Teach & Tell

Watercolor Painting Output 3/3 'KOI'. Done! # Watercolor Mentee. :)

Watercolor is a mesmerizing, transparent medium celebrated for its luminous, glowing qualities. Because you use water to guide the pigment, it creates soft blends and spontaneous flows that are entirely unique to the practice. It’s an accessible, fast-drying, and eco-friendly medium.

Many artists view watercolor not just as a painting method, but as a meditative practice. Because it is difficult to cover up mistakes, the medium teaches patience, mindfulness, and the acceptance of "happy little accidents". It encourages a relaxing, "go with the flow" approach to art.

It is easy to start—most people use it in childhood—but mastering water control and timing makes it a highly sophisticated and rewarding challenge for professionals.

Portraits from life... Drawing with my students. Kaiwen Academy May 2023. If you cover portraiture in HS Drawing Class your students will feel better if they see you do what you are asking them to do.

Been a while... # University of Makati. 'Pintagak'. Judgement Day. 17April2026.

Delighted to judge competitions like this. # Inter-collegiate On-the-Spot painting contest. April 14-16 # University of Makati

A line is the distance between two points , A and B. From point A to point B is an invisible line until you connect the points to show it. To do so you can either go straight from the starting point with your pencil to manifest a straight line or zig zag your way to it , or rest in between a step or two ( broken lines ) to get to point B. On your way to point B , anywhere you stop is a line - you need not reach point B to make a line. The moment you move your pencil from point A, you are already making a line. You may not make the connection right away , too. You are free to go around and back , even cross your path or the previous line you made until you decide to get there. When the line you drew crosses itself, it encloses and defines space ( space is an enclosed space ) . When a line goes back to where it started after taking a walk around, it also encloses space. Either way, the space a line encloses is manifested as a shape. The space inside a shape is not occupied, it’s empty until you use it. Like when you shade it . Shading that space turns it positive and the space outside it , negative. Shading that space inside a shape will produce texture as well. And if you depict a light source when you shade the space inside the shape, producing a continuous halftone ( tonal gradation or value = white to black ) you will make that space look not only textured but massive and three-dimensional, in effect turning the shape into a drawing of a or a simulated form. If you use color to shade that space you make it special and more expressive about how you feel.

Every drawing is a statement translated into images. Proper use of the elements and principles ‘ the grammar of visualization’ ensure clarity of visual translation.

The key is restraint. You must know when to stop. You can draw anything you want but you should know when to stop. Sometimes you need not draw everything you see if you are after something special about your subject. This is particularly true when drawing from life. You must know what images contributes to that something special and stop when you think you have captured what is relevant. You cannot be ‘wordy’ with your translation. When there are so many things going on in a drawing, it compromises clarity of the statement. Akin to a wordy sentence that misses the point, a drawing full of irrelevant images confuses and distracts the viewer from seeing what the drawing is about. This is true for all other forms of visual communication.

THE IMPORTANCE SEEING / RECOGNIZING SHAPE

A shape is an enclosed space or a defined space although basically shapes are created when a line returns to its point of origin or crosses itself. We recognize things by their shapes because everything takes on a shape-the facial features, their parts, the spaces between them, the highlights and cast shadows, hence recognizing or the ability to reduce what you see in terms of shapes a definite advantage particularly when copying something, anything, may it be a face, a landscape or a still life. We even describe things we don’t and cannot see with shape, ie ‘the shape of things to come’.

So look out for shapes, learn to ‘see’ hidden shapes - it will render your drawings accurate and more like whatever and whoever it is you intend to draw. Bear in mind that everything takes on shapes – animate or inanimate. You must train yourself to reduce what you see in terms of basic shapes and how small or big they are and modify or elaborate as you finalize what is / are in front of you.

Sometimes, a student is failing drawing not because he is not cut out for it...there's the teacher factor to consider.

10-14 years of Drawing

Even before students enter the Pre-K program, they are already drawing. From Pre-K Art to grade 10 and onwards they will be drawing some more whether or not they are attending International schools and have the option to take IB Art or AP Studio in the last two years of their secondary education. Drawing is a basic visualization skill. Before anything else, there is always drawing to contend with. Whether a student will end up with a painting or a sculpture, whether he’s creating an assemblage, a collage, there is always the initial visual planning and drawing phase to contend with. Like adjectives to a writer, ( describing an apple like you can touch it with just the right choices of words ) a good command of the pencil, and or the ability to draw something like it is or anywhere close to it, is always an advantage.