I didn't know I was interested in art this much until I had a strange, strong, sudden desire to paint a pretty picture.
I didn't know anything about painting, except what I could vaguely remember from middle school art class, and that red, blue, and yellow were the colors you use to make the rest of the colors. I didn't know how to hold a paint brush or that there were many different kinds and sizes, each with their very own duties. I didn't know what I was even supposed to paint on. I thought, "Well, there's gotta be something better than paper and it surely couldn't be cardboard."
So, being me, I went to Wal-Mart (of all the places I could've went), and found myself intently staring at the artsy-craftsy section. "Red, blue, yellow... probably need black and white... why are there so many different kinds of EVERYTHING??" I chose what had to be the reddest red, bluest blue, and yellow-est yellow along with the blackest black and whitest white. It only took about a half hour, but I was making progress.
I took one look at the paint brushes and decided I would come back to that after figuring out what I was going to paint on. Good thing Wal-Mart doesn't have a huge selection, it was either plain wooden picket fences or canvas. I grabbed what I thought was a decent sized, pack of three, stretched canvases that were slightly bigger than a piece of paper, and on the way back to stress my self out about brushes, I told myself, "Ten minutes, make a decision, and go home."
Why they have paint brushes in two isles, is beyond me, but when my ten-ish minutes were up, I ended up with four sets of 3-4 brushes and figured something had to work.
At the time, I had just lost my house and was staying in different hotels (never realized how expensive they are!), so finding a comfortable area with good lighting in a cheap hotel room was harder than I imagined. I was determined, though, and set up shop in the kitchenette at the mini island/kitchen table/desk area and, luckily, had dibs to sit in the cushioned "office chair."
I watched a couple YouTube videos and read blog posts and articles before I started. It's a good thing I knew exactly what I wanted to paint, or I would have never made any progress. I had a picture on my phone of my hiding spot. This little, hard to find place at the lake, in the town I grew up in, is where I go to disappear. It's where I go when I just want to go to "no where." Something about the peaceful water, where you won't be disturbed because no one goes that far out of their way to sit and do nothing, is mesmerizing. It's no good for swimming and you can't be sure exactly how safe it would be to launch your boat from anymore, I mean, it's still all gravel and there's one too many half trees with unknown origins, who knows how many you can't see.
Anyway, learning as I went, things started really coming together. It only took staying up all night and going crossed, but by noon, I had finished my very first landscape painting, learned many important lessons, and was ready for a nap. First and foremost, you should, with out a doubt, paint the background, or the sky, first. Also, the sun isn't exactly yellow with orange lines coming out of it, and the blue of the sky and the blue of the water are definitely not the same blue, and should not be painted with the same technique, brush, or texture. Oh, and painting a bunch of little trees and shrubbery is tedious and not so super fun.
The painting actually turned out really good. I wasn't so sure at first, probably from staring at it for 12 hours, but when my boyfriend didn't believe that I actually painted it, then was mad at me because, "How come he didn't know I could paint?" I knew I must have done ok. I said, "I don't know, babe, I didn't even know I could paint. I don't even know what just happened, or if I will ever be able to do that again. But it was fun and I kind of want to try another."
That was only about a year and a half ago, and while I would love to go to art school, I'm broke and I learn so many new things with each painting anyway, whether or not it turns out to be anything. It's now pretty much my favorite thing to do. I'm even practicing my newly discovered drawing skills (turns out the two go hand in hand). It's interesting how some of my paintings, that look like they took the longest, only took maybe a couple hours, and other, smaller or simpler ones, took me days or weeks.
The first painting I did was the only one that, when I started painting, I knew what I had planned on painting. After that, I didn't have the patience to decide on something, research it, then sketch it or outline it. I just picked up a paint brush, grabbed my essential colors, and started painting. I do it because I love it and I want to enjoy it. Don't get me wrong, sometimes I get stuck and frustrated and turn to YouTube for guidance, but it's not with out seeing what I can do with what I know first.
