Re: PVA vs RB Glue

In Reply to: Re: PVA vs RB Glue posted by rhoward on 08/23/00 at 11:02 PM:

: >>>(am I reading you correctly?). <<<

: No you are not. I contend that learning correct techniques is part of the basics. Anyone can learn it and it's simple. It should take no more than six months to gain a full understanding of what different oils are and how they are used, the same with resins, balsams, glues, gums, starches and the oil emulsions one makes with those water-soluble binders along with an understanding of waxes, solvent, driers and retarders. That's Technical Painting 101 and every art student should have that and the knowledge to make a few dozen differing mediums after six months. There are no secrets to it. It's the same as drawing; if after a year of drawing you cannot draw everything that you see and most of what you can imagine, it's time to hang up the pencils.

: All of this stuff is BASIC and it should be treated as such. It's after the art student has spent a few months with this material that they can turn their attention to more advanced problems like color mixing theories and pictorial composition. That's second-year stuff.

: To judge from the forgoing, I feel that the mechanics and technique should be mastered after 18 months, no more. After that we can turn our attention to the making of pictures. I just feel that anyone who claims to be an artist should have those rudiments under their belt.

Assuming that such basic knowledge can be found by the beginning student in an unambiguous form and in one convenient place (a big assumption), it is true that a rudiamentary intellectual understanding of these basics can be inculcated in say 18 months, BUT the mastery of the fine points of these basics including the thorough in depth learning of them so that they can become second nature takes many years of constant practice and a great deal of trial and error because in every aspect of our art there are a myriad of choices of for instance, which materials, styles, and methods to use to obtain the effects we want and also to produce something which is reasonably durable and saleable. It is not so simple as you make out.
 
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