As I mentioned yesterday I wrote I children’s book.  In early 2010 I mentioned the book to an acquaintance and she suggested I illustrate it myself.  I explained that I was not very good at drawing and asked whether she would be interested in doing the illustrations.  She said she was too busy with her business and convinced me that I could do the illustrations myself.  She was so insistent that I could do it.  She showed me other people’s work. They did not have any artistic training either.  By the end of our conversation I was convinced she was passionate about helping other become artists and I agreed to meet with her the following week.

We started with acrylics because it is the “most forgiving medium”.  She said if I made any mistakes we could just paint over them.  I still can’t believe she said, “if”.  I’m sure she meant to say ”when”.  

The next step was to decide on a subject for the painting.  Was I interested in landscapes? What about winter scenes? What about flowers? What about animals? I flipped through book after book.  I felt as though this one painting was the most important thing I would ever paint.  I couldn’t decide because I knew the outcome of this single painting would be an indication of whether or not I had any artistic talent. 

Finally I found a deer in the woods.  At the time I was not sure why I picked it.   It looked alert yet lonely.  Ironically that’s exactly how I felt.   

Rajinie (my instructor) asked me to sketch the deer and left the room.  The results weren’t great but they weren’t that bad either.  When she returned she said I needed to concentrate on my perspective. She showed me exactly what to do to improve the sketch.   I have to admit that it looked pretty good.   

After an eternity I settled on the colours for the deer and painted three sections–the background, the deer and the foreground.  The painting needed time to dry (a day or two) completely before we moved on to the next step. 

While we cleaned up Rajinie told me about an exhibition she was planning for Saturday, June 26th, 2010.  She invited me to participate.  I hadn’t even completed my first painting.  An exhibition?  Why not?  It appeared that I had some talent.  Reluctantly I committed to be in the exhibition.

That concluded my first two hour lesson.  Not bad–it only took three hours.