Hi I decided I needed a new hobby. So I chose painting. I started with paint by numbers...figures..acrylic paint..Now I am jumping into oil paint. Any suggestions?

Hello fellow artists, I just wanted to share with you all that I'm leaving my comfort zone(my usual style)and going to try painting something new. I've always admired the pin-up artist of the 40's and 50;s so I've decided to give one of these a try. For a long time I've wanted to do this but felt a little leary because I don't want to produce a "messed up canvas" but if I don' take my own advice and "just let myself go" how will I know if I can do it or not ? Scary territory for me similar to the way I felt about having WLS ,but I did that and I can do this too. Wish me luck as I lay down the drawing today onto the canvas. Here's wishing you all a happy and productive day !!!!!! Brenda

Hello Ms Na Na, welcome to the board and it's nice to see you here ! I don't know what medium your working in but I've used watercolors , oils and just plain pencil drawings. The secret for me when I work on a piece is to paint what I see. Let your eyes guide you to the correct color schemes . I use a photo of something that I like and I make it my own , now I don't use other peoples paintings but I might select a scene or person in the picture as an idea but I never copy the works of other people. I hope this helps and if you have any questions just ask ! Brenda

I"m here, I'm here!!! I just found this message board. I've just been limiting myself to my Profile updates from surgery. I'm nearly 7 months post-op, so my energy level is way up from where it was. I love oil painting and have been painting since I was in Jr. High School. I'm afraid that I lost my desire to paint in the last few years because of being too heavy, too tired and lifeless. Since losing 82 pounds now I'm back interested in painting again and have been searching for new landscapes to paint, which are my speciality. I've been taking a lot of pictures on my digital camera that I plan to use as inspiration for my paintings, that and cutting out photos from magazines to paint. Like I said, I haven't painted since 1998, so it's about time I started again. Just bought several new canvases and am ready to go. I love painting, like I said. I get so absorbed in it til the painting is finished, which with oils, it usually takes me about 2 weeks to complete one in 16x20 size. I've even sold a few. What I'd really like to do is find a forum to sell my paintings. I have several stored and have entered a couple of art shows. I just wish we had an art gallery here in my town to show my paintings, short of me opening one up, which I can't afford to do. Any ideas?

I paint landscapes.. love painting waterfalls.. never can get my ocean scenes to turn out the way I want. but other people like them. I have been painting for years... Hello