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ou know how every once and awhile you just give up and start following every single person Instagram suggests and then months later you realize that you’ll never keep up and you go through and unfollow half as many? It was during one of these waves that I came across Australian artist Brad Robson. Robson paints mainly in acrylics and oils and uses the uncommon tools super familiar to those of us who live in mixed media (squeegees, rollers, etc). He paints large. Something I didn’t fully appreciate until looking into his work. His work goes so large in fact that he’s a muralist. If a wall is your canvas, you win the painting big award.

I'm going back to basics with my back to (art) school goals this winter and one of those basics is drawing. Drawing drawing drawing. Every artist I've talked to says the foundation of painting...even if you're a highly figurative painting...is drawing.

For me learning to draw is about confidence and validation. I feel that if I can draw then I'm a real artist. But it also is about freedom. Drawing gives me the freedom to play. I worked hard for two years to learn to draw faces. I'm still not a master by any means, but that understanding allows me to now play with paint and value and work on other things other than how the hell the nose connects with the eyes. Plus, because the very basics are now second nature, I can advance my face drawing skills, which feels really really satisfying.

While I worked for two years on faces, I still don't really know how to draw in general. Ask me to draw a semi-realistic vase, I have no idea how cylinders connect with cubes. No clue. I also don't know how bodies hold themselves or how owls are put together. I didn't realize until recently how much frustration this causes me when I want to paint a bouquet or a bird. Plus, maybe the most important part of all of this, I haven't taught myself to really see.

So here are five drawing exercises I've found that are helping me navigate the mental and physical planes of drawing. I try to do one a day although some day I'd like to get to the point where I'm doing all five every day.

What a great art weekend.

Thursday was the opening of the Siren Nation art show Paths to the Pacific Northwest at Albina press. Friday was Red Dot's PDXTRAOrdinary show. Then Saturday I used my two free tickets to Sitka Art Invitational (thank you to abstract artist Ruth Armitage for passing them along at PDX Open Studio!) Armitage had a few incredible pieces in the show, and I was introduced to a few new artists who's work was fantastic.

Alison O'Donoghue

Oh look at that patterning! Pattern is clearly a big element in her work, and it's somehow calming to find a successful artist who clearly loves pattern as much as I love pattern. O'Donoghue has found a way to weave it into her work in an interesting and playful way.

Her work looks great in the digital sphere but you can't see all the rich layers that are so apparent when you're standing in front of it live.

Also bonus: She paints in acrylic.

Bryan Potter

This owl. What is it about owls that are so intrinsically heart warming? What I love about this piece especially is the economy of stroke. So sure, there are a lot of strokes, but because this is monoprint, you can really see the patterning in the strokes in a way that is delightful. Potter's work encourages me to get back into owls after last week's owl fiasco.

Annie Heisey

All of her paintings are wonderful and clearly she has put in the hours drawing, but there is something about Thru the Mist that captures everything I hope to paint some day. You can tell what it is but it's loose in an incredible way. Not abstract art but only a few steps off. That hair. That shadow under the nose. I should book mark this painting so whenever I feel astray, I can come back to something that so captures how I hope to paint some day.

I’m slowly building a list of exercises, some quicker than others, to do when I need an official art warm up or something with low stakes to get me into the studio.

Here’s a great one from Jane Davies. If you don’t follow Jane, go do so right now. I met her years ago when we filmed her at Creative Catalyst productions. She’s an incredibly generous teacher.

Here Jane is doing five minute paintings. She says, “I don’t want to feel rushed here. I just want to make a relaxed kind of visual statement.” I love that idea. I also love that she’s still painting relatively large at 19x25 inches. What a great way to get the body moving.

The day I left my job and the week that followed were one of the happiest of my life. All that freedom. All that control. Seeing work politics and low pay behind me and fulfillment ahead of me. All that potential glory to days well spent. Pure elation.

And then it stopped. I found it confusing, and then I found it kind of embarrassing. Here I have this great opportunity and I’m not happy. What a waste. And what a selfish human being I must be to have this space for happiness and squander it with sadness.