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You may wonder how much talent is needed to create oil paintings. I see talent as a God-given gift that you are born with. But having talent is a blessing-what is needed more to paint with oils is skill. And this is a benefit.
You see skills can be developed. We can learn skills if we are determined to accomplish anything. Do surgeons, heart specialists, and general practitioners have talent? Of course, but the basic talents that they have are not enough to excel in their chosen specialty-they must learn the skills necessary.
I believe this is also true for artists. I was given a basic talent at birth, I was given the ability to see the beauty all around me, but I did not have a clue as to how I might transfer that beauty to canvas. So much of my life has been devoted to two pursuits-writing and photography.
But I knew something was missing. I lived with emptiness in thought until I finally decided to try my hand at oil painting. Well my first attempts were rough at best. Using some art supplies passed along from my mother, I began to put oil on to canvas. And when I finally finished a painting I was either overjoyed or sadly disappointed.
Have you ever been to an art gallery or a museum and stood in awe of what you saw? Have you wondered what the artist's canvas or panel looked like when he began the work? Did he sketch the scene with charcoal or did he use thinned oils?
I became obsessed with the "Impressionists." This is the style I wished to emulate. What style is drawing you to painting? Is it still life, landscapes or portraits? Do you wonder how difficult painting with oils can be? There is only one way to answer that question-get started!
Talent vs. Skill?
You can not develop talent-you either have it or you do not. Unfortunately many people never take the step to find out. I have a talent for seeing the wonderful things that surrounded my life-but did I have the skill to capture what I saw?
It became apparent that I needed skill and my options in developing skills were limited. Many years ago I watched those artists on TV that took a blank canvas and created a completed painting in just a half hour. And my skills began to enhance my ability.
But I knew that so much was lacking. My mind was filled with unanswered questions. So I packed away my art supplies and continued with photography. But recently I had an awakening. With my family in tow, we visited the NC Museum of Art.
Here was a kind of rebirth-maybe you felt that way too. Once again I reveled at the impressionists. Monet is my favorite.
Learning oil painting from scratch is really the best way to get started, In my struggles I made too many mistakes and ended up covering over what I had done and starting again.
This article begins with a question, how hard is it to Paint with oils. Without you were born with the talent to do just that, a prodigy somewhere, then you will find it very hard if you just jump into it. If you are serious, and I believe you must be or you would not be reading this page, then treat yourself to some guidance.
You can sign up for art lessons and they may help. I tried that a long time ago and ended up very disappointed. Maybe I never found the right teacher-someone who would take me by the hand and lead me along the way.
After my visit to the art museum I dug out some of the books I had collected over the years and they served as motivation to get back into painting. But none of them really stirred the fire. Then I turned to the Internet-just like you did-and I was lead to an artist named Ethan Semmel.
Ethan has the answer for anyone serious about painting and doing it well. He offers a series of step-by-step manuals and CDs that literally cover it all-all you need to get started and not feel frustrated when you run into difficulty with your work. 3 manuals and near 500 pages with all of the answers you'll ever need to begin creating stunning pieces of art.
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