Learning to Draw and Paint British Mammals
When it comes to learning new things, do you prefer to develop your skills using books, or by taking a class?
Learning from books versus learning from classes
I’ve always been an avid reader and I have an extensive book collection geared towards learning new things that covers everything from art to cooking, gardening to sewing and lots of things in between. Whilst I find books really helpful for developing some skills, I’ve generally found that my art books have languished on the shelf. Most of my practical skills have been developed through taking classes, whether that is online and self-paced, online and live, or actual in-person lessons.
Why I love live online classes
I’ve just finished a class with Bethany Milam on Drawing and Painting British Mammals. For me, this was the best mix of:
Online learning – meaning that I didn’t have to add on travel time and could access classes from a teacher based at the other end of the country.
Live classes – so that I had to set-aside 2hours each week in order to attend. Having a commitment like this means that I can’t procrastinate over starting (there’s a class start time) and also gives me ‘permission’ to spend a sizeable chunk of time just learning something (helping me to ignore the critical inner voice that always wants me to be moving on to the next thing!)
Homework – everyone knows that practicing new skills consistently is the best way to embed them, but that doesn’t mean that it is easy to devote time to something that feels like an ‘extra’ task. Whilst it was clearly stated that work between classes was entirely optional, again having that ‘permission’ to spend time on practice helps me to actually get on and do it.
Class recordings – the live classes were all recorded and available for play-back, so that it was easy to finish-off anything that I hadn’t achieved during the live class as well as look back over key concepts.
Drawing and Painting British Mammals - What did I learn from taking the class?
In the 6-week class, Bethany covered: anatomy (skeleton, gait, muscle groups, etc), different drawing construction methods, how to draw fur, gesture drawing, creating study pages and finished pieces. We used graphite pencil, soft pastels, charcoal, watercolour and ink in a variety of ways and Bethany shared plenty of tips for using the different media.
I found starting from an understanding of an animal’s anatomy extremely helpful, as well as combining very quick gestural sketches with 3-D shape construction. It was also good to have the course length to build from basic sketching in the early lessons to painting full studies by the end of the course.
I even managed to overcome my fear of using masking fluid in the final lesson, where we used it to mask out the spines on a painting of a hedgehog in watercolour! I’ve never had any success with masking fluid before, finding that either my paint had bled underneath the fluid, or that it tore the paper in removing it. Bethany emphasised the need to allow the fluid to dry before starting to paint and then allowing the paint to dry, before attempting to remove the masking fluid. I suspect that it helped that she encouraged us to speed-up each drying period by using a hairdryer!
By the end of the 6 weeks, I’d worked on 5 study pages for my homework practice, focusing on different mammals: Otter, Badger, Squirrel, Deer and Fox.
I think my otters, in particular, have significantly improved!
Here’s a selection of some of my work from the course:
Bethany Y Milam Art
Based in Hampshire, Bethany is a Fine Artist working in a variety of media and with a passion for wildlife and nature, which can be seen throughout her work and teaching. She runs a number of online and in-person art classes and workshops throughout the year, as well as taking commissions and selling her original work. I’d strongly encourage you to check out her website!