I’ve been posting my daily (ish) drawing stuff, and the main blog posts have dropped right off. But I recently finished a 10 week Learn to Paint beginners’ course at the Cornerstone Arts Centre in Didcot, and I thought I’d just write down some thoughts about it all while it was fresh.
It has been predominantly a course in using oil paints (other than the first week where we worked in acrylics). I’ve never used oil paints before, and had no idea what it would be like. It feels quite fussy, with the medium and the thinners and the drying time. It doesn’t really suite my current ways of working, given that I don’t have a dedicated art space (heh, that sounds a bit pretentious) and like to be able to close my sketchbook reasonably quickly!
It turns out I also really like my brushes to have reliable points. Everything was provided at the centre, which was fabulous, but it did mean that some of the brushes have seen slightly better days. I didn’t always feel like I could get the effect I wanted with the brush I had – I know, a bad workman blames their tools! And the teacher did keep saying that paintings should be seen from a distance on a wall. She’s right, everything I’ve done looks better from a bit further away, but it turns out I like a bit of detail and precision.
I did like the layering you could do with the oil paint and the rework potential. And the practice with colour mixing was great, I’ve never had it explained so thoroughly. That’s going to help everything (coloured) I draw, I think. I’ve attempted some pictures that I wouldn’t have thought I could do, and generally they’ve been ok! There were also hints and tips about composition, and maybe when to pull something out or dial it back a bit to help the overall effect.
I feel so lucky to have the opportunity to do something like this so close to home. I’m not able to go next term, but I wouldn’t rule out going back at some point. It’s also made me more likely to try gouache sometime… But not soon. I’ve still got a lot to learn with the tools I’ve got first.
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