How to paint like the Old Masters using modern materials
I am a self-taught artist presently doing fine arts full time after 15 years in advertising.
For me, every work of art must go along with our intellectual and manual abilities. I would like to become a successful artist and produce great works of art.
… So art has always been one of the only ways to express myself, release emotions, talk to people without having to talk to them, I’m well-read enough to write my feelings but it doesn’t make me feel better the same way drawing does. …
… My challenges are numerous, but all of them affect me strongly, I’ll try to talk about them as best I can: I don’t have much money for good supplies, I’m still unsure of how to use some mediums, I don’t have a good enough understanding of any practical art theory, and also being autistic; I have dyspraxia, which means my fine motor skills and coordination can be pretty dodgy and inefficient, and most times I have a great visual idea; I can’t properly put it on paper. …
I learned as a carpenter. Later I developed my skill in art societies. The art took important part in my job in my entire life. I needed to apply that everyday.
I’d like widening and deepening my skills. I like the Classicist style but I’m especially interested in Renaissance and Baroque.
Woody Allen has often been quoted as saying, “Those who can’t do, teach. Those who can’t teach, teach gym.” I beg to differ: I am a teacher of Art and English at a high school for teens with learning difficulties and challenges with anxiety and depression, but I am also an artist and a passionate life long learner. …
…I share the results of my own paintings and drawings, as well as my new discoveries and experiments, with my students who respond enthusiastically to having a rapport of sharing with their teacher. …
… More importantly, in the wonderful way that art consumes time, it proves Einstein’s Relativity theory. Time DOES fly when someone has fun or drags during something boring or awful. He proved it with an equation. Ever experience time at the canvas, look up, and notice where did the time go? Isn’t it great? But sit in a class with someone who cannot train themselves out of a wet paper bag (knowledge and skill transfer) and it can be pure torture! You sit in front of a muddy, drab canvas and want to quit. So to the Old Masters for us both is seems? Hopefully we can meet on the other side!
Know this. Time is my currency – having gone from life’s fast lane off onto a country dirt road, full stop. I know as someone who like myself (and my birth-mom) the appeal of art falls short of appreciation in someone unwilling or untrained to explore their inner Artist’s Way. To the believer, no explanation is necessary. To the non-believer, none is possible. …
I am a housewife with four young children. I stay at home with my two youngest, who are babies. I have hopes of eventually becoming a 3D animator and I am currently in school for this, but to become a great animator, you need to be a great artist first: and so I am always learning, trying to fill in the gaps in my art knowledge. However, I live in a very small town in the depths of Alberta, Canada and there aren’t many opportunities here to expand my skills in the ways I want to.
The time that isn’t spent changing disappears and picking up after four children and feeding six hungry mouths is spent drawing, painting, or studying.
Art is my biggest challenge, my best friend, and my greatest enemy – I’m either excited about what I’m achieving or angry about my shortcomings. Art keeps my mind from becoming stagnant and makes the isolation of being in the house all day bearable. I have carved out a sizeable chunk of our living room and that is where I spend most of my day, at my drawing board, surrounded by my pencils, drawing and painting while my sons play at my feet. …
