Unleash your inner artist

Have you ever had the urge to grab a canvas and paint something?

Maybe you’ve felt at least a little desire to create art, but then told yourself that you’re not creative….or talented…or artistic…or any number of negative things we tell ourselves from time to time, especially when faced with something new and unfamiliar.

Or maybe you just don’t know where to start.

I consider myself something of a furniture artist or even a wall finishing artist, but not necessarily a “real” artist. To me, that word conjures up an idea of someone who paints masterpieces.

But maybe there are just degrees of artists and everyone is somewhere on that spectrum.

Alright, enough philosophy:)

How about if you just want to exercise your

creativity and gradually improve your skills as an artist?

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I checked out this book at my local library…

It includes several step-by-step projects to practice painting flowers (which I think is my favorite subject to paint). I tried out three of them. For each painting, I mostly followed her directions and used similar colors, so my paintings are done in her (the artist who wrote the book) style.

But that’s actually a very classical way of learning any new subject. First you copy someone else who is very good at what they do and then you gradually learn to do it yourself and put your own spin on it.

And none of my paintings are “professional artist grade”…..yet. But I’m definitely having fun while learning!

My first painting is a fanciful vase of flowers using acrylic paints on a canvas…

The second one I painted is an abstract style of flowers using acrylic paint. I sprayed it with water to make the drippy part. This one and the one below it were both painted on art boards similar to these….

The third one I tried is probably my favorite. I started by making all kinds of layers of paint and then covering parts of them up….

Here are a couple of close up photos where you can see the layers that I first created and then turned into flowers by painting around them…

 

This one has lots of texture…

And here it is in a simple Spring vignette…

This is not the first DIY art I’ve shown here on the blog.

You might also remember this colored pencil art I did or this set of pumpkin art that I created by using a wonderful online art course.

And now I’m really itching to paint again and to try out some other methods. I like to look at YouTube for painting tutorials, but one of my favorite ways to learn is through books…

Other painting books that look good to me:

Here’s another painting book I’m interested in trying out.

And a book on watercolor flowers.

And I want to try this book too.

 

 I just started an art project (mixed media) today and am looking forward to really digging in and exercising those creativity muscles:)

If you have even the slightest interest in painting or creating art, I hope I’ve given you some encouragement to get out there and try it…to take a class, take an online course, or grab a book and get started. There’s nothing to be afraid of here…it’s just paint, after all:)