Wet Paint

18-01-2010

As I mentioned before somewhere online (possibly not here but definitely on Twitter or Facebook) I have recently taken up painting. This is due in part to the lady friend getting me a fantastic easel for my birthday. Along with two proper canvas for painting on, oil paints, a sweet brush set and a massive sketchpad.

The beauty of the easel is that it has adjustable legs so I can paint while standing or lower it down for sketching on the massive sketchpad from the comfort of a chair.

Last Christmas I was given a pretty funky art box set from the mother. It has an assortment of pencils, charcoals, pastels and the likes and comes in a nice wooden box. After I made some minor adjustments to the inside of the box I was able to put all my old art pencils into it and now use it as my main art box. It generally goes anywhere my sketch pad goes.

But the easel opens up a few options for me that I didn't have before, based around the paints but also the charcoals. Since I have hardback sketch pads that contain my doodles I haven't had much chance to play properly with the charcoals. The problem being the pages don't tear out easy and charcoal tends to smudge if you don't seal it with hair spray or something.

But all that can change now. The big sketch pad will tear nicely and the easel means I can really go to town on the sketching in charcoal. Plus I can steal some of the lady's hair spray to seal the finished picture.

See guys, always a benefit to living with a girl.

As for the paints it is an interesting and enjoying medium to use. The set I got has most of the colours you would want when starting out (and enough of them so that you can make the ones you don't have easily).

Now, I am no painter. Not by a long shot, which is why I have sort of resigned myself to the fact that the first canvas is going to be "wasted" slightly. The picture that finally ends up on it will be a combination of learning how to paint and trying something new. But it won't be a waste of canvas (although that is all up to the beholder at the end of the day I guess).

Sadly I haven't had a chance to put brush to canvas since I started using the paints about a week ago. Life got in the way. I had great plans to dedicate some time to painting this weekend but again the world had other ideas for me. I can't wait to see how it turns out though. I wouldn't mind uploading some pictures to the rants as the work progresses but I think I will leave any pictures until the piece is finished.

The odd thing is that even though I never really painted as a hobby before and have only had one proper painting session so far, I can't wait to start working on the next picture.

I think it is the tech-artist in me. When you draw on a computer using a tablet you can make a million tiny changes to a piece. You can undo everything. You never waste or feel like you are wasting material, because the computer has more to give.

When you paint you pretty much have to do it right first time. There is a tiny window for error correction and then it is lost forever. As it stands I already have made a mistake on my current painting and have to let the paint dry a little so I can add a new layer and fix it.

That's the bit I am finding most enjoyable. I don't draw from instinct. I plan, sketch, have a rough idea all that sort of stuff. But always in the back of my mind was a little voice saying "Don't worry about fixing that part up now, we can clean that up on the computer later."

Now that voice is saying "You won't be able to fit that bloody canvas onto the scanner you twat, make sure you get this as close to right first time. No, don't do that! NO! Oh you moron that will need fixing, where's the undo button."

Blue_jester