“I’d love to try painting but I can’t even draw a straight line!” I hear this about once a week. Shhh, don’t tell anyone, but perhaps you will do just fine without learning how to shade the sphere and the cube. It IS helpful to be able to draw the tree accurately, but a lack of drawing skills certainly did not stop some of the world’s greatest artists.
Start with a sketch.
People who want to make the move towards creativity want to get started right away. That personal excitement is part of the growth process and I truly believe it should be honored. If you want to learn how to draw well I can suggest excellent drawing classes. But YOU want to paint. Now! And my job is to help you get on with it!
In my Come Paint With Me© classes we usually paint a 9X12 or 11X14 painting in two 2 hour session. All supplies are included in the cost of your lesson, and everything is ready and waiting for you when you walk through my studio door. We start out selecting our subject, and quickly move on to a full color sketch. We don’t draw in charcoal or graphite. We quickly draw our basic sketch in thinned oil paint. We can make corrections if needed. We are adding the first colors within the first half hour! Many people are delighted to learn that wet, thin oil paint is completely erasable.
Once we have the basic outlines make the color choices and add a thin wash with those colors. Our canvas now looks very much like a watercolor. The thinned oil paint comes right off if we need to make corrections. At the end of the two hours we know exactly where we are going with our painting and have a full color canvas to prove it. The happiest moment comes when you arrive back for your second lesson to complete your oil painting.
Over and over again I hear…”It already looks good! I’m excited!”