Step One

To your left is the first painting I have completed in oil. Well, to be exact, this is the first one that I have completed on my own. I am trying something a little bit different from what I have been doing in my class. I am doing an online self-study program. The reason for this is that I feel that none of the classes I have taken have really taught me HOW to paint. The instructors go very in depth about your composition, and the conceptualization behind the painting, but as to the actual process of becoming a good painter logistically, I feel that I have sorely lacking. So far everything I have been reading through this has been greatly educational. The course itself is pretty intense. Hopefully I will be able to keep up the discipline to continue the program through its entirety. Supposedly, it takes a year to complete this thing, but it "can" be done in 6-9 months. I am shooting for the six to nine months route - I very much want to step up my game and make sure this is the path I want to pursue.

The painting I just completed is what is called a baseline painting. Basically that means I just paint something, pretty much anything. The only stipulation is that I have to paint it from life. Later on, I will compare my progress to this original painting, hopefully to help me boost my sorely trodden upon ego as I have spurts of success followed by many frustrations. Heh. In any case, it felt great to do something completely on my own, without an instructor constantly looking over my shoulder and meddling with it. One of my biggest pet peeves from my last class was how I always had to wait for the instructors "permission" to continue to the next portion of the painting. He also had a tendency to belittle the students, to mix the colors for them because they weren't "competent" enough, and to actually paint part of their works himself. I can understand this to a certain degree for super early beginners, but by the end of the class, I actually did not like some of the things he had done when touching my painting. In any case, this felt good to paint, although it is definitely not anything close to being stellar. Very student-grade. Sigh. Just keep swimming.

In the Beginning...

I suppose I should begin this blog with some kind of thesis, some kind of purpose. I think the best way to lay out the direction of this thing is to start with the past.

First of all, I'm the proverbial devil's advocate. Usually in a discussion of importance, or rather of controversy, I don't necessarily have any opinion or to be honest, care about the topic. It's not that I am superficial, more likely I feel that even if I did have a true opinion on the issue there is little that it would do to change anything. Instead I try to keep an open mind and see what other's views are. Regardless, during such conversations, I tend to always counter-point an argument to see what holes are in the other party's logic.

As a result, I often feel the desire to do the exact opposite of what others say. For example, in high school I was a fairly competent artist. One summer, I went to a six week long arts summer camp lead by college professors and such. Now, at this point my skill level wasn't all that hot, to be honest. It was okay, but not great. I had been doing things for just a year, literally, and most of the other kids there had been taking private art lessons since the cradle. I got intimidated, and all of the "wise" professors told us to not try and make a living being an artist.

To make a long story short, I wound up choosing to be a Finance major rather than an Art major specifically for that reason. I loved my college experience, I made great friends, and I would not have traded it for anything. But then I went into banking and finance, sort of the family trade, in Corporate America. All of the people who'd known me since high school pretty much thought I was crazy, but I thought I was being logical. People from college didn't even know about my art background because I did very little of it in college. Too much drinking in New Orleans will do that to you. The bank lasted a year before I high-tailed it to Houston, TX where I am now working with a team of artists (doing sales, not painting, unfortunately).

Well, my goal is to be working for myself as an artist in the next five years. In many ways I am basically starting from scratch, and I somehow missed a lot of essential art knowledge that people pick up in art school. Hopefully this blog will be able to let me relate my experiences to others who are in a similar situation. I'm learning a ton, from Photoshop, to art materials, and even the business behind art. Maybe I'll learn something that will help someone else who was sidetracked from their dream and is currently trying to recapture it.