I like the points Ruth makes - that you need to follow your own path and what worked for her may not work for someone else. Some people are great self-learners with the ability to understand what they need to focus on learning, and possess a great critical eye. But others need other people to direct their studies and point out what they aren't seeing. It's not that one method of becoming an artist is superior than the other. They've each got their pros and cons. We shouldn't take it as an affront when someone finds great success with the method or path we didn't choose.
You don't really go to art school to learn to do art. You go there to have the structure to aid you to get better yourself and to network. Networking is probably the most underappreciated yet important aspects of being an artist.
@@lisathomas1622some people don’t have the hunger, humility and openness required to learn the basics in a group setting or even at all. I teach art, and there is always a certain percentage of every group (around 1 in 10) who will put their egos between themselves and the challenge. “I just want to go my own way” is like a mantra for these individuals, as if there will never be a time when they are not expected to complete a structured class. They have already decided they are not there to learn. They are there to react to criticism, not to the challenge. A very good teacher can identify this character and find a way of using gentle encouragement, individual tailoring of course work, some applied latitude, or even reverse psychology. But these ‘special’ students are more often masking their insecurity by selling it as repressed individuality so you as a teacher will always be viewed by them as the ‘enemy’ from the get go. It is often a long-instilled fear of ‘failure’ and of not ‘measuring up’ in a group which cripples their attitude and their progress. It’s not a competition, but try telling that to someone whose every fibre of being feels that life and work operates in that way? Someone who feels that they are being somehow personally dismantled with every comment on their work. Of course, in school, their work is being appraised for a reason. But they seem not to understand that reason. To see and help them understand if they have understood and met the challenge and attainment to progress to the next level. This is too much for some students. They will need to learn to enjoy learning, before they can enjoy learning. They will need to free themselves from fear of ‘failure’, before they can learn to be free to fail and try again. It’s tough for these people, but for all the wrong reasons.
I love her style, and how she breaks down the steps she takes when approaching a composition and the color scheme. It reminds me so much of Sargent. So beautiful.
My daughter was stifled and criticised by the art school she went to. I kept telling her she didnt need to be there, when she would ring me in tears after being told , no, we dont do that, no, you wont be able to write this essay, no, you must be copying other photographers.She ended up leaving when she miraculously fell pregnant.(She has severe endometriosis which caused her to miss many classes). Yet she surprised them all with fantastic paintings, high distinction essays and digital photography that her lecturer told her she should be teaching the staff. Trust your gut. In anything creative. Just do it.
Yes, art school can be very shifty about what they consider to be good art. I'm a working artist and earn a living from art they would not have approved of when I was there.
The internet is full of the testimonies of people who went to art school and are very critical of the courses they attended. Over the years I have watched many videos online of artist's demonstrating how to paint, and a recurring theme in the comments among those who attended art school is that they didn't feel they gained a lot from art school, and in fact were now years later actually "learning to paint" from artists who demonstrate their technique on You Tube and other platforms. The world has opened up via technology today and one can avail of excellent tuition online from very talented Masters. All that is necessary is to have the ability and the desire.
Many moons ago I realized what art school was going to do to me and I exited it. I'm going to apply more effort and watch artists online with regularity. Social media works to distract people from elevating skills like painting better.
She may not have gone to an Art school as in an institution, however she did go to art school because she trained under other artists. Which is really all Ian art school is, a place where artists teach what they know.
Ruth trained with lots of different Artists, for short courses in person or online. Instead of a few teachers that teach at a particular school. She also didn't spend £10K per year on fees...
As a self taught artist I can tell you you can certainly run into some serious problems and mistakes simply picking up paints and brushes and just start 'messing about' with some kinds of artistic endeavours as I did. Being impoverished and having no one to teach or direct me i did some very unwise things at first. I was given a box of oils and turned loose. No one told me it mght not be smart to fingerpaint toxic lead white or similar paints, or what might happen if I panted dark colours over light, or if I didn't use any oil in my paints because linseed was more expensive than turpentine and because I liked the watercolour effect painting thinly with transparent colours gave you, allowing the white of the canvas to glow through...I learned eventually, but who knows what damage i've done to mysef or my paintings over the years because of the things I didn't know. It certainly would've helped a lot if I'd at least known someone whose brains I could've picked or who might've suggested if I liked the look of watercolor why not just drop the oils and go for the cheaper option? why not quit fooling around with the toxic paints before you get brain damage?!
Unfortunately the watercolors I learnt with were also toxic, I see some of the new ones either have warnings or are no longer available. Me, I wish I masked up when I was doing charcoals and chalk pastels and other things but I was young, there were no warnings on anything and no internet, a bit like everyone throwing themselves at resin now in unventilated spaces.
The fundamentals of every realistic paining/drawing requires three areas of management/technical requirement. 1. Seeing Light shape 2. Describing those light shapes in the right proportions. 3. Managing the soft to hard transitions between the light shapes. Ruth has added a 4th and the most important - which is self expression and sensitivity towards the subject. This cannot be taught in any academy/atelier nor any online course or individual. The way Ruth paints and talks during her portrait painting it is exactly what one is taught at an academy and exactly how anyone would teach the fundamentals of realism regardless of where and how - technique is a must have. Realism based ‘Self expression is always contained within the reach of one’s technical ability and sensitivity and the greater and deeper the better one is able to self express. This has nothing to do with if one is taught at an Atelier or not. Ruth has demonstrated - in her beautiful work - how acquired technique needs to become a subconscious competence, essential to support ones creativity and sensitivity.
Great interview. You know how to being out the heart of Ruth as she magnificently brings her art to life. Ruth is a gift to the world. Tatiana is a lovely model and I'm happy to see Ruth work with her. Thank you for sharing this.
I’m also learning a lot from Simplify videos and feel pleased with the results, despite a lack of art training. So much great information. It was a pleasure watching her paint, as it is watching this channel.
Not everyone is as talented as me or her. Saying "You DON'T need art school is disingenuous". I saw color and understood value before I ever learned about it, but a lot of people have no idea how it all works. School won't hurt, I am largely self taught but I know how much time I wasted which took me years. Not everyone has the intuition to understand. Another thing that is sort of disingenuous is she has been around masters and learned from them which is the same as going to art school sometimes harder. Not everyone has that privilege that I have or she has.
Nobody ever says that you don't need a teacher. But I do agree that college, university etc. are useful for three things: To get a degree in fields where it is necessary (medicine yes, art no), to keep students' butts kicked if they are not self-motivated, and to offer easier access to certain opportunities and resources (networking, libraries, equipment...). But if you can keep yourself motivated, don't need a degree and know how to find or create your opportunities and equipment - why pay for art school? (Of course, if they are free where you live and you can get in, that's another story.)
What she says makes sense to a certain degree. Schools should only be used to learn the basic craft. But saying that schooling is not necessary is a mistake. I see so many self-taught artists painting for the gaming industry who don't understand human proportions or never tried to learn anatomy. And it just shows in their art. Or they didn't learn perspective properly and all their lines are off, or their models are flat without depth, because they are self-taught from the internet. And just because she has become proficient in portraits does not mean she would be any good at landscapes/cityscapes, compositions and so on. So, I don't agree that schools are not necessary.
@Ben-q6u Style is cheap and just a way to make a business. First learn the craft, then you can experiment with all kinds of styles. And for your information, Uni helps a lot in your style development also. Everyone wants to cut corners.
@nidhishshivashankar4885 art schools went through years/decades of throwing out the basics of skilled work. Now they are slowly returning back to basics again. Adelaide school of art is doing so...
What people don't realize is portrait painting is probably the easiest thing you can paint. Not saying it's not difficult, but it is easy. If you understand hue, value, saturation, and shape you can do it. The color doesn't matter only the value matters. When you can see the values in color then you can paint. I can tell she's uneducated by how she explains art. Whilst her values are correct because she has the intuition to get it right, she still is using techniques learned in college.
That painting titled 'Precipice' is sublime.....it has movement, mood, intrigue..... atmosphere....omg 😱 Im not surprised at all, that she wins awards 👏👏🥇🥇
I couldn’t afford art school in the traditional manner. I knew from having another profession that some level of teaching is essential both to get better and to save time and money in the learning process. I looked at lots of curriculums and they have built up a 2 yr programme with on-line schools/videos so my learning was sequential and targeted. I also use a couple that have a critique function so I get professional feedback. You can then choose people to give you specific skills you need at specific times. It is working really well. I would not recommend what I did to begin with, which was jumping from person to person, with no real road map for learning.
Art can be a lot of things: music, drawing,dance, painting, sculpture etc… i know that this channel focus on drawing and painting and she is a great painter, but i dont get the coments, everybody can do art it’s literally an expression of yourself of your experience in life and thoughts with the intention of creating something, i think the tricky part is to be able to be your self while doing it. Art school will give you “name” and connections, knowledge about techniques, but it wont give you that “ability to be yourself” i see it more like a place were you need to be careful to not lose yourself but also a place were you can learn a lot of things. Personally i prefer to explore by myself, and i am a high school drop out by my own decision (i like to learn by my own, im not particularly proud not even recommend people doing it because it was my path but everyone as theirs.
You should see my version of Tatiana, I think ruth managed to make her more cheerful thin main? But Ruth did less work on the mouth than I did. th-cam.com/video/O6XOcyiqN-I/w-d-xo.html
In the art academy I never learned how to paint, we all knew how to do that already. I learned how to be an artist and that’s very different than to be a painter.
Any tips on how to minimise glare and sheen? I'm always amazed that Alex's paintings on TH-cam are so matt, even while he's painting. No criticism of Ruth but you can see spots of glare during the video. I've seen Ruth's painting in her old studio, and they are an even matt, there's no sheen to them. So, is there anything i can do during and after the painting process to reduce glare? Note, i use minimal medium, and little or no linseed oil. Finally, glare seem to be more of an issue when i use oil primed canvas. Thanks to both of you for a super video.
@@ianbee1959 Agreed. I've watched a video about studio lighting and have realised the angle of the light is critical to reducing glare. Also, rewatched Alex's video on oiling out, and was amazed by how easy it is to rework a shinny area and get it to match the rest of the painting.
They would have taught you modern art. You would have completely wasted your money. I went to university for jewellery design and silversmithing. I wanted to use classical art in my jewellery. So I designed and made a mermaid necklace using the ancient art of chasing and repoussé. The artist critique slated my necklace saying it should have been more abstract. I love what I do.
You can learn how to paint and draw well by yourself by trial error and if you dont mind taking longer time to discover the tricks. In school they present the tricks in a shorter period of time and can answer questions you may have to accomplish a certain technique.
LOVE your work Ruth! 💖 Curious, is there advantage to painting a live static model vs taking a photo or screenshot of the model (in the same lighting of course)?
You see a lot more information in real life than you can in photos. To anyone who can paint from life it's really obvious if something has been copied from photos. So in order to be able to work from photos properly you need to know how to paint from life. Also, Tatiana the model sat very still, but even she isn't completely static.
I tried art school maybe back in 2018, dropped out the second semester. The experience was nothing less than traumatizing. The environment is suffocating. Those people operate on social pressure more than technique.
I’d LOVE to see her first attempt. My first attempts are always flat or just not satisfied for me. I’m my worst critic. AND….I’m impatient. I HATE hauling my paints & canvases to schools. What’s the ⏰
A person it’s born as an artist and would search to improve their art. When I was five years old my parents that didn’t have enough money found paint to paint the living room. I don’t know how but I painted a big mural of a train with all the wagons over that wall. When my mother found out she was so mad at me. I do remember that at 5. I didn’t understand I improved that wall. My father laughed. I encountered my first rejection and I thought it was part of the process. I am 67 now I went to University and studied art for all my life I painted almost every day. I am a painter now. If you are an artist at heart I recommend going to school and don’t take rejection personally it’s a way to grow.
If you are an ok artist and want to go to school look for scholarships. Many of the students i befriend in art school had full scholarships- I’ve learned just as much from my peers as the teachers. I sought out friends I wanted to learn from. If you are not a very good artist in your youth (as I was), a school is a great place to find like minded individuals. It is expensive but worth it. You will learn faster and carry your education as a foundation. It’s not about “painting the same”- sounds like someone who’s never been formally taught. Fellow students were my friends so- of course we painted similar. Many adult artist will be without this peer support and I miss greatly talking and discussing art most within a formal education.
There are a lot of artists who didn't have a mentor and are successful, I agree with you that it's easier to learn the fundamentals from a "master", however like she said in the video, most ateliers teach you how to draw exactly like the teacher, that's not what art should be.
@@lmm6665 Thank you for your point of view and it is a valid one. I guess it is like Robert Frost's poem of two roads diverged in the woods. Of course, an artist can be successful these days with TH-cam and artists writing books on technique. There is the other side of the coin though. Too many art students dance from one workshop to another and don't have clear direction that comes with studying with someone for years. To me that direction has made all the difference. I have studied years with Harvey Dinnerstein in oils and pastels, I can't imagine what my art would have been without that.
Agreed. How many people succeeded by self learning as apposed to art school. I bet a higher pct from art school went on to become full time artists. Pointing to the exception is not sound advise.
@@carlkim2577 Hi Carl, That is a great point. The good thing about today as opposed to when I went to art school in the 80s, there are fantastic art teachers and mentors who offer online classes. It opens up the art school experience to anyone regardless of location.
@@carlkim2577 Depends on what you mean by succeeding. Art school is like a club that gains you access to an amazing network of peers, teachers, gallerists, and all kinds of other people in the industry, with which you have access to and potential opportunities. It's not a fair comparison in that regard. I'd actually say a decent part of the value of a fine art degree is this alone.
You can learn yourself to be a fantastic painter, but if you want to be an artist you definitely NEED the academy, ask every gallery in the world sms education does matter. She is a shinny exception, the reality is very different. I was excellent in technique and I sold my work decently but I didn’t quite understand what being artist was (developing a concept) until I did my Bachelor in Fine Arts, it’s a completely different thing!
The figures in the landscape are wonderful. But they do look like the hand of a different artist. I'm guessing they are both from this artist. I love the figures in landscape...Beautiful work--poetic...deep feeling...very lovely. I can't really tell if these are paintings from the same artist. Anyone know for sure?
It depends what you want to learn. There isn’t perfect overlap between painting and art. They are in fact entirely different diciplines. If you go to a modern art school, you will learn the state of the dicipline, where you might want to take your place in it, ideas about what art can be, how to use certain symbols and language. And there is nothing inherently wrong with that. Yes, a lot of contemporary art is elitist and exclusive (that is capitalism, for you), but there is a lot of interesting and powerful stuff, too. If you want to learn to paint and draw, specifically to make beautiful pictures, that’s a different matter, and there are excellent educationa for that, too, and it’s a wonderful thing to want to do. These only overlap in som shared history, dealing with aesthetics and occationally using the same medium. And of course - like any education, you can learn and become very good on your own. But you might fall into many avoidable pitfalls and ignore confronting breakthroughs without a structured guide. Talent, drive, persistence and good resources are key.
She is definitely a very talented artist. And she gets the expression and mood of the person. Which to me is more important than technique. I see so many online portraits that look nothing like their models.
I know some one I put in business with my art. I taught him everything he knows and not what I know. I'm self taught no art school and he has an art degree and is claiming he taught himself the art I taught him. And he is still in business with my art. But he is stuck on what he knows. But I keep learning myself something new. Because it's my art. I'm self taught. Students don't believe I didn't go to college to learn my art.
Where to start painting? How to make the outline of the face? And there is a doubt. Why is brown used first in painting? All artists use it for the outline. Make a video on this so that all the beginner students can know.
You do need art school if you want to have a chance at meeting the right people, those chances are far and few without being in and around the gatekeepers of the galleries.
It's really helpful to see where Ruth decided to change what she was seeing for the sake of the painting. You brought up the nasolabial fold, what a big and important change! I'm also seeing more softness and less contrast in the cast shadow on the neck, underplaying the shadow of the top lip, and less contrast between the dark strands of hair falling across the face and the lighter skin underneath. I never would have thought of any of those things. Thanks for the video!
That is something I'd noticed, that ateliers tend to graduate painters who are pretty indistinguishable from each other. Presumably their personal styles will develop overtime, and it is better to start mastering techniques rather than focussing on individuality and originality, but it seems you can go too far in either direction. (Mainstream art education is too far in the direction of novelty at the expense of skill).
The interviewer is s talented artist whose work i greatly value. The girl is nice, nice nice, etc. However, she did not get the proportions of the sitter right, the ear is the wrong place, etc. More basic work is needed in a life class, plaster casts, etc. I am surprised the interviewer had not pointed out the problems to the interviewee. Which means you need a good tutor, or school, whatever you call it
I agree. Basic structure is necessary for whatever one is building, and learning from good teachers can save so much time. Then you can build whatever you want onto that. In fact, some things you’ll never get if you refuse to listen to anyone. Suppose a self-taught carpenter builds me a house. He had the ability and the skill, didn’t need schooling to use the tools. The foundation has weak spots, and other proportions will cause problems later. I buy the beautiful house, because I don’t know any better, looks good to me! Haha I know some very good self-taught carpenters, and every one of them started out as a carpenter’s helper.
You don’t HAVE to go to art school. You don’t HAVE to go to law school, you can pass the bar on your own if you can. Art school is learning from working artists (and other students).. She DID go to art school. Her style, though appealing, is not THAT different.
Yes it's joke because her style is the same as other artists...No art school, but expensive workshops where she copied their techniques. And they all copy classical compositions. Proportions not her strong point though...Whatever.
Who cares. She saved thousands. That's the point. I'm self-taught with books and watching other artists. I think the importance is that you produce art, otherwise, you'll never be considered an artist if you produce nothing and learn nothing.
So she didn't go to get a degree in art, but she got private instruction with professional realist painters. Thats what artists have been doing for 600 years. The idea of an art degree is a new, I'd say inferior, idea. Surprised she did so great without going to an atelier though. She still would have gotten the same ideas through workshops, so, same results in the end!
@@SIMPLIFYDrawingandPainting I studied at an atelier and never did sight size. I'm pretty sure most ateliers don't do sight size. My lineage goes through Frank Reilly and Dumond, neither of which did sight size. The sight size ateliers pretty much all go through Gammell and Lack. All the others don't practice sight size.
@@KEP1983 The majority here in the UK do. They've been set up by people who trained in Florence. If I'm not mistaken the founders of the Florence Ateliers, Dan graves and Charles Cecil were students of GammelL? I was lucky to train in the only Atelier that didn't teach site size. It was a still a cult. The business model relies on getting students to teach other students for free (a bit like scientology).
@@SIMPLIFYDrawingandPainting yeah, I'm not sure what most of the ateliers there teach. I know you have one successful British artist who studied at a different atelier (I studied alongside him at the atelier). His name is Alex Russell Flint and he studied with Ted Seth Jacobs, who didn't teach sight size. In fact, Ted didn't even allow any measuring or photography at all. Everything was merely by comparison by eye. Pretty sure Alex uses photos, but I doubt he sight sizes or even measures much. He's great, IMO. He shows at Arcadia now. Not sure I totally agree that having students teach for free is that bad. Depends upon how it's done. I studied very briefly at studio incamminati with Nelson shanks, and from what I remember, they had a situation where experienced students could teach newer students and either get free tuition or discounts? I forget. But that's not a bad model, especially if you're trying to teach more than a small handful of artists. When I studied with Ted, it was just 6 or so students. If he would have been teaching 30 students, he would have definitely needed assistants. I agree that the mentality could be cultish. I.e. this is the ONLY way to paint. All other approaches are inferior. Etc etc. Where did you study?
@@KEP1983 I know Alex's work. Have you heard go how Grandfather William Russell Flint. He's very well known over here. I trained at a place called Lavender Hill Studios and I trained at taught there between 2004-2014. it changed its name to London Fine Arts after my teacher left. My teacher was Nick Bashall and he trained at a school in Spain under an Artist called Joaquin Torrents Llado. I started teaching at Lavender Hill in 2007, I'd been painting a little less than 3 years, for free tuition. Now well into my second decade of teaching I realise that back then I knew absolutely f-all about painting. So all these people were paying loads of money to be taught by someone who wasn't that much better than them. It was still the fairly early days of the internet so there wasn't as much information available about realist painting techniques in those days, so people didn't know any different. How many people have been conned into thinking that everyone used sight size back in the day, when you see photos from the academie des beaux-arts and there's 100 people are crowded around a model? It's still the case today. Even though it's much easier to find good information, most people still know nothing about painting from life. It's very easy to pass yourself off as an expert with very little knowledge. Look at most of the painting channels on here. I'm probably not much better? I lie awake worrying about it. At least I'm an ok painter and what I teach has worked for me.
my opinion is that to promove artists, they need is gather all Institutions that want to get sale. In the past exist Prix De Rome, The Paris Salon. About today what reallly exist, that is the biggest challenge, put Arts on radar again, imagine what can be done, with conditions that are in present!
Lovely painting but as for likeness, there are problems but all paintings have problems. She is very talented but there are things I find distracting like how she made her face thinner than it is and how she de-emphasised the strong and longer jawline which is a main feature in her face, and how she made her chin look bigger than it actually is and how she downplayed the red tones in her skin and how her cheekbones are not as severe as they are in the painting. Her eyes are closer together than appears in the painting as well. The model has more flesh on her bones which softens her appearance. There are more issues but it still resembles the sitter even with all those altered interpretations. The artist has managed to pull off a portrait without seeming to care about certain aspects of her facial features. Clever.
I like the points Ruth makes - that you need to follow your own path and what worked for her may not work for someone else. Some people are great self-learners with the ability to understand what they need to focus on learning, and possess a great critical eye. But others need other people to direct their studies and point out what they aren't seeing. It's not that one method of becoming an artist is superior than the other. They've each got their pros and cons. We shouldn't take it as an affront when someone finds great success with the method or path we didn't choose.
🌌🏴💙🥀
You don't really go to art school to learn to do art. You go there to have the structure to aid you to get better yourself and to network.
Networking is probably the most underappreciated yet important aspects of being an artist.
Yes BUT the critical teachers are extremely discouraging.. and not everyone gets over that..l life though eh?
@@lisathomas1622some people don’t have the hunger, humility and openness required to learn the basics in a group setting or even at all. I teach art, and there is always a certain percentage of every group (around 1 in 10) who will put their egos between themselves and the challenge. “I just want to go my own way” is like a mantra for these individuals, as if there will never be a time when they are not expected to complete a structured class. They have already decided they are not there to learn. They are there to react to criticism, not to the challenge. A very good teacher can identify this character and find a way of using gentle encouragement, individual tailoring of course work, some applied latitude, or even reverse psychology. But these ‘special’ students are more often masking their insecurity by selling it as repressed individuality so you as a teacher will always be viewed by them as the ‘enemy’ from the get go. It is often a long-instilled fear of ‘failure’ and of not ‘measuring up’ in a group which cripples their attitude and their progress. It’s not a competition, but try telling that to someone whose every fibre of being feels that life and work operates in that way? Someone who feels that they are being somehow personally dismantled with every comment on their work. Of course, in school, their work is being appraised for a reason. But they seem not to understand that reason. To see and help them understand if they have understood and met the challenge and attainment to progress to the next level. This is too much for some students. They will need to learn to enjoy learning, before they can enjoy learning. They will need to free themselves from fear of ‘failure’, before they can learn to be free to fail and try again. It’s tough for these people, but for all the wrong reasons.
I love her style, and how she breaks down the steps she takes when approaching a composition and the color scheme. It reminds me so much of Sargent. So beautiful.
Let's not exaggerate. Sargent would never be be content with a deformed painting like this. Smoke and mirrors.
@@todayipaint4667 deformed how?
@@todayipaint4667your mama
@@todayipaint4667 how is this deformed. stop being a hater
My daughter was stifled and criticised by the art school she went to. I kept telling her she didnt need to be there, when she would ring me in tears after being told , no, we dont do that, no, you wont be able to write this essay, no, you must be copying other photographers.She ended up leaving when she miraculously fell pregnant.(She has severe endometriosis which caused her to miss many classes). Yet she surprised them all with fantastic paintings, high distinction essays and digital photography that her lecturer told her she should be teaching the staff. Trust your gut. In anything creative. Just do it.
Thank you for that wonderful☺ story.
Amazing. Does your daughter have a work website? I would love to see her work
Yes, art school can be very shifty about what they consider to be good art. I'm a working artist and earn a living from art they would not have approved of when I was there.
The internet is full of the testimonies of people who went to art school and are very critical of the courses they attended. Over the years I have watched many videos online of artist's demonstrating how to paint, and a recurring theme in the comments among those who attended art school is that they didn't feel they gained a lot from art school, and in fact were now years later actually "learning to paint" from artists who demonstrate their technique on You Tube and other platforms. The world has opened up via technology today and one can avail of excellent tuition online from very talented Masters. All that is necessary is to have the ability and the desire.
I left art school for the same reason.
It just felt like they were dumbing me down and trying to make me paint like I was a six year old.
The back and forth between you and Ruth is excellent and highly informative. Big thanks for content like this.
Many moons ago I realized what art school was going to do to me and I exited it. I'm going to apply more effort and watch artists online with regularity. Social media works to distract people from elevating skills like painting better.
She may not have gone to an Art school as in an institution, however she did go to art school because she trained under other artists. Which is really all Ian art school is, a place where artists teach what they know.
Ruth trained with lots of different Artists, for short courses in person or online. Instead of a few teachers that teach at a particular school. She also didn't spend £10K per year on fees...
@@SIMPLIFYDrawingandPainting Yes, thanks. She is a good example of what can be achieved.
Her painting style is perfect ♥
Wonderful painting and interview. Thank you!
As a self taught artist I can tell you you can certainly run into some serious problems and mistakes simply picking up paints and brushes and just start 'messing about' with some kinds of artistic endeavours as I did. Being impoverished and having no one to teach or direct me i did some very unwise things at first. I was given a box of oils and turned loose. No one told me it mght not be smart to fingerpaint toxic lead white or similar paints, or what might happen if I panted dark colours over light, or if I didn't use any oil in my paints because linseed was more expensive than turpentine and because I liked the watercolour effect painting thinly with transparent colours gave you, allowing the white of the canvas to glow through...I learned eventually, but who knows what damage i've done to mysef or my paintings over the years because of the things I didn't know. It certainly would've helped a lot if I'd at least known someone whose brains I could've picked or who might've suggested if I liked the look of watercolor why not just drop the oils and go for the cheaper option? why not quit fooling around with the toxic paints before you get brain damage?!
Unfortunately the watercolors I learnt with were also toxic, I see some of the new ones either have warnings or are no longer available. Me, I wish I masked up when I was doing charcoals and chalk pastels and other things but I was young, there were no warnings on anything and no internet, a bit like everyone throwing themselves at resin now in unventilated spaces.
Beautiful painting and love the interview . Thank u sm ❤
The fundamentals of every realistic paining/drawing requires three areas of management/technical requirement. 1. Seeing Light shape 2. Describing those light shapes in the right proportions. 3. Managing the soft to hard transitions between the light shapes. Ruth has added a 4th and the most important - which is self expression and sensitivity towards the subject. This cannot be taught in any academy/atelier nor any online course or individual. The way Ruth paints and talks during her portrait painting it is exactly what one is taught at an academy and exactly how anyone would teach the fundamentals of realism regardless of where and how - technique is a must have. Realism based ‘Self expression is always contained within the reach of one’s technical ability and sensitivity and the greater and deeper the better one is able to self express. This has nothing to do with if one is taught at an Atelier or not. Ruth has demonstrated - in her beautiful work - how acquired technique needs to become a subconscious competence, essential to support ones creativity and sensitivity.
Great interview. You know how to being out the heart of Ruth as she magnificently brings her art to life. Ruth is a gift to the world. Tatiana is a lovely model and I'm happy to see Ruth work with her. Thank you for sharing this.
I’m also learning a lot from Simplify videos and feel pleased with the results, despite a lack of art training. So much great information. It was a pleasure watching her paint, as it is watching this channel.
The colors she produced are so nice
She just has the gift and has learnt technique to realise her gift. She gets the mood and likeness of the person very quickly
This was super insightful, thanks for sharing!
So beautiful! Ruth is just amazing!
The model spooked me! She's so still, it looks like a photograph, then she blinks! Good model.
Ruth is a beautiful artist and I love all of her paintings ❤❤
Love that follow your own path
Not everyone is as talented as me or her. Saying "You DON'T need art school is disingenuous". I saw color and understood value before I ever learned about it, but a lot of people have no idea how it all works. School won't hurt, I am largely self taught but I know how much time I wasted which took me years. Not everyone has the intuition to understand. Another thing that is sort of disingenuous is she has been around masters and learned from them which is the same as going to art school sometimes harder. Not everyone has that privilege that I have or she has.
Nobody ever says that you don't need a teacher. But I do agree that college, university etc. are useful for three things: To get a degree in fields where it is necessary (medicine yes, art no), to keep students' butts kicked if they are not self-motivated, and to offer easier access to certain opportunities and resources (networking, libraries, equipment...).
But if you can keep yourself motivated, don't need a degree and know how to find or create your opportunities and equipment - why pay for art school? (Of course, if they are free where you live and you can get in, that's another story.)
I love the way she painted the mouth - excellent video as always!
The rhythm that Martin paints with creates a beautiful flow that transports me to an etherial plane.
What she says makes sense to a certain degree. Schools should only be used to learn the basic craft. But saying that schooling is not necessary is a mistake. I see so many self-taught artists painting for the gaming industry who don't understand human proportions or never tried to learn anatomy. And it just shows in their art. Or they didn't learn perspective properly and all their lines are off, or their models are flat without depth, because they are self-taught from the internet.
And just because she has become proficient in portraits does not mean she would be any good at landscapes/cityscapes, compositions and so on. So, I don't agree that schools are not necessary.
@Ben-q6u Style is cheap and just a way to make a business. First learn the craft, then you can experiment with all kinds of styles. And for your information, Uni helps a lot in your style development also. Everyone wants to cut corners.
@@CT2507you would have a point if art schools taught any of those things
@nidhishshivashankar4885 art schools went through years/decades of throwing out the basics of skilled work. Now they are slowly returning back to basics again. Adelaide school of art is doing so...
What people don't realize is portrait painting is probably the easiest thing you can paint. Not saying it's not difficult, but it is easy. If you understand hue, value, saturation, and shape you can do it. The color doesn't matter only the value matters. When you can see the values in color then you can paint. I can tell she's uneducated by how she explains art. Whilst her values are correct because she has the intuition to get it right, she still is using techniques learned in college.
@@nidhishshivashankar4885 Any of which things? Be specific and give good arguments or leave it alone. Sweeping generalizations are childish.
Excellent interview so knowledgeable and the key words be yourself school or no school just learn
A very gifted lady. Would love to see her doing city scape or. Landscape.
Pure gold, I'll come back to watch for tips and inspiration a fair few times I'm sure.
That painting titled 'Precipice' is sublime.....it has movement, mood, intrigue..... atmosphere....omg 😱
Im not surprised at all, that she wins awards 👏👏🥇🥇
I really enjoyed watching the interview and it was interesting 😊 Ruth is an incredible artist and wishing her more success
Thank you for sharing this precious wealth of knowledge about painting. . Looking forward to more of your great content
Fantastic portret. Perfect style and color. Love from Holland
Inspiring, simple and directly from heArt to Art❤❤❤Artist Francis Antony Kodankandath from Thrissur, Kerala, India ❤
Beautiful work, Thank you both for sharing
I couldn’t afford art school in the traditional manner. I knew from having another profession that some level of teaching is essential both to get better and to save time and money in the learning process. I looked at lots of curriculums and they have built up a 2 yr programme with on-line schools/videos so my learning was sequential and targeted. I also use a couple that have a critique function so I get professional feedback. You can then choose people to give you specific skills you need at specific times. It is working really well. I would not recommend what I did to begin with, which was jumping from person to person, with no real road map for learning.
Art can be a lot of things: music, drawing,dance, painting, sculpture etc… i know that this channel focus on drawing and painting and she is a great painter, but i dont get the coments, everybody can do art it’s literally an expression of yourself of your experience in life and thoughts with the intention of creating something, i think the tricky part is to be able to be your self while doing it.
Art school will give you “name” and connections, knowledge about techniques, but it wont give you that “ability to be yourself” i see it more like a place were you need to be careful to not lose yourself but also a place were you can learn a lot of things.
Personally i prefer to explore by myself, and i am a high school drop out by my own decision (i like to learn by my own, im not particularly proud not even recommend people doing it because it was my path but everyone as theirs.
Beautiful!
gold tier video. thanks for doing it
I never liked comments about artists. Schooled or unschooled, the talent will be seen in discipline. "Art" is subjective.
..aha ha ha...she even captured the "sour expression" of the model (intended or not)...what a gifted artist! 👏👏
You should see my version of Tatiana, I think ruth managed to make her more cheerful thin main? But Ruth did less work on the mouth than I did.
th-cam.com/video/O6XOcyiqN-I/w-d-xo.html
In the art academy I never learned how to paint, we all knew how to do that already. I learned how to be an artist and that’s very different than to be a painter.
Any tips on how to minimise glare and sheen? I'm always amazed that Alex's paintings on TH-cam are so matt, even while he's painting. No criticism of Ruth but you can see spots of glare during the video. I've seen Ruth's painting in her old studio, and they are an even matt, there's no sheen to them. So, is there anything i can do during and after the painting process to reduce glare? Note, i use minimal medium, and little or no linseed oil. Finally, glare seem to be more of an issue when i use oil primed canvas. Thanks to both of you for a super video.
Good question! I am wondering the same thing. Part of me thinks it could be an issue with the lighting / camera, not the paint
@@ianbee1959 Agreed. I've watched a video about studio lighting and have realised the angle of the light is critical to reducing glare. Also, rewatched Alex's video on oiling out, and was amazed by how easy it is to rework a shinny area and get it to match the rest of the painting.
They would have taught you modern art. You would have completely wasted your money. I went to university for jewellery design and silversmithing. I wanted to use classical art in my jewellery. So I designed and made a mermaid necklace using the ancient art of chasing and repoussé. The artist critique slated my necklace saying it should have been more abstract. I love what I do.
Didn’t know her she is very talented.
Yes! An autodidact!! cool😎💪👍🤙👏👏👏❤️
Awesome portrait demo 👌
You can learn how to paint and draw well by yourself by trial error and if you dont mind taking longer time to discover the tricks. In school they present the tricks in a shorter period of time and can answer questions you may have to accomplish a certain technique.
LOVE your work Ruth! 💖
Curious, is there advantage to painting a live static model vs taking a photo or screenshot of the model (in the same lighting of course)?
You see a lot more information in real life than you can in photos. To anyone who can paint from life it's really obvious if something has been copied from photos. So in order to be able to work from photos properly you need to know how to paint from life. Also, Tatiana the model sat very still, but even she isn't completely static.
That was a brilliant video!
That model is beautiful.
she sounds like Diane Morgan (philomena Cunk) in the later part of the video when she started painting.
wow. So inspiring.
I chuckle when people think going to school will make a difference. I know that the only true teacher is within oneself, ie., teaching oneself.
I tried art school maybe back in 2018, dropped out the second semester. The experience was nothing less than traumatizing. The environment is suffocating. Those people operate on social pressure more than technique.
Great interview ❤
I’d LOVE to see her first attempt. My first attempts are always flat or just not satisfied for me. I’m my worst critic. AND….I’m impatient. I HATE hauling my paints & canvases to schools. What’s the ⏰
A person it’s born as an artist and would search to improve their art. When I was five years old my parents that didn’t have enough money found paint to paint the living room. I don’t know how but I painted a big mural of a train with all the wagons over that wall. When my mother found out she was so mad at me. I do remember that at 5. I didn’t understand I improved that wall. My father laughed. I encountered my first rejection and I thought it was part of the process. I am 67 now I went to University and studied art for all my life I painted almost every day. I am a painter now. If you are an artist at heart I recommend going to school and don’t take rejection personally it’s a way to grow.
If you are an ok artist and want to go to school look for scholarships. Many of the students i befriend in art school had full scholarships- I’ve learned just as much from my peers as the teachers. I sought out friends I wanted to learn from.
If you are not a very good artist in your youth (as I was), a school is a great place to find like minded individuals. It is expensive but worth it. You will learn faster and carry your education as a foundation. It’s not about “painting the same”- sounds like someone who’s never been formally taught. Fellow students were my friends so- of course we painted similar. Many adult artist will be without this peer support and I miss greatly talking and discussing art most within a formal education.
Nice painting tutorial- thank you
Incredible! Will there be a full version on Patreon for this one?
Unfortunately no. I do have the full version, but Ruth would have to write a much longer commentary.
@@SIMPLIFYDrawingandPainting Not necessarily.
Please include an audio track in Brazilian Portuguese. Your videos are very good.
Is this possible to achieve by using acrylic paints ?
Yes but it will have a different feeling
Youre amazingly talented, keep fumbling
It is ALWAYS best for an artist to be mentored by a master. Don't use exceptions to justify not having proper direction early in one's career.
There are a lot of artists who didn't have a mentor and are successful, I agree with you that it's easier to learn the fundamentals from a "master", however like she said in the video, most ateliers teach you how to draw exactly like the teacher, that's not what art should be.
@@lmm6665 Thank you for your point of view and it is a valid one. I guess it is like Robert Frost's poem of two roads diverged in the woods. Of course, an artist can be successful these days with TH-cam and artists writing books on technique. There is the other side of the coin though. Too many art students dance from one workshop to another and don't have clear direction that comes with studying with someone for years. To me that direction has made all the difference. I have studied years with Harvey Dinnerstein in oils and pastels, I can't imagine what my art would have been without that.
Agreed. How many people succeeded by self learning as apposed to art school. I bet a higher pct from art school went on to become full time artists. Pointing to the exception is not sound advise.
@@carlkim2577 Hi Carl, That is a great point. The good thing about today as opposed to when I went to art school in the 80s, there are fantastic art teachers and mentors who offer online classes. It opens up the art school experience to anyone regardless of location.
@@carlkim2577 Depends on what you mean by succeeding. Art school is like a club that gains you access to an amazing network of peers, teachers, gallerists, and all kinds of other people in the industry, with which you have access to and potential opportunities. It's not a fair comparison in that regard. I'd actually say a decent part of the value of a fine art degree is this alone.
Insperational. 🤩👍
Portella chegando para saudar o grande mestre
It's all so true.
I did my first drawing at 5 years old. There were no artists in my family nor in the social environment in which I grew up.
Me either, never went to take classes I just do it
You can learn yourself to be a fantastic painter, but if you want to be an artist you definitely NEED the academy, ask every gallery in the world sms education does matter. She is a shinny exception, the reality is very different. I was excellent in technique and I sold my work decently but I didn’t quite understand what being artist was (developing a concept) until I did my Bachelor in Fine Arts, it’s a completely different thing!
The figures in the landscape are wonderful. But they do look like the hand of a different artist. I'm guessing they are both from this artist. I love the figures in landscape...Beautiful work--poetic...deep feeling...very lovely. I can't really tell if these are paintings from the same artist. Anyone know for sure?
It depends what you want to learn. There isn’t perfect overlap between painting and art. They are in fact entirely different diciplines. If you go to a modern art school, you will learn the state of the dicipline, where you might want to take your place in it, ideas about what art can be, how to use certain symbols and language. And there is nothing inherently wrong with that. Yes, a lot of contemporary art is elitist and exclusive (that is capitalism, for you), but there is a lot of interesting and powerful stuff, too.
If you want to learn to paint and draw, specifically to make beautiful pictures, that’s a different matter, and there are excellent educationa for that, too, and it’s a wonderful thing to want to do.
These only overlap in som shared history, dealing with aesthetics and occationally using the same medium.
And of course - like any education, you can learn and become very good on your own. But you might fall into many avoidable pitfalls and ignore confronting breakthroughs without a structured guide. Talent, drive, persistence and good resources are key.
Great stuff
Last time I checked (1987) art school was $77.00 per credit hour!
so nice ❤
ya know shes great when she can paint and talk at the same time...
lets say that clearly she is NOT an artist, she CAN paint portraits. That is all about it.
I beg to differ. I would definitely say that she IS an artist who paints portraits.
She is definitely a very talented artist. And she gets the expression and mood of the person. Which to me is more important than technique. I see so many online portraits that look nothing like their models.
@@marypartridge5154 She could have been classed as artist a century ago maybe, now she can be classed as amateur artist at best
I know some one I put in business with my art. I taught him everything he knows and not what I know. I'm self taught no art school and he has an art degree and is claiming he taught himself the art I taught him. And he is still in business with my art. But he is stuck on what he knows. But I keep learning myself something new. Because it's my art. I'm self taught. Students don't believe I didn't go to college to learn my art.
Wonderful content, new subscriber :)
Education can take many forms...
Where to start painting? How to make the outline of the face? And there is a doubt. Why is brown used first in painting? All artists use it for the outline. Make a video on this so that all the beginner students can know.
Have you checked the rest of my channel? Most of my videos are for beginners
It was art school, but not in a traditional sense.
You do need art school if you want to have a chance at meeting the right people, those chances are far and few without being in and around the gatekeepers of the galleries.
It's really helpful to see where Ruth decided to change what she was seeing for the sake of the painting. You brought up the nasolabial fold, what a big and important change! I'm also seeing more softness and less contrast in the cast shadow on the neck, underplaying the shadow of the top lip, and less contrast between the dark strands of hair falling across the face and the lighter skin underneath. I never would have thought of any of those things. Thanks for the video!
thats just another realm oath🌕
Great
master artist is an insane thing to call someone nobody has heard of
That is something I'd noticed, that ateliers tend to graduate painters who are pretty indistinguishable from each other. Presumably their personal styles will develop overtime, and it is better to start mastering techniques rather than focussing on individuality and originality, but it seems you can go too far in either direction. (Mainstream art education is too far in the direction of novelty at the expense of skill).
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The interviewer is s talented artist whose work i greatly value.
The girl is nice, nice nice, etc.
However, she did not get the proportions of the sitter right, the ear is the wrong place, etc. More basic work is needed in a life class, plaster casts, etc.
I am surprised the interviewer had not pointed out the problems to the interviewee. Which means you need a good tutor, or school, whatever you call it
Really?! You have really missed the message and what art is. So sad. 😢
I agree. Basic structure is necessary for whatever one is building, and learning from good teachers can save so much time. Then you can build whatever you want onto that. In fact, some things you’ll never get if you refuse to listen to anyone. Suppose a self-taught carpenter builds me a house. He had the ability and the skill, didn’t need schooling to use the tools. The foundation has weak spots, and other proportions will cause problems later. I buy the beautiful house, because I don’t know any better, looks good to me! Haha I know some very good self-taught carpenters, and every one of them started out as a carpenter’s helper.
@@rentheseusplease tell us what art is.
“School” is one thing.
“Schooling “ is another.
You don’t HAVE to go to art school. You don’t HAVE to go to law school, you can pass the bar on your own if you can. Art school is learning from working artists (and other students).. She DID go to art school. Her style, though appealing, is not THAT different.
Yes it's joke because her style is the same as other artists...No art school, but expensive workshops where she copied their techniques. And they all copy classical compositions. Proportions not her strong point though...Whatever.
Who cares. She saved thousands. That's the point. I'm self-taught with books and watching other artists. I think the importance is that you produce art, otherwise, you'll never be considered an artist if you produce nothing and learn nothing.
Pleas what is her u tube channel. Name
She doesn't have a TH-cam channel. She is on instagram. I forgot to put a link in the description
Aurora?
Please tell me her name. Ruth what?
👌👌😎
So she didn't go to get a degree in art, but she got private instruction with professional realist painters. Thats what artists have been doing for 600 years. The idea of an art degree is a new, I'd say inferior, idea.
Surprised she did so great without going to an atelier though. She still would have gotten the same ideas through workshops, so, same results in the end!
Well, she wasn't forced to join a sight size cult and pay £10K per year.
@@SIMPLIFYDrawingandPainting I studied at an atelier and never did sight size. I'm pretty sure most ateliers don't do sight size. My lineage goes through Frank Reilly and Dumond, neither of which did sight size. The sight size ateliers pretty much all go through Gammell and Lack. All the others don't practice sight size.
@@KEP1983 The majority here in the UK do. They've been set up by people who trained in Florence. If I'm not mistaken the founders of the Florence Ateliers, Dan graves and Charles Cecil were students of GammelL? I was lucky to train in the only Atelier that didn't teach site size. It was a still a cult. The business model relies on getting students to teach other students for free (a bit like scientology).
@@SIMPLIFYDrawingandPainting yeah, I'm not sure what most of the ateliers there teach. I know you have one successful British artist who studied at a different atelier (I studied alongside him at the atelier). His name is Alex Russell Flint and he studied with Ted Seth Jacobs, who didn't teach sight size. In fact, Ted didn't even allow any measuring or photography at all. Everything was merely by comparison by eye.
Pretty sure Alex uses photos, but I doubt he sight sizes or even measures much.
He's great, IMO. He shows at Arcadia now.
Not sure I totally agree that having students teach for free is that bad. Depends upon how it's done. I studied very briefly at studio incamminati with Nelson shanks, and from what I remember, they had a situation where experienced students could teach newer students and either get free tuition or discounts? I forget. But that's not a bad model, especially if you're trying to teach more than a small handful of artists. When I studied with Ted, it was just 6 or so students. If he would have been teaching 30 students, he would have definitely needed assistants.
I agree that the mentality could be cultish. I.e. this is the ONLY way to paint. All other approaches are inferior. Etc etc.
Where did you study?
@@KEP1983 I know Alex's work. Have you heard go how Grandfather William Russell Flint. He's very well known over here.
I trained at a place called Lavender Hill Studios and I trained at taught there between 2004-2014. it changed its name to London Fine Arts after my teacher left. My teacher was Nick Bashall and he trained at a school in Spain under an Artist called Joaquin Torrents Llado.
I started teaching at Lavender Hill in 2007, I'd been painting a little less than 3 years, for free tuition. Now well into my second decade of teaching I realise that back then I knew absolutely f-all about painting. So all these people were paying loads of money to be taught by someone who wasn't that much better than them. It was still the fairly early days of the internet so there wasn't as much information available about realist painting techniques in those days, so people didn't know any different.
How many people have been conned into thinking that everyone used sight size back in the day, when you see photos from the academie des beaux-arts and there's 100 people are crowded around a model?
It's still the case today. Even though it's much easier to find good information, most people still know nothing about painting from life. It's very easy to pass yourself off as an expert with very little knowledge. Look at most of the painting channels on here. I'm probably not much better? I lie awake worrying about it. At least I'm an ok painter and what I teach has worked for me.
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my opinion is that to promove artists, they need is gather all Institutions that want to get sale. In the past exist Prix De Rome, The Paris Salon. About today what reallly exist, that is the biggest challenge, put Arts on radar again, imagine what can be done, with conditions that are in present!
Wrong title
Lovely painting but as for likeness, there are problems but all paintings have problems. She is very talented but there are things I find distracting like how she made her face thinner than it is and how she de-emphasised the strong and longer jawline which is a main feature in her face, and how she made her chin look bigger than it actually is and how she downplayed the red tones in her skin and how her cheekbones are not as severe as they are in the painting. Her eyes are closer together than appears in the painting as well. The model has more flesh on her bones which softens her appearance. There are more issues but it still resembles the sitter even with all those altered interpretations. The artist has managed to pull off a portrait without seeming to care about certain aspects of her facial features. Clever.