9 paintings within 25 strokes each

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Comment by Stuart J. Gourlay on July 27, 2014 at 22:36

Thanks Thomas. I guess I need to get out my blocks and work at it if I want my color to get better. Hard to do when the weather is so nice! Stu

Comment by Thomas Ruckstuhl on July 27, 2014 at 19:07

Britt, thank you! On discipline.... It takes a lot of it to do a complex still life. Kids do not have much discipline. They loose interest quickly and start something new. Again and again. Isn't it just that what i am doing?

Comment by Thomas Ruckstuhl on July 27, 2014 at 19:00

Stu, i think too that to become a good landscape painter there is no way around going out there and painting landscapes. But it's a highly complex task making it difficult to improve on certain aspects that are useful for painting landscapes. The way you describe the blocks is exactly how i read they should be done, quick and easy. Most of mine have been much to detailed. I did some outside but most inside in my lightbox.

Comment by Britt Greenland on July 27, 2014 at 16:06

Thomas, I love how your painting looks effortless and spontaneous, and yet you clearly put a lot of effort in to improve your skill!  I wish I had half of your discipline!

Comment by Stuart J. Gourlay on July 27, 2014 at 12:25

Interesting Thomas.  I do continue to paint the same scenes plein air until I get them right.   I find it hard to fathom painting 200 block studies unless they are quite small and quick; maybe less than 25 strokes.   Do you use a light box for some of them or are they all from natural light?  Stu

Comment by Thomas Ruckstuhl on July 27, 2014 at 3:10

Vaa is time consuming but i do not think that the numbers of studies are too high.
A good example of how many studies are needed to be "perfect" in a particular direction is the blog of Carol Marine. She was really not a beginner at all in 2006. Amazing how much better she was in painting apples 2009 and interesting to count the number of apples in between. In the same way i think of color and blockstudies. With 200 my color is advanced but not half way to be excellent.
And no, i did not count her countless apples :-)

Comment by Jon Main on July 27, 2014 at 0:09

Yeah, it's a huge time investment - I just haven't been able to go on for now - and I too preferred the old site - but there are some wonderful wonderful things in it

Comment by Stuart J. Gourlay on July 27, 2014 at 0:07

Thanks Thomas. Now I don't feel so bad about being behind. I started with the new program in November 2013. I really like the content, but the numbers are a bit daunting. I am a general surgeon and am used to learning new procedures periodically; there are no set numbers of procedures needed to acquire new skills--some surgeons are comfortable after just a few procedures and others never become comfortable. I think that it depends more on your ability to focus and your level of self confidence. I definitely know when I get something in my art, and with the feedback I get from people on this and similar sites (Plein Air Painters--Ed Terpening's FB site) I know when I have done enough repetitions to be accomplished at a new skill. I am getting ready to close my surgical practice and that alone should accelerate my VAA progress. Thanks for the info. I really like Barry John's material too. Stu

Comment by Thomas Ruckstuhl on July 26, 2014 at 19:06

Stu, tricky question!
I did about half of all assignments. I work with the "old" vaa format where there were no workshops. Things were categorized into color, form, brushwork, drawing, notan, process, poetry,etc.... I find this new workshop format inadequate because firstly it is harder to get an overview over the whole story. and see were this is going. Secondly it is impossible to plan ahead.
Take workshop C. A massive one and crucial to complete in my opinion. Assignment C03 "do 100-200 block studies" Assignment C04 "do 100-200..." So will you do all those before going to workshop D? I doubt that anyone in workshop D completed C. You might tell yourself, okay i have it on my list and do those in between later on. But new long term assignments arrive with the next workshops and i wonder how to keep on top of things. The only way is to give students an overview over the whole program, show them where much time needs to be spend. That would be the university style of a modern academy in my opinion, where the participants are seen as collegians that have their own brain to plan ahead, not like pupils "now get your pencils out we are going to draw a bit".
Having said that, i want to add that i love the content of the program. I think there is nothing that compares to it and i owe Barry a lot for creating it. The new format has even gained quality with new content, e.g. Videos.
I bought the "old" vaa program as a complete package in July 2012 and paid 500$ something. Michael L, a former vaa collegue gave me the priceless advice: "Before you start with the assignments read yourself through the whole program". Thanks Michael L, i want to hand this on!

Comment by Stuart J. Gourlay on July 26, 2014 at 13:14

Thomas, how far along in VAA are you? I am in Workshop C and way behind in my homework; I need to get it together and do more studies like you are doing and get the homework done if I want to get my money's worth out of VAA. Stu

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