When I was little I used to love painting pictures that came in kits ... you know ... the paint by number pictures that had oil paints ... and I thought it would be wonderful to get some real oil paints as I was beginning to experiment and blend my paints to get better colours ... I wanted just the oil paints ... but they were costly ... and it didn't happen ...
In junior high school (grade 7) I was introduced to water colour painting. What a nightmare ... the colours ran and bled together and the paper was lumpy from being wet ... nothing was recognizable and no matter what I tried to draw / paint with the colours it was a disaster. My teacher said this was what an artist used to paint with ... I vowed not to use a paintbrush but to stick to pencils ... which I basically have over the years.
I had artist pencils and it said I could use them wet but I never did. The closest I came to blending was with oil pastels but the texture is very thick and didn't blend too well.
In the fall of 2005 I was introduced to a small group of ladies who painted using various mediums and I was introduced to acrylics. (Wow. No messes like with water colours and much faster drying than oils and I got to blend colours and lines to make better quality pictures ... something I couldn't quite do with HB or coloured pencils.) These ladies were a wide assortment of non-professional artists who got together about once a month to keep each other company and painted just for the fun of it ~ there were even total beginners like myself ... so I thought I would give it a try.
I started out painting a picture for my granddaughter for Christmas 2005 and I did a beach scene from an art book. I have never liked copying someone else's work because I am a perfectionist and I want it to look exactly like the original which is hard to do. Over the years I have learned that it is good it get ideas from looking at something else but not to copy it because I get frustrated when it doesn't look identical to the original. This is why so much of my work is from my imagination or inspired by something that I have seen. The picture for my granddaughter turned out really good and hangs on her wall ... but for the beach scene I redid the entire canvas from top to bottom about four times before finally giving up and doing my own water scene. hehehe I still don't like it but it's hanging on my wall.
My third painting turned out really good and ended up in an art show in Guelph *yikes* and now hangs on my wall. Since then I haven't painted too many actual paintings however I have painted quite a few other things including an old yellow doll crib ~ which I stripped and remade into a Princess theme with hand painted princesses on it. I then made a mattress and pillow for the crib and a matching blanket and pillow sham (all hand sewn). She got it for Christmas 2006.
This year (2007) I have been on a regular painting blitz doing white figurines of assorted sizes & shapes, restoring several outside lawn fixtures, restoring an old wooden lamp base, making some new items ... and I recently painted some plain wooden plates to give as gifts for Christmas 2007 ~ almost all my Christmas gifts this year are hand painted by me and I gave out several last year that I did not take photos of.
I have three old grey metal rusted chairs that I should have taken before pictures of ... they are now three white enamel chairs and I am going to be painting a different scene on the seat of each one and I will make matching chair backs to each seat. When I get them done I will add them in here too. I still have more painting items and ideas to do (I have even been making and painting wooden doll furniture).
I have found that being more creative with acrylic paints has enabled me to be more creative in my pixel painting ... and vice versa. I recently deleted hundreds of pixel backgrounds I made that I didn't like any more ... and revamped a couple of my old pixel dolls. I opened up my first pixel site the end of October, 2007 and am still working on it.
I am not a great artist by any means but I have fun painting and I find it relaxing. I take my time to paint and shade and fill in all the detail work. I hope you enjoy some of these. :)
I think I am getting better with practice. :D This goes for my photography too. *huge grin*
