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Message
Posted
Hi everyone, my name is Francesco. I just joined and posted my first painting in the gallery. I am a biologist and have no formal art education, but always liked art, and I wanted to start drawing and painting at some point. At the moment I like to paint buildings and city scenes.
Looking forward to being a member and meeting other people in this forum :-)
Posted
Welcome Francesco. A lot of us on POL have never had formal art training but we all enjoy various aspects of the hobby. A really good first painting for the Gallery. As Ellen has suggested, perhaps we could have a little more information about it, like medium, size etc.
Join in the Forum when you have a query or solution to a problem or just anything to say - we are a friendly bunch on here. Ok, we do have a few disagreements but it makes for a lively discussion.
Posted
The only training I had was over 50 years ago, at school. I'm torn about that - on the one hand I'd have saved years of independent learning and reading and working if I'd had good training; on the other, I've seen some products of art school which make me wonder if I really missed out at all. But then, I won't know, will I? You can't say you're glad you had no training if the opportunity didn't exist for you to have it..... because you don't really know what you did miss. If challenged on this, I tend to mutter 'well, Rembrandt didn't go to art school...': but it's a bit lame, because he almost certainly did study in the studios of masters of his day. And anyway, I'm not Rembrandt...... perhaps I should choose a less illustrious forebear.
Interesting (to me anyway) that the great exponent of research into artists' materials, George O'Hanlon of the Natural Pigments website, said a few days ago that he had learned at art school a few things - particularly in respect of oil mediums - which he now knows to have been extremely bad advice. Those who have a copy of Ralph Mayer's book on painting ought to take note of that, because it does contain ideas that have not held up as we've learned more: so - from Jacques Maroger, an authority of the past, to Mayer, an authority of his time, advice I gave in my little e-book still seems worth repeating.... there are many books on oil painting, some sanctified by age and reputation: but always triple-check anything you read: the things that you're liable to read in the Art bible - they ain't necessarily so.
Posted
Thank you all for the very warm welcomes!! This is actually the very first art forum I ever joined, so it is a big encouragement indeed.
To answer your questions about the painting, it's on an A3 sheet of paper for acrylics (I think it was from a pad of System 3). It is painted in acrylics.
I've done about 10 paintings up to now, mostly on paper, to practice. The idea was not to invest too much to begin with. But for the last 2 paintings (I'll post soon), I tried canvas board, and actually I found it easier to move the paint around, and overall a more pleasant process. I realise now that the paper was absorbing the water really fast, and I found it hard to get the paint to do what I wanted it to.