 07 - light and shadow
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Week 08 - composition
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Week 09 - painting with acrylics
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Week 10 - painting experience
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Inspired to do more?
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Time for an exhibition!
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Who’s Hannah?
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In the middle of nowhere...
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Where? I ran the first Art Classes for Beginners in our village hall with a boiler room for an Art cupboard, on the west coast of Scotland. In a very small village by the sea in the middle of nowhere particular. You don’t have to live near the facilities of a city or an Art College studio to want to learn to look and draw, but you do have to be resourceful when gathering materials, coping with the challenging weather, changing light and unusual locations. However, the Beginners started in a wind free room in a modest hall with no atmosphere to inspire, but there was warmth and hot water for coffee with the treats of home-baking. I had big dreams of running the classes from my studio, packed with curious things, books and artworks to stimulate and set the scene... but I didn’t have that studio. I too was starting with nothing, so I dropped my own expectations and dared to start wherever, with whatever I could find. The rural subject matter depends utterly on the season and if it’s been decimated by the weather. It is unreliable, often alive and confronting by not always being there, but mostly offers a totally new and memorable experience to draw from. We never drew dead cockerels freshly wrung that morning at Art College, nor lobsters which were meant to be dead. But that comes later in the following Art for Beginners Series all on location; on your kitchen table, in someone elses’ house, along the roadside, in a field, on a hilltop, in a crowded barn, under a bridge, on the shore...
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Who? I wrote ‘Ways of Looking’ as a basic Art foundation course specifically for the adults in our village of all ages, from 40-95, though the energy needed proved sometimes too demanding for the older legs. Not for Art Students or Art Professionals, but for Ordinary Adults who were interested in doing something in Art but were shy and lacking in confidence. I wrote it for those who had never drawn before, had painted a long time ago at school, for those who had been told they couldn’t draw, or shouldn’t do Art, for those who wanted to get bolder and looser, for those who wanted to see if they could. For all those many adults who were really scared, but dared to try. This was no watercolour course in the countryside... but offered instead a series of visual building blocks to drawing and painting using a variety of materials and formats, and above all, exploring ways of looking. I simply wanted to inspire, to show that everyone can draw and have fun too. That there was no right or wrong way of doing. I wanted to stimulate the senses, to give a positive experience, to show the adults they all had their own visual language; they just had to see it and believe in themselves. No-one was allowed to take their work home after a class, thinking ‘it would all be thrown away’ which helped everyone to let go, not judge and be free from expectation. It also helped their homelife too, for out of context, we are easily crushed by others’ comments. This course and my approach was more about the process, not the results. Most of the students thought their work was terrible until they saw it at the end of the course in the final review. By the end of 10 weeks, of only 2 (full) hours a week plus homework, they finally saw what incredible progress and astonishing results they had actually achieved. They were proud, now confident, with some basic first steps under their belts and full of enthusiasm to do more!
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WEEK
01 making colours
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I asked everyone to bring in at least 10 clean jam jars with lids but no labels, a pile of newspapers and rags. Everyone was nervous. But there was no drawing, no pencils and white paper to intimidate, simply tables covered in newspaper, brushes, water pots and bottles of cheap poster paint. The first step: making colour fun. Can you mix that Greek Sea Blue, Rowan Berry Red, Sage Green, that Slate Sky Grey you see outside? Experiment with mixing colours; using poster paints and water, in jam jars, on purpose and by default. Always start with the lightest colour first when mixing and add a tiny squeeze of the darker colour bit by bit, try the 2 different blues to mix with white, or mix with the 2 different yellows to make hundreds of greens, then mix white with a blue and a yellow... smudge the colour with your finger as a test on the newspaper first. Dare to mix a lot of paint in your jars, half full at least. Enjoy mixing lovely thick paint, nothing too watery or hesitant,
be bold! See what happens. Are they bright, chalky, gloomy, stormy, warm, zesty, happy? What does that colour remind you of, what does it make you feel? Describe it through names of the natural world. Label that jam jar and add the colours to the colour charts on the wall. Now you’ve had a go, divide yourselves into mixing teams of reds and pinks, greens, oranges and browns, purples, blues and greys. Mix as many jars of different colours as you can for our store. New ways to look at the colours around you in your world? Have fun, be inspired playing with colour. Homework: Collecting colours. Bring in 3d objects of whatever colours you find at home or outside for the Collecting Colour Charts, also collect magazine cuttings for colours in image or text to tear out and stick.
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The mixing got easier as you thought of the greens in your world.... I’m always inspired by the vegetables I’m learning to grow and foods I love to eat.
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You could almost eat some of the colours they looked so good...
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Redcurrant jelly red Tomato chutney green Marrow chutney yellow Lemon marmalade orange Nasturtium seed green Quince cheese pink Rowan berry jelly red Crab apple jelly pink Quince jelly pink Marrow and ginger jam orange
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The floor was totally covered in prints... you just wouldn’t stop!
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In the middle of nowhere... Advanced Beginners out on location 2011 336
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Who’s Hannah? I hadn’t anticipated at all how scared most adults are, how many fears we carry, just how little confidence we have in ourselves, how this can totally stop us from doing something we might actually like. This was a surprising and moving journey for me too. I had to be strongly encouraged to run such an Art class for the adults in our village, it took some persuading; I didn’t think I could do it, didn’t think I was able without my studio set up in the European city I came from, with no studio, no money, no commercial back up, no urban imput, with no specialist techniques to my name, apart from being a Creative Creature. I’ve taught every other level of student and child, but not mature adults who weren’t professionally committed or those who expected to do 344
watercolour. I don’t do watercolour. But I do motivate and inspire ways of looking, I’m passionate about colour, about the tactile and texture, about painting and making, about collecting curious things, about the ordinary and odd, the light I see every day wherever I am, the countries I travel, the vegetables I’m learning to grow, the baking and cooking I love to eat, share and present, the theatre and performance of setting the scene, and teaching... but that’s not so easy to put across concisely in a flyer.
You can see more of Hannah’s approach on her website www.hannahtofts.com and wait for further books full of looking and inspiration in the LOOKBOOK series Art for Beginners. Designer/Illustrator/Artist/Teacher MA RCA
Let the child inside you play
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“We really look forward to Tuesdays!”
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Devised and taught by Hannah Tofts Designer/Illustrator/Artist/Teacher Further looking and inspiration in the series: #01 WAYS OF LOOKING #02 LOOKING AT LINE #03 LOOKING AT COLOUR (summer) #04 LOOKING AT COMPOSITION (autumn) #05 LOOKING AT CONTRASTS (winter) #06 LOOKING AT LIGHT (spring)
Written and photographed by Hannah Tofts Scotland www.hannahtofts.com Designed by Jan Battem Creative Direction Amsterdam Additional photographs by Shannon, Murray and Faith First published at createspace.com Copyright © 2011 Hannah Tofts LOOKBOOK
“I just love rhubarb.”
WAYS OF LOOKING ART FOR BEGINNERS #01 Follow Hannah's joyous and unique approach to inspiring creativity in others. A rich and stimulating visual journey for adults of all ages interested in doing something in Art. For those of you who have never drawn before, painted a long time ago at school, were told they couldn’t draw or shouldn’t do Art. For all the many adults who are really scared, but dare to try, for those who want to have some fun! Explore your own creativity... follow what we did and be inspired... Experiment with colour, making marks, learn to look, play with paint, let your expectations go, be bold, dare to lose your fears, have fun! There is no right, there is no wrong. There are no rules...
“You could not guess a single person could generate so much vitality, bright positive colour and celebration of creativity.” “I keep seeing everything around me with new eyes!” “I learned it was alright to have fun!”