Dear and humble reader if you wish to draw like gardega you will never be able to because you canonly ever draw like yourself, I tried to draw like dali and failed and then raphael and failed and in the end became myself. art is a game of peeling back the layers of tracing paper until you reach the final drawing that is yourself, your juice and your essence. Today will will make a watercolor study of st. rocco that is fit for the fridge of art history to be affixed with the magnet of hard labor and careful study--no lazy works of art--ever. First we draw our drawing on tracing paper and transfer it down onto very expensive watercolor paper by rubbing the other side carefully..
Note: Know thy subject first!
St. Rocco is thy patron saint of the sick! He cured many of the plague but he caught the plague himself and hid in the woods where a dog would bring him bread everyday. Soon the owner of a castle followed the dog to st. rocco and took him in and healed him. after he was healed he returned home to france but was thrown into jail for they thought he was a spy because he looked so different...near his final days in his cell a guard entered and he and the cell was glowing blue! (not unlike the glowing green of glass!) then a red cross birthmark on his chest revealed he was indeed himself and not a spy.
Once the drawing is transferred You shall use a windsor and newton series seven number 5 round sable brush--70 dollars to paint a saint isnt bad. Next you moisten your watercolors and very carefully begin to define your drawing using a brush! line must be alive like a saint not hard and crusty and dead like modern art. Remember, thy eye always goes to the important parts of a figure--the face, the hands the feet--dont cheat the feet! dont race the face! dont damn the hands! you can cheat on the fabric a bit and on the clouds not the important items.
Be not stupid they humble reader and remember to work in a manner so your hand wont smudge what you have just painted. I am using blues and greens because he died with a blue glow around him and because he will be etched in glass and glass has a green glow--green because other artist are envious of the skills of st. gardega. I am painting here in a LINE based manner..some art is based on planes. I prefer line based art and glass is etched in a line based style there is no other way to etch glass...art nouveau is based on line. Let you art breathe! your art should be like the space between the synapses of the brain, information is passed between brain cells when the synapses are not firing and we are all geniuses when we are asleep because we are no longer self aware---we just are.
dont over work your souffle!
There is a difference between making a finished piece to stand on its own and making a piece that will provide vital information to make a larger piece or a glass carving. I focus on other issues, I am not looking for ooohs and ahhs from people I want to know how I am going to execute and etch a hand against a robe, the darks and lights, the general shape. old master drawings were made to inform the old master about the information needed to eventually execute a painting or a mural...these are blueprints.
for architects or art-ictects...
Now we are starting to get a feel for pose and for composition..The dog of the universe will arrive with the bread of genius for those who work hard enough. If you are lazy, she will pee on your leg. The dog of genius doesnt pee on saints. By the way, st. rocco has a sore on his leg from the plague---if you paint st. rocco be sure to include this mark! Clouds can always help build your picture into a composition where there is not enough info otherwise to make one. One must hear the music of the spheres when one paints, your picture should sing or at least humm like a bored bus driver. Always think in diagonals if you have a staff in your art and it is straight up and down I will hit you with it. diagonals are exciting.
Dont get over- excited that you have finished your little doodle..the hard work has just begun--I have thrown away more drawings like this one than most artists have ever made. There is still much work to be done. Now I must submit this to my client for approval. Upon approval I will hire a model find a robe, a dog etc and make a real work of art. After approval I will make full size drawings and studies and then it will be carved in glass and nag in a mausoleum where I will one day be interred and it will outlive me. Now I have to go finish making my saint joseph window.
Art student: Dear mr. gardega how do I be an artist?
Gardega: Do you draw everyday?
Art student: No, sometimes I do...but...
Gardega: Then I would go into finance, good day..
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