On Painting and Writing

As I wrote in my last post, I’ve been dabbling in painting for fun, returning to an old hobby of mine, which is art. This is my first time to use gouache. I wanted to use paint that looked bright; and, among the many picture books I have, I’ve always liked the work of Maira Kalman, an artist and illustrator. She wrote and illustrated the book What Pete Ate from A-Z, which I have read countless times to my children.

Having learned that the art from that book was painted in gouache, I did a little research to find out what it is and how to use it. I also watched some YouTube videos on painting with gouache, which inspired me to get a 12-color set that wasn’t too expensive. After some practice (and botching up) on an old watercolor paper, an illustration board, and some “mixed media paper,” I bought a large watercolor sheet to do actual painting.

Like writing, but visual

Looking back on my 17-day endeavor, I realize that painting is a bit like writing. First, you create a plan, then you carry it out, changing little things along the way. Before it’s done, you step back, take a good look at it, maybe even sleep on it, and then, after some consideration, make thoughtful and necessary changes. After the final edit, it is done.

The difference between painting and writing is the way we (as the audience) receive (appreciate?) art and writing. As critic of my own work, I take one look at my painting and quickly see where the errors are: maybe the chin is too long here, or the color blending has turned muddy there; the eyes are too cartoony; the shadows, too shallow. Having seen these things, I could go back and rework the areas that needed them.

In writing, you cannot as easily see things that need changing. You have to read it over again, which takes a while. You have to read it to hear (because there are voice and tone in writing) the mistakes, and maybe feel it, too, when an idea is dropped too soon, or the flow suddenly goes off-tangent. I find, many times, that I needed to erase entire swathes of sentences, even paragraphs, to get back to the essence of what I wanted to say.

Demonstration

These observations are not meant to weigh one kind of self-expression as better than another. I just appreciate them both! But I do find that, in the making of it, painting is more outward and demonstrative than writing. I say this because, when I write, no one writes with me; but when I paint, suddenly everyone wants to paint, too! My children have made good use of the “retired” paint sets they brought home from school for good in March. We didn’t enroll them in any summer activity, but it seems they have learned to paint and draw better anyway in the school of imitation.

In fact, we have already put up several “gallery shows” in the house, which explains the Art Gallery Rule Book episode in the Sunday cartoons I have failed to update in these past few weeks. (Apologies: the drawing board I used to paint my last project is the same one I use to make the comics.)

In the same light, writing is more compact, as it fits in the laptop—and sometimes even on the notepad in my phone, if absolutely necessary. So the only thing kids copy when I write is the computer set-up: a pretend keyboard, a pretend monitor, and a pretend mouse… as to writing itself, it’s still something that takes a different mental leap to imitate. The girls (as they are older) write stories imitating the books they read. Our third is just beginning to read and write, and of course the toddler is just beginning to scribble.

Skills building

Every other day, I require the girls to write short essays on different topics that they like. (We do math on the alternate days.) In checking their writing exercises, I had planned to correct their bad writing habits, such as using capital letters in the wrong places and forgetting their punctuation marks. But I realize that there is more to writing than getting the technical aspect right; there is more to writing than just stringing sentences together.

Writing, like painting, is a skill. There is a technical aspect to it, but good writing takes more than mastering that aspect. You have to find your voice.

Reflecting on this, I think I—or anyone—can hone artistic skills by doing it a lot, which leads to finding one’s voice. An artist needs this voice because it is what will speak to the reader (writing), the viewer (visual arts), the listener (music), or the audience (performing arts). Thinking along these lines, it makes more sense why artists in every field all seem to be moved by their passion: because the more you create, the better you get!

"Painting is a bit like writing. First, you create a plan, then you carry it out, changing little things along the way. Before it’s done, you step back, take a good look at it, maybe even sleep on it, and then... make thoughtful and necessary changes. After the final edit, it is done."