When I was a shy young art student, still new to the San Francisco Art Institute fine art college, I had big doubts about my dream of becoming an artist.
I wasn’t skilled yet with image-making tools, knew little of the principles of art and had just got out on my own, with little experience of the world. But those weren’t my big problem.
What really worried me was whether I had what it takes to fulfill my dream of becoming an artist.
Meaningless, Powerless Images
You see, there was good reason for my fear! My images had meaning to me personally, and I even thought they were pretty good.
But I found that others just didn’t “get” them. People were polite, but it was plain their reactions amounted to shrugs. I was only making “so what” images - strictly personal stuff.
I Had to Do Something!
I knew satisfaction and success weren’t possible with work that pleased only me, work that couldn’t communicate, images that left viewers uninterested, unaffected. That’s when I had to face the music and begin my real art education.
First, I came to realize and accept that I wasn’t in any personal way to blame for these weak images. They were simply the result of my ignorance, my lack of experience - not some personal flaw.
I just had to learn more. And I felt better after realizing that I’d positioned myself in exactly the right place at the right time to do just that. There was really no reason to worry, since I strongly suspected that there existed things to learn which would be the exact solutions for me. It was time to work and discover, rather than to worry. Gradually, my suspicions were confirmed.
I found I needed to master three things in order to succeed with my dream. I had to make these three my personal allies in overcoming my problem.
Three Quests, Three Allies
One was to know myself in the world. To discover my own unique nature in our cosmos - the wellspring from which an authentic self-expression could flow.
Surely others would respond to well-crafted expressions from such a source, one which would resonate with their own personal natures.
What that meant was exploring the visual world. And that in turn meant learning to see clearly. Becoming a keen observer of all the tricks and nuances of light and form, contour, color and design.
Another needed ally was a true compass to guide me during image creation. I had to understand what that “art” word really meant. Practically speaking, what was art for me? How would I learn to see its faint spark in my work and give it breath until it flamed? What target should I aim for when creating? How far could any project go until I understood where I wanted it to head?
Third, I had to build a body of understanding about Visual Communication, the nuts and bolts of how a piece of paper or canvas or a projection screen full of tiny colored dots can re-create all the world in the mind - lights and shadows, forms and textures, a sense of reality, feelings and meanings and drama.
In short, I had to learn the lowdown, in-the-trenches principles and methods of crossing that gap between the artist and the viewer.
Bridging the Gap
I absolutely had to learn the methods of bridging that gap! If I didn’t succeed with that, the other two efforts would never be enough.
My true story had a happy ending, because I did learn those three things. And I’m still enjoying learning more about them every day. But even better, I had the opportunity a few years later to teach what I’d learned, back at my alma mater, the San Francisco Art Institute.
Like others, I can tell you that teaching is a fantastic learning experience. It’s another great opportunity to “bridge that gap” between individuals. To share the world as others see it and to offer them calming support and useful alternatives from your own point of view, with the benefit of your own experience and learning.
It’s also wonderful to spend so many hours with other students, making images together, experimenting and comparing and finding out what works and what doesn’t.
Learn from My Learning
Now I think about today’s art students, enrolled or learning at home, and how many of them must be having the same fears and needs that I did.
If you’re one of those, it’s to you that I dedicate this web site, the learning materials you’ll find here - and the promise of more to come.
I’m starting with the third part of my own learning experience, sharing through my ebook the principles and methods of Visual Communication which I’ve learned over the years, and the background knowledge about light, color and human perception every artist needs.
Please check it out.
Although there’s a little material here from my other two quests, I plan to produce much more of that as time goes on.
Freebies
Today my favorite digital art tool is Vue 6 Infinite, the 3D scene program. I hope you fellow Vue 3D users will enjoy my free items - tutorials, 3D models, materials and textures.
_jim coe
In the beginner’s mind there are many possibilities, but in the expert’s there are few.
— Shunryu Suzuki
Zen master
If you aim to dispense with method, learn method
If you aim at facility, work hard
If you aim for simplicity, master complexity
— Lu Ch'ai (Wang Kai)
17th century Master of Chinese brush painting
Among those who study painting, some strive for an elaborate effect and others prefer the simple.
Neither complexity in itself nor simplicity is enough.
Some aim to be deft, others to be laboriously careful. Neither dexterity nor conscientiousness is enough.
Some set great value on method, while others pride themselves on dispensing with method.
To be without method is deplorable, but to depend entirely on method is worse.
— Lu Ch'ai (Wang Kai)
17th century Master of Chinese brush painting
If you cannot find the truth right where you are, where else do you expect to find it?
— Dogen
patriarch of Soto Zen
The painting has a life of its own. I try to let it come through.
— Jackson Pollock, Painter
Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once he grows up.
— Pablo Picasso
Painter
In whatever one does there must be a relationship between the eye and the heart.
— Henri Cartier-Bresson
photographer
Art is not what you see, but what you make others see.
— Edgar Degas
painter
A successful image is not about something.
It IS something.
— jim coe
art student
Beauty is the purgation of superfluities.
— Michelangelo
artist
One day a man approached Ikkyu and asked:
"Master, will you please write for me some maxims of the highest wisdom?"
Ikkyu took his brush and wrote: "Attention."
"Is that all?" asked the man.
Ikkyu then wrote: “Attention. Attention.”
"Well," said the man, "I really don't see much depth in what you have written."
Then Ikkyu wrote the same word three times: "Attention. Attention. Attention."
Half-angered, the man demanded: "What does that word "Attention" mean, anyway?"
Ikkyu gently responded, "Attention means attention".
— Ikkyu
Zen master
I must create a system or be enslaved by another man's. I will not reason and compare. my business is to create.
— Julian Schnabel
Painter