I wanted to share my latest art course news. This fall I will be teaching two art courses at the Delaplaine Art Center in Frederick, MD. Do you think you can’t draw? Take my beginner drawing course, Drawing for the Absolute Beginner, and challenge your assumptions! Drawing for the Absolute Beginner, will focus on basic drawing skills, inspired by the teachings of art teacher, Betty Edwards, and incorporate various drawing media, such as: pencil, charcoal, and ink. Class starts on 10/15/24 at the Delapaline Art Center, Frederick, MD.
Did you know that drawing is a learned skill, and that you can improve your skills with guided instruction and practice? Based on my experience as an artist and art teacher, I have learned that it really isn’t about talent, and there are specific skills which you can learn such as: drawing from photos, drawing from life, sighting, smooth shading and incorporating drawing templates like the Loomis method, to help you achieve more realistic results. Both of my courses, Drawing for the Absolute Beginner, and Advanced Drawing will explore these fundamental skills, and provide you with plenty of open studio time to practice what you learn. Step by step instruction will be provided, and constructive critiques are available upon request to help develop your skills.
Have you always wanted to draw portraits, but didn’t know where to begin? The other course, Advanced Drawing, is tailored for artists who want to advance their drawing skills, and will focus on techniques for drawing the portrait. Techniques including: the Loomis and Reilly method, will give you a frame work for constructing a portrait in a realistic style. I will provide you with the skills you need to draw in beginner level or advanced level, so there is a place for everyone!
Whichever course you choose, making art work in my class can bring peace, calm and creativity to your life. Make time for self care, meet other artists, and re-engage with your creativity! In one of my courses, a former student reports that: “Now I have many tools to use for practicing art!”
Tap the link below to learn more about my Beginner and Advanced Art Courses: http://www.delaplaine.org. Don’t wait, sign up today before classes fill up. Fall is one of the busiest seasons for art courses at the Delaplaine! If you wait, you might not be able to get a spot, and I only teach these courses two times a year.
This week I am struggling once again with artist’s block, and also writer’s block, so I am posting an older post about artist’s block for now. Meanwhile, I am going to be researching articles of interest to try and come up with new blogging ideas. I’m also including some paintings I have been re-working, in spite of the artist’s block. I am finding it helpful to re-paint and critique old works that I wasn’t really happy with. This week’s offering is a collection of Lincoln oil portraits I have painted a few years ago. Here is the older blog post I mentioned.
Last week I wrote about my struggles with artist’s block and I identified two specific types of artist’s block that were keeping me from producing artwork, and they are 1.) a mental block and 2.) an emotional barrier. Both of these symptoms seem to culminate in negative self-talk that makes me afraid to put pencil to paper. In spite of these things, I have been soldiering on. How about you? Did these types of artist’s block relate to you, or maybe you might be dealing with different types of artist’s block, such as work habits that don’t work for you, or personal issues, or a shortage of time, money, or resources, or feeling overscheduled? These types of artist’s block were discussed in the article: Seven Types of Artist’s Block and What to Do about Them by Mark McGuiness. Here is the website if you want to read more about the article: http://99u.com/articles/7088/7-types-of-creative-block-and-what-to-do-about-them.
This week my main difficulties with artist’s block have been feeling overwhelmed and pulled in too many directions, and my work habits and time management, which are keeping me from being able to consistently produce art. Now that I have made the transition from a hobby artist to a professional artist, there are many more demands on my time than there was when I was just painting for fun. Now there are a myriad of tasks that I need to complete to keep my art business organized (such as taking inventory of my works, so that I know what is available and what has been sold), marketing my artwork and sharing my art show events with others via Facebook, personal emails or Instagram, and keeping my website updated with blog posts to keep people coming back to the site, just to name a few.
The ante has really been upped this past month because I have signed up for more art events, which is a good thing because it opens up the door for more sales and personal connections with clients and patrons, but it also means that my administrative tasks increase exponentially. To cope with the added stress, I have been trying to incorporate self-care into my schedule again, whether it’s taking time to journal, go for a walk, going to my favorite coffee shop, coloring in my coloring books, or just taking a long drive to get away from it all. A little anxiety is a good thing because it motivates me to work, but too much anxiety can make me feel paralyzed and unable to work. And as for feeling overwhelmed, I have been making lists of the most pressing tasks with the soonest deadlines to prioritize my to-do list, so I am not running in too many different directions.
The second aspect to my artist block is dealing with my time management skills and avoiding distractions which can keep me away from making art. Distractions can come in many forms, whether it’s social media, email checking, etc. And I might justify this by saying that it is for my business, and it might well be, say a Facebook post to advertise my upcoming art show at Art Pops! Everedy Square. However, I am learning I need to limit my time on the computer, both for administrative tasks such as data entry for inventory of my artwork, or conducting marketing campaigns on Facebook or Instagram. I also am a person who lacks structure and discipline, so I have to create an outside structure for myself by creating deadlines for myself, writing to-do lists, writing due dates on the calendar and setting my kitchen timer for what I like to call pomodoros.
These pomodoros are 25-minute increments in which I focus on only one task, whether it’s working on a drawing to post for Instagram for my 100 faces in 100 days drawing challenge or updating my Art of Schmidt web site. Sometimes to maintain my focus, I also need to turn off my phone and not answer emails. Afterward, I take 5-minute breaks to re-group. To learn more about the Pomodoro technique, visit the following website: https://www.focusboosterapp.com/the-pomodoro-technique. If I don’t apply discipline and self-control to my routine, I get really behind in my projects, especially since there is no one who will keep me accountable for these tasks but myself. The insecurity and negative chatter I mentioned in my post last week can really make me want to distract and procrastinate on getting into the studio. I am trying to be more gentle with myself and allow the art to unfold
Abraham Lincoln in purple, oil on canvas, 9 x 12 inches, 2017, Jodie Schmidt.
Abraham Lincoln in purple, re-worked, oil on canvas, 9 x 12 inches, Jodie Schmidt, 2018. This is the re-worked version of the above painting that I completed last week. I changed the color scheme from purples and blues to greens, blues, and blue-greens. I also added more paint and texture to the facial planes to create dimension and impasto strokes of thick paint. I’m happier with this more colorful result, and I hope to create more paintings of Lincoln with this more painterly approach. I used a painting demonstration book called, Classic Portrait Painting in Oils, by Chris Saper, as inspiration about how to create a light source and for color schemes.
This is a quote from Sylvia Plath, found online in a Google search, no copyright infringement intended.
as it will see it as part of a process of learning for me, and not an ultimate destination.
Art of Schmidt 