I discovered the artist in me many, many summers ago when I was home and bored like you all are right now. With the school closed and endless hours to waste, I wanted to do something different, something fun, satisfying and challenging.

Reading came naturally to me, like sleeping or eating, so it wasn’t really ‘doing something’. Remember those were ancient times when people read a lot in the absence of smartphones, Ipads and wifi connectivity.

I wanted to do something after which I would get a sense of accomplishment and I could tell myself: “Hey! I did this today.” Or “I learnt something new.”

And as luck would have it, one evening I went to a hotel for a wedding and, with my cousins, I was roaming around in the lobby when on one side we saw a number of paintings and a few people standing there too. Curious, we went there and pretended to admire the paintings on exhibition. The artist was also there talking to a youth. We also moved closer and listened to the conversation as the artist had smiled and nodded to us on seeing our interest.

What the artist, whose name we didn’t bother to find out, said to the young man was something that caught my attention. He was giving tips to him on getting started with art on his own.

He said, “If you want to paint and are only doing it as a hobby, well then just start by choosing an easy painting and try to replicate it. This will be your guide to the composition and colour of the painting and after you have finished with a couple of paintings, you will find that you can control your brushes and strokes better and then you can try sketching and painting something yourself.

“Not everyone is good at drawing or has as good an imagination as an artist, so if you start by trying to draw and paint something from your mind, you will be disappointed.”

This was the very moment that I became interested in art. These words stayed on my mind and in no time I found myself searching second-hand bookstalls for books and magazines on painting. Once again, let me remind you that the computer and internet were invented but books were still the best way to look up information.

I bought the cheapest oil paint brand with a few brushes from my pocket money, canvas of the smallest size and tired to copy a still life painting from a book I had bought. It was of a vase with flowers — aren’t flowers always our first choice? I first drew an outline on a paper the size of the canvas, then traced the design on the canvas with a carbon paper and started painting.

Doing the background was easy, so that built my confidence. Then came the tricky parts — shading and avoiding uneven lines. Luckily, you can paint over your mistakes when using oil paints, unlike watercolours, so I was able to come up with a decent result that surprised everyone, including myself.

I have moved on since then from oil paints to acrylics, but I only dapple in this hobby when I have a lot of free time on hand, which is rare now!

If I can create an artwork worth putting up on the walls of my house, I am sure most of you can, if not all. So while there are still a few more free days left, why not start off on this journey of the discovery of the artist in you!

How to get started

You need to read up a bit on painting and art first, to know what tools you can use, the tips and the common mistakes. Better still, there are zillions of how-to and DIY videos with many free online lessons that you can watch. These will tell you the different types of paints and brushes to use, the paper and canvas, mediums and washes, and much more.

But before going there for a detailed discovery, read on for I will introduce the world of art and the craft in its simplest form to you here.

Types of paints

You have been using crayons, colour pencils, watercolours and poster paints even before you could write. You can also create artwork using these, but it isn’t what professionals do and we want to venture into serious art territory, right?

The three main types of paints are watercolour, acrylics and oils. They all require different techniques and over time as you use any or all of these types of paints, you will find what you are most comfortable with.

Watercolours

Watercolours are thin transparent paints usually painted on paper. Because of the transparency, the paper is visible through the paint and the selection of the quality and colour of the paper used is important for the end result.

Watercolours are cheaper and they are also probably one of the earliest forms of paints used by people. Watercolours are comparatively the most difficult to use as the paint changes its form as it dries and is more difficult to control. Correction of mistakes and repainting are very difficult.

Oils

Oil paint is one of the most commonly used paints for paintings. It is the thickest paint, the easiest to control and the slowest to dry and this last property makes it easy to correct the work until the paint has dried up. If you make a mistake, you can scrape off an entire layer of paint without damaging the layers underneath if those layers are dry.

The colour pigments are embedded in oil and usually applied to canvas and special types of oil resistant papers. The disadvantage of oils is that they are more expensive and more materials are needed to work with them. They can be also be messy as you can’t just wipe away the stain with water, you need turpentine, which is also used to clean the brushes.

Oil paint has been used for centuries and most famous paintings are in this medium.

Acrylics

Acrylics are an ideal blend of the best of watercolours and oil paints. Acrylics are good for beginners as they are easy to work with. They are thicker than watercolours so easier to control, but they can be used like watercolours if thinned using water, and like oil paints if extra water is not added.

Acrylic paint is now one of the most common and most cost-effective paints used by artists. It can be used on most bases — paper, wood, canvas, metal, etc, as the colour pigments are embedded in a water-based acryl emulsion.

It acts like watercolour by drying up fast. In case you make a mistake, wait for it to dry and then paint right on top of the mistake. You need to rinse your brushes very well or they will become stiff with paint.

Ink paintings

These types of paintings have become trendy nowadays. It is an art form inspired from calligraphy, and coloured inks are now being used a lot.

Technically it is easier to control whatever type of ink pen you are using as one is more comfortable using pens than paint brushes. As the lines are very thin, the mistakes are minor and easier to correct or over paint. But colouring a large area using a pen or pointer can seem more work than painting over it with a brush.

This type of painting is easy and more economical to indulge in as you can use any ink pen or pointer. The coloured pointers of the popular brands these days can be very well used here and it won’t cost you much too! Plus, you can make them on any kind of paper.

The only issue with ink paints or pointers is that you can’t ‘create colours’ by merging different shades. First draw a design on paper and then fill it up using coloured pointer, yes the ones you use in writing your notes and headings, and create interesting modern retro art forms to fill up your walls.

There is much more to painting than just the paints, but we can’t share everything here in one go, so let’s leave the rest for some other time and for you to discover on your own.

Pastels

Pastel is a medium that lies in between painting and drawing. The finished pieces may look like paintings but the process requires more drawing than painting. All you need to get started are some pastel sticks, a sheet of paper and your fingers!

Pastel colours come in stick form and they are of basically four different types, soft, hard, pencil and oil. Soft, hard and pastel pencils are all bound with a similar binder which means that they’re compatible with one another and can be used on the same painting or drawing.

Oil pastels, are bound with oil and wax, giving them a texture similar to oil paints, so they can’t be mixed with the other pastel types.

You need a rough surface to use pastels on as they need some texture and bumps to grip or bind on in a surface or they will slide right off. Paper is the best surfaces for pastels, but as long it is not very smooth.

Places and resources to help you

Here are some interesting websites that will help you discover different forms of art, many tips and tutorials, as well as samples to take inspiration from.

But what you need to do first is to share these sites with your parents, ask their permission to go on them and, if they allow you, go there under their supervision to learn new things. Maybe your mum or dad will become inspired too and the two of you can start your artistic journey together!

PINTEREST

This is the place to go to for all kinds of ideas and designs. It is a social network that defines itself as a “catalogue of ideas” that inspires users to “go out and do that thing”.

Here the ‘pins’ are images uploaded from websites. There are numerous categories of pins, so you can click on the art category you like or write it in the search option and get hundreds of images and links to the web pages they are from. You can save any pin or image in your board or visit its homepage.

I have made boards under various categories and keep saving images of artwork and other stuff that I like and have modified these saved images according to my taste and painted.

This site is a treasure house for all kinds of creative hobbies and interests.

CRAFTSY

The name says it all, and if you are still not clear what this website has to offer, their short intro tells it all too: “Feeling creative? You’ve come to the right place. Take a look around and find endless inspiration to keep your hands happy this summer.”

It is dedicated to offering crafts education via blog entries, high-definition interactive video tutorials and downloadable workshops. Really a must-visit site for the creatively-inclined and hobbyists.

The Art section has both paid and free online classes, and there are many videos and tutorials.

You can narrow down to what you want to see by selecting the various options, in terms of skill level, technique, etc, given on the left pane. There really is a lot to discover on its blog, so let’s leave it for you to discover on your own at https://www.craftsy.com/

ART IS FUN!

This website is a good place to go to learn how to draw or paint, for painting tips and drawing techniques or to simply learn how to appreciate art.

This website has something for everyone — from the complete beginner to the avid art enthusiast. You can find detailed but simply written lessons and instructions, for all kinds of art categories, though there are fewer free video lessons. But the textual content is so well illustrated that you can read along and learn a lot at www.art-is-fun.com

Published in Dawn, Young World July 22nd, 2017