Risa's Art Journey - The Woman Who Never Painted Before

I have been trying to up the difficulty level of my paintings so that I learn even more. This one involved a technique using a palette knife, which is used to make your painting more textured and give a more real life feel to it. I did not have a palette knife but Cinnamon suggested that an old credit card or business card could serve the same purpose. I used a business card and it worked fine. I used it on my rocks and it really helped my rocks look more authentic. There is also a tool called a splatter brush that I used on my painting. It looks very much like a toothbrush, but since I didn't have one of those either, so I used a toothbrush. I am becoming the queen of improvising.  I admit, I got a bit frustrated with my poppies. Cinnamon using Golden paints in her tutorial. All I had was a cheaper brand and when I painted mine were see through. I had to use a few layers just to get the colour payoff I wanted and they still din't look as vibrant as hers did. The only Gold

I am currently working on my first still life. I am only part way through the process as you can see from the pic. The flowers I am working on are a far bigger challenge than I thought they would be.  From the Sherpa's lessons, I think the problem is more with my brushes than it is with me. My brushes are super soft, soft enough to put makeup on my face. In the art world you want the opposite. You want a brush that feels uncomfortable on your skin. My strokes are just not turning out right, but I said on my previous post, I do not let this deter me. I decided to take a small break from this project however and do something a little more whimsical instead. I chose an easy peasy, cute, little elephant to paint. The fact that I called this easy peasy is astonishing to me, as just two months ago I would have said this was far too hard to paint. My confidence is growing. Still, I can never get enough practice, especially this early on in the game. Even something as easy as th

If you have been following my blog, my last post left you wondering whether I gave up on the world of art or not. If you haven't been following, basically I made a mess of my third painting and was wondering if I really had what it took to paint. I decided to push on. I am new. I don't have a painting style or technique down yet. I joined an art community and they informed me that if I don't like a painting, I can just gesso over it and start again. Gesso, yet another new art instrument I learnt about on this journey. It is basically a paint-like substance used to prime or prepare a surface for painting. The community also reassured me that they produce duds too, and that it was ok to fail sometimes. I felt a little better but it would be a few weeks before I got the confidence to paint again. During those weeks, I surfed through the community, looking at painting by others. Some of the paintings intimidated me. Thoughts of,  I would never be that good   entered my mind,

So my third attempt, how do I begin? My third attempt started off as a hopeful, you've got this, sort of vibe. And, as I painted the background, there was no doubt in my mind that I had this. When I was done with my background, I wanted to make beautiful circles with my pouncer...only I had no pouncer. Yes, pouncers are tools of art! Who knew?! They are sponge-like devices shaped like circles. They come in different sizes so you can make different sized circles. So I had no pouncers, no problem. Sometimes a girl just has to improvise. I had a beauty blender. That would do the trick right?! And it did. My circles turned out beautifully. Then I pencilled in both my girls in their ballgowns and they looked so promising. I painted the girl in the yellow dress first, which wasn't too bad. After this is where it went downhill.  The green dress fiasco ensued. I started painting and when I was finished I hated it, so I painted over it and started again. This resulted in a muddied

As my journey continues as someone new to the world of art, I give you my second attempt at a painting. This one upped the ante a little bit from my first. Clouds were considerably harder to do than the abstract looking buildings in my previous one. The girl in this one was slightly trickier to pull off than the first. It is far, far from perfect, but when something is your baby you tend to love it anyway and this one is still my favorite to date.  My technique is starting to improve a bit, even this early on. I learnt all about glazing mediums; something I had no idea existed before today. Acrylic paints tend to dry out quickly. A glazing medium helps with this and it also helps to thin out your paint a little too. Think of dipping your paint brush in water and then picking up your paint. Sometimes your brush gets too wet and paint leaks all over the canvas or sometimes your brush isn't wet enough and you end up depositing too thick a layer of paint on the canvas. A glazing m

So let me fill you in on my art journey prior to this. Apart from those mandatory art classes in high school that I always scored so poorly in, and that one sip and paint class, I really never thought I had an artistic bone in my body.  In fact my high school art teacher was very mean and a little bit of a nightmare back then, so I picked up squat from those days. Truth be told, I honestly thought I had zero talent so I never pursued it. Today, enter the world of online tutorials and my discovery of a painting of two cats; one in daylight and one in the dark of night. Thoughts of "I can do this," filled my head; a simple thought that would eventually be the beginning of my art journey. Thanks to the discovery of the Art Sherpa, I have come to realise that art can be a learnt skill. I do not proclaim to be Michelangelo or Van Gogh. Heck, I still can't get shadows and light right yet. I am a beginner if ever there was a beginner. But it is never too late to acquire new sk