How to become an artist - 30 days to get started with painting
From nuclear scientist to semi-professional artist - all it takes is 30 days!
For the last 35 years, I have been a nuclear scientist with three degrees to prove it. However, I have only been an artist for the last four years and have been officially semi-professional for the last two, meaning that I am making a good living from my artwork. So, how did this come about? Well, it all started with a gift.
Four years ago and just after Christmas I was a little bored and my wife suggested finding something to do from my cupboard of hobby items. This is a cupboard that contains all sorts of gifts that I have yet to mess around with. One such gift was a water colour set with brushes and large sheet paper. I was bemused by this as I had never shown any interest in painting, although I used to sketch in pencil a long time ago. Regardless, I took out the set and had no idea what to do with it. So, I watched YouTube! This is a fantastic resource for learning new skills, especially the tutorials. I watched a wide variety of videos that covered the use of acrylics and watercolours. I wasn’t yet brave enough to go anywhere near oils.
Online videos, it turns out, are a gold mine of information and I quickly learned various techniques and methods for painting in watercolour. After a few days of research I decided to embark on putting paint to paper and my first attempt was of a cottage that we pass each day when walking the dogs in our local wood. The result was not great!
My first ever painting in watercolour - not great but I had to start somewhere!
Undeterred, the next day I tried again and tried to paint the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris. Well, why not? Of course, it still wasn’t great. However, I do not like to fail and so challenged myself to paint every single day for 30 days to see what would happen.
Notre Dame cathedral, Paris. My 2nd watercolour painting - a little ambitious, perhaps!
Of course, we all need time to be able to pursue a new hobby (or any hobby, come to that) and thankfully, I have always valued and guarded my free time, once I’ve finished work. I don’t really watch a lot of television, save for the odd documentary and the news, and I work from home and stop work at 4 pm every day. This means that I have a lot of spare time to devote to my hobbies and I have quite a few of them.
Despite my less-than-perfect start, I was determined to paint something every day. I managed to keep this up for 30 days, experimenting with different paints and techniques. I chose not to repeat any painting because I knew I would fall into the trap of becoming obsessed with getting it right. Instead, I decided to focus on painting and learning techniques while at the same time reading up on some of the theories, like colour, shape, and composition.
What happened was probably inevitable. First, painting became a habit and one I still have to this day. Secondly, after constantly revisiting every mistake (and there were lots) and reviewing techniques in online videos, I became fairly proficient within that first month. Now, I’m not suggested that I became Picasso or Rembrandt in that time and it would be another year before friends started to take an interest in my work and begin buying my paintings. Another 6 months and I was beginning to get referrals from my friends and started to sell to people I didn’t personally know. Another year on from that and I began, with the help of a website, to sell to complete strangers all over the world.
So you see, it only takes 30 days to change your outlook and direction if you put the effort and dedication in. Today, I still paint or illustrate every day and my artwork sells consistently all over the world. I still find that fact amazing!
A little different to my first painting four years ago!
Do you paint or create artwork? Is it a hobby that you want to grow into something bigger? What excites you most about artwork? Let me know in the comments.
