This piece was created for my first painting class! It is actually my first professional oil painting! I had no idea what to expect when going into Painting I in college! I had always wanted to be good at painting, I just never knew how! I had previously played with acrylics, but I never really felt like I knew what I was doing. Part of this was definitely due to my lack of knowledge of color theory (if you're an artist and don't understand color theory, I highly recommend making that a priority--It makes everything else so much easier!!). I was eager to learn but absolutely terrified of failing when I began this project.
As I first began squeezing the oils onto my brand new palette, I was still very uneasy about how the basic colors on my palette would translate into the array of colors on the picture I was referencing. I wish I could say that it was easy and enjoyable the entire time of painting this piece, but that is far from the truth! Since I had never worked with oils before, it took me hours of frustrating and seemingly endless mixing to get the colors I wanted. Granted, I am a perfectionist, but I wanted the final piece to be the best that I could make it! After taking multiple breaks to work on other homework, vent to my best friend (so thankful for your patience!), and shed a fair amount of tears, I finally fell into a rhythm and started getting the hang of it!
The last night of working on this project came too quickly. I knew that oils took a while to dry, but having never worked with them before, I, of course, underestimated how long it would actually take. This left me scrambling to finish it before class time the next day. I stayed up too late that night trying to get everything just the way I wanted.
By the time the class critique came, I was excited about what I had created, but I was also terrified of what my professor and classmates would think! As an artist, I am always my own biggest critic. But, what if my professor, an amazing artist who's been painting far longer than I've done art, had more to critique than even I could think of? However, I was met with a very loving professor and class who had great things to say about it!
I will always see the flaws in my own work, and maybe one day I will go back and edit this one a bit to fix what I think is wrong with it. In the meantime, though, I will continue practicing and trying to accept compliments without countering them with my list of perceived flaws! This piece has been the favorite of most of my friends, so I hope you enjoy it, too!
