One of my professors at RISD was Tom Sgouros. I remember him with a great deal of respect. He valued hard work and expected no less from his students. One of the things that I recall, was his analogy of painters to musicians, and the need for both to practice their art diligently. One of the exercises that he undertook personally, was to do a daily painting of a bicycle horn. He would paint the same subject over and over, looking for new things, trying to resolve the composition in a slightly different way. He referred to this as doing his "scales." Like a professional musician who spends time every day to exercise his craft, Sgouros' daily color sketch of the bike horn did a few things. 1.) It loosened up his "art muscles" 2.) It disciplined him to paint daily. 3.) It forced him to find new solutions for an old problem 4 .) it reminded him that he hadn't yet arrived; he still had room to grow and things to learn.
It's been almost two decades since I was in art school, but Tom Sgouros' "Scales" lesson is one that sticks with me.
