What Should I Draw?
“What should I draw?” is a common refrain from students in my art classroom. After years of answering this question, I have found that the answer is different for each student.
What calls to your art heart?
As artists develop their skills, certain drawing subjects are more attractive to them than others. For some students, painting people is their JAM. There is gesture, and movement, and anatomy!
To others, the same subject tortures them because people as subjects are constantly moving. I have had students ask the model not to breathe before! These students want to be able to capture the figure perfectly in exactly one position. This is not really possible when drawing from life because, as it turns out, people need to breath.
Draw & Paint What You Love
My advice to all atelier students: do not torture yourself with drawing subjects you detest. Find the subjects that are the best match for your artistic personality and gifts.
That is not to say that you shouldn’t learn how to draw a wide variety of subjects, especially as you are developing your skillset. It is extremely important to seriously attempt drawing a broad variety of subjects before making any binding decisions about what your artistic calling is.
Bargue plates, for example, may not always be the most interesting to new atelier students, but they are extremely efficient at helping students develop a strong drawing base.
Once techniques are mastered, however, there comes a time to decide on what exactly it is that you want to draw and paint.
Learn from Chardin
The well-known French artist, Chardin, was frequently admonished by his peers to paint more serious subjects than his beloved still lifes of humble dinnerware and fruits. It was believed by the ruling art elite that truly great artists must be history painters who create multi-figure grand canvasses.
But Chardin always painted what he found most admirable, and what suited the techniques that he loved most. And if that subject was a handful of pears, so be it.
Chardin’s clear affinity for chromatic color notes, scumbled layering, and dissolved edges creates a charm that delights viewers to this day and has secured his place in the art history canon. Those “grand” and “serious” and “real artist” history painters? Do you know many of them on a last-name-only basis?
I believe much can be learned from Chardin’s persistence of still life painting at the height of its unfashionableness. Most importantly, how to be true to your individual artistic spirit.
HOW I CHOOSE What to Draw & PAINT
I know a wonderfully talented contemporary painter that makes the most delightful still life paintings. They are imbued with all kinds of nuanced story-telling, and no detail is ever overlooked. This type of painting requires a thorough and patient mindset. The technique requires many passes with a tiny brush. What might appear to be a tedious way of working to me, brings delight to my friend.
I, on the other hand, am a very impatient and brash artist. I like to capture the gesture of something in an exact moment, and there is no time to spare before the magic of the gesture might fade away. I like to paint flowers as they are constantly moving and following the light. I want to paint the whole bouquet at once, as the bouquet as a whole encompasses its own unique gesture.
Painting of daisies in progress by author Mandy Theis
If I want to paint at the level of meticulousness of my friend, I would either have to paint one flower at a time, replacing the flowers in the bouquet as they fade, or replace the bouquet all together with silk flowers.
I can’t stand the thought of painting from fake flowers, whose gestures are never genuine, but whose presence would be required for careful, detailed painting. I adore the gesture of a bouquet as a whole too much to isolate all the parts by painting flowers one by one. Therefore, my technique has evolved in a way that allows me to paint an entire bouquet at a non-meticulous level over the course of the life of that bouquet.
It should be noted, however, that I had to learn how to draw and paint meticulously in order to acquire the skillset I needed to draw and paint more freely. It is very important to me to have the “meticulous painting” tool in my tool box for the times that I do need it, like putting a fine finish on the vase of the flowers.
Master Skills and Your Style Becomes a Choice
When studying atelier skills, learn everything you can at a meaningful level. Try drawing everything you can in order to discover what you, as the unique individual you are, actually like.
Be true to yourself. If you find you are drawing something because it is what you are supposed to draw to be a “serious artist” (multi-figure work come to mind), channel your inner Chardin and pursue drawing what resonates with your artistic soul. Maybe you are a master of creatures. Or waves. Or hands.
As long as you draw what calls to you, your audience will always sense it. They will appreciate your chosen subject more deeply by seeing it through your eyes. After all, sharing your inspiration with others is the true gift of great artists.
Do you want to expand your skillset? Check out our Ateliyay! Curriculum that helps students learn technical drawing skills.
What are your favorite subjects to draw? Let me know in the comments below.
I really appreciate this article. I have always been attracted to the human figure but also hugely intimidated by it ! I have found over the years that I isolate parts of the body in my drawings and paintings: juxtaposing human and animal. I think, in part because I love both subject matter and I only have to deal with part of the human anatomy rather than all of it at once. Human legs seem to be my favorite.
Expressing feelings through parts of human anatomy is a constant concern.
This also gives me good ideas for my students especially in articulating and validating their preferred subject matter.
I am very encouraged and validated by your article. Thank you!
Pilar
Thank you for the thoughtful commentary. I hope our resources continue to help you on your journey.