If in your drawings you habitually disregard proportions you become accustomed to the sight of distortion and lose critical ability. A person living in squalor eventually gets used to it.¹
- Robert Henri
"If you practice drawing badly, you'll eventually get very good at it."
-Marvin Mattelson, Portrait Painting class, School of Visual Arts (paraphrased)
(make sure to read the 'Comments' section to learn Marvin's actual words)
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¹ Robert Henri, The Art Spirit, (Icon Editions, Colorado, 1984), p. 89.
Marvin Mattelson, www.fineartportrait.com
3 comments:
Hi Matt, happy new year. I'm not used to seeing "wisdom" and "Marvin Mattelson" in the same sentence. Nice! Very flattering indeed.
Regarding your paraphrasing, what I said about drawing specifically was: If you do something poorly and you do it a lot, you'll get very good at doing it poorly. It's essentially reiterating the axiom: practice doesn't make perfect, perfect practice makes perfect. Otherwise all you do is ingrain your bad habits.
Hi Marvin! I am happy to have your actual words recorded here, though I must admit, I will always remember the lesson as I wrote it here- It seems to encapsulate your message along with your humor. Unfortunately, what I wrote is less clear than your response, so I hope eveyone reads both!
Well I agree 100%. My father was my first art teacher and he use to say "Practice doesn't make perfect. Perfect practice makes perfect." I really like the paraphrasing of your message. It helps me to remember the comment. I will be sure to tell my father as soon as I talk to him next.
Drew Kiger
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