Jeffrey Wiener‘s resume includes drawing and painting art for major clients like Disney, Scholastic, and the New York Times. If you want to learn to draw, using your iPad, he is the teacher you want! Not sure of your skill set? If you know how to turn on and turn off your device, you are ready to learn from Jeffrey, who taught these drawing workshops at the Art Students League of New York! The Rickie Report shares an interview with him, as we explore the world of non-traditional drawing. Jeffrey is offering classes on-line, so this is a perfect time to sign up for yourself or give a distinctive gift to someone else!
Jeffrey Wiener
The Rickie Report is enthusiastic about bringing you more options to stretch your knowledge and skills set when it comes to creating!
Jeffrey Wiener speaks about Drawing on Your iPad classes:
Jeffrey Wiener and students at New Studio for Visual Arts
TRR: How did you get started doing this?
JW:
I started out as an illustrator and print designer in New York back in the 1980’s. I came to the city with well-developed traditional art skills and worked in a “hot” design firm where my drawing and painting skills were in use 24/7, creating spot art and illustrations for major clients like Disney, Scholastic and New York Times. When the Mac was introduced to the world of Design, I started using Adobe’s Photoshop and Illustrator from the very start, and thus began my Digital Arts career.
TRR: Where have you given classes in the past?
JW:
I started giving iPad Drawing Workshops in 2014 at the Art Students League of New York (https://www.theartstudentsleague.org/) and soon started getting asked to hold workshops upstate, and then down in South Florida where I winter. The last workshop I held was this last December – February (2019-20) and it gave me the opportunity to test my new methods for traditional artists to jump in quickly and integrate their iPads into their artistic process.
Jeffrey Wiener teaching a workshop with three students in Bethel, New York
TRR: What kind of experience does a student need to sign up for this class?
JW:
Not much experience is necessary for my classes. Obviously, owning an iPad and knowing how to turn it on and off is a requirement, as is downloading the APP “Procreate” to their iPad prior to class. But I take great joy in introducing a new art-making tool to traditional artists. They ALL find it exciting and creatively mind-expanding. Really!
TRR: Are there classes for total novices/beginners/experienced people?
JW:
I find that beginners need to spend a little more time learning how to use the APPs basic features. This is a deep well, as a metaphor, and it’s easy to drown in all the options available for creating artworks. Students who use their computers often, and come to me with a little experience in Adobe Photoshop, tend to take off VERY quickly. I find that holding separate classes for those two artist-types works best.
TRR: What if I can’t draw much except simple shapes ?
JW:
I stress to my students that the iPad is a drawing tool, although quite a powerful one. Doodling and sketching is how I start my classes, because the freedom from having to be perfect is absent from the mind. It helps students focus on learning the features, instead of on the work they are producing. My advanced classes are focused on teaching artists how to mimic traditional techniques using familiar techniques such as shading with a broad charcoal stick or using cross-hatching to achieve volume. Fortunately, Procreate has many features that allow you to make simple basic graphic shapes easily. Let’s not forget that you can use Procreate to make awesome graphic design with imported photographs and typography tools.
Learning to use your iPad to draw
TRR: What kind of program do I need on my IPad?
JW:
Procreate is the #1 application for drawing and painting on the iPad. There are other apps, but the difference in the features, the high-resolution files, and quality of the resulting art files is so glaring that it’s not worth using any other APP. My traditional drawings are similar to M.C. Escher’s in detail and tone, and I can produce drawings on my iPad that when printed, cannot be identified as a digital print. This is akin to being an old-world lithographer who draws on stone and produces fine drawings that must be printed out on paper to be framed and displayed.
TRR: Once I have some skills, how can I use what I’ve learned in your class?
JW:
I often challenge my students to think of the iPad as a Sketch Tool, where ideas can originate to become oil-paintings or sculptures. Several of my students use it to escape the work they do all the time and experiment in a risk-free fashion, doing abstractions or venturing into simple animations for social media like Facebook. Some of my students are designers who work with computers often, and wish to leave the desk-bound creative process and work at the beach or in the park. I love to introduce my students to using the iPad as a Life-Drawing tool, and use it in Starbucks to capture people. Most think that artists are surfing the internet, when in fact they are making observational drawings un-detected by their subjects.
TRR: Can you share a video with us?
JW:
Here’s a recent video where I teach how to draw a simple white object (coffee cup) with a “Charcoal” looking drawing tool.
About Jeffrey Wiener:
Jeffrey Wiener was born in Miami, Florida in 1961, and graduated from Florida State University in 1983. He has exhibited his surrealistic drawings and paintings in galleries from Miami to New York City where he resided for many years. His entrepreneurial ventures include Dangerous Media Productions, a multi-media internet marketing firm, www.YoungMindInteractive.com, a developer of educational software, ebooks and games, and www.TheGreatNude.TV, a Figurative Arts magazine featuring videos and articles about artists who are dedicated to The Nude. His recent workshops “Figure Drawing with the iPad” were held at the esteemed Art Students League of New York.
Jeffrey tells The Rickie Report, “I love designing great drawing environments, where artists feel at ease and I can engage with them as students informally. I like to provide life models that challenge my students, and I use good lighting, colorful props and music curated to put the brain in a creative work mode. Drawing together is a very communal experience for artists, and it should be as fun and rewarding as it is challenging.”
For more information about these classes, demonstration or artwork:
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