There are a lot of new readers and subscribers to the blog who may not know my art story. While I personally don’t think it’s particularly interesting, it can be encouraging to others to share back story now and again. So today, I want to talk about how I got started with art.
While I didn’t consider myself an artist for a long time, I’ve been drawing for as long as I can remember. Back then, it was just something I did.
How I Got Started with Art
My mother has told me that I was drawing as a toddler, though my drawings were usually little more than crayon scribbling. I don’t remember those days, but I do have photographs of some of those early drawings. My favorite was drawn in crayon on the bottom of a dresser drawer. Don’t ask how I managed that. I suppose I just opened an empty drawer and started drawing!
So I can safely say that I started with art before I knew what art was!
My mother also cut apart brown paper grocery bags so I could draw on them. Art supplies weren’t high on the list of priorities back then, so we made do with what we had. A box of crayons to begin with. I’m not even sure drawing paper would have been available in the small, local grocery stores, but brown, paper grocery bags were.
Unfortunately, I have no pictures of that work. I imagine it was displayed on a refrigerator or somewhere else until it fell apart or was replaced by something new. My mom saved a lot of things, but apparently not these, since we didn’t find any of them in going through her belongings after her passing.
But she did tell me about one drawing that I can easily imagine even now. It was a woodland scene with tall trees and a stream. Deer and other animals populated the woods, and I even drew the tree roots in the ground, according to my mother. Of all the pieces I drew as a child, I most wish I had this one, or at least an image of it.
The Next Step
The earliest drawing in my collection is this one. I was 7-1/2 when I drew it. The paper is yellowed and a bit on the brittle side. Definitely not archival! But somehow, this piece has survived the years.
My interest in horses was already taking shape. Part of the reason for that was the group of Shetland ponies living across the road in a neighbor’s pasture. I don’t remember seeing a lot of those ponies until I started school and spent time every weekday morning standing at the end of the drive, waiting for the bus.
So I think I was born with an innate appreciation for the look of horses. It was natural for that appreciation to appear in my artwork.
Painting by Number
As I got older, I began receiving oil paint-by-number sets. Do you remember those? Designs were printed on thin panels. The composition was in small sections, with a number assigned to each section. The number corresponded to a color of paint, which came with the set. A brush or two also came with each set.
The object was to paint the scene by putting the appropriate color in each section. There was no blending. It was all very simple. But I learned how to stay in the lines and apply paint smoothly and evenly. As I think back on it, I also learned stroking methods and a lot of other basic oil painting techniques.
Most Christmases, I received one or two. When I began having money of my own (allowance for doing chores), I began buying sets throughout the year.
Eventually, I did all of the horse sets I could find and a landscape or two. I enjoyed them so much, that I tried acrylics and even velvet paintings. None of them provided the same level of enjoyment.
So I began doing repeats. This time, however, I began making changes. In some, I added white markings to the horses. In others, I painted out bridles and saddles. For some, I made more significant changes.
On My Own Time
I seemed to always be drawing or at least doodling. Homework assignments were adorned with colored ink pens. I wrote and illustrated my own horse story in the eighth grade (which I still have).
I drooled over the work of artists like Fred Stone and Glen Loates. “Some day,” I told myself, “I’ll be as famous as they are.”
Back then, I had one big dream. To paint horses and fly around the world to sketch, paint, and photograph. I’d even have my own jet!
None of that happened, but it was fun to think about. That’s probably when I seriously started thinking of art as a life’s goal.
How I Got Started with Art
As you can see, my start with art wasn’t earth-shaking or momentous. It just happened. Maybe you can identify with that.
Maybe the way you began with art was more remarkable.
But in the long run, how you started doesn’t matter as much as the fact that you started!
There was so much interest in my personal story during December’s Q&A month that I’ve decided to try publishing one personal post every four to six weeks. So if there’s something you would like to know, please send your question via the contact page on this blog. Thank you in advance!
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Your drawing of the horses is exceptional for a 7 1/2 year old in my opinion. At that age, I was still trying to wrap my head around the concept of “stick horses”???
I took note of your mention that the paper had yellowed over the years and I wondered if this had any influence on your preference for incorporating an “umber base drawing” in your work these days?…I jest of course, and I really did enjoy seeing an early example of your talents. I prefer to refer to my old yellowed drawings as having a “patina” look to them…lol!
I think that it’s a valuable treasure to possess our earlier work to not only bring back fond memories of our youth, but to also document and record our life long artistic journey and to relive the enjoyment of creating those pieces all those years ago.
Kim,
Thank you! Stick horses are a struggle for me, too (grins).
I like the patina idea. I never thought of that, but that does sound more artistic than yellowed paper.
Using an umber underdrawing with colored pencils actually came from the later years of my oil-painting life. It’s based on a classical painting method known as the Flemish Method, which I learned about in the early 2000s. I’ll have to explain it in detail some day because it’s fairly complex. But the results with oils were so much better than what I’d been doing that when I switched to colored pencils, I adapted the method.
It’s now further simplified to the umber underdrawing method I use today.
I couldn’t agree with you more about keeping old drawings or at least keeping a record of them. I have a four-inch, three-ring binder filled with photographs of paintings and drawings from decades ago. I also have a box full of old drawings. I haven’t looked through that in years, so those drawings are probably all “patina-ed”, too.
It’s a great encouragement to look back through those old pieces, if only see just how far you’ve already come.
Thank you for taking the time to share your thoughts!
Carrie,
I loved your article about starting to do art. I was obsessed with paint by number sets also. I really enjoyed doing them. My neighbors next to us had a farm with shetlands and regular horses and the owner let us kids ride them anytime we wanted. Talk about being in heaven. I learned to ride and take care of them.
I also started drawing Disney characters like Lady and the Tramp. My mother kept those but I haven’t been able to find them.
I started college with a major in art. To say the least, I was sadly disappointed. It seemed all the professors wanted was nonrealistic abstract art.
I can’t say I learned anything useful. I had one teacher that taught about color, values, etc. That was the only class I learned from.
To say the least I just ended up not doing much art. I saw an article about color pencils a couple of years ago and I was hooked. I have been working on learning about them, taking a few classes. Doing color pencil work as much as possible. I turned 80 last year and at last I’ve found something I really like. I have taken a few on line tutorials by you and Bonny Snowdon. I have really enjoyed them and have learned so much.
Thank-you, Karen R.
With a major in art,
Karen,
Thank you for reading this post, and for taking the time to share your thoughts.
It’s sad that so many artists our age (I’ll be 67 this year) have experiences similar to ours when it comes to art school. I don’t know about you, but I went to university with such high hopes, only to have those hopes thoroughly dashed before very many weeks passed.
But I’m glad you’ve finally found a medium you like, and I’m thrilled beyond words (and humbled) that I’ve had a role to play in your art journey. Knowing that makes it all worth while!
If there’s ever anything in particular that you want to know or that you’re having difficulty with, let me know. I’m always glad to help in any way I can. I’ve also discovered over the years that if one reader has a question, other readers also want to know the same thing!
Thank you again for reading the post, and for leaving a comment.
Best wishes,