I have found over the years that there are roughly three levels of how people react to my paintings and I’m sure you will find this yourself as you start out.
The first level of paintings get reactions like, “Oh, that’s nice.” and “I didn’t know you had taken up painting.”
The second level of painting tends to get reactions like, “Wait, YOU painted that?” and “Wow, I didn’t know you were an artist.”
The third level of painting tends to get reactions like, “Hey, where did you buy this painting?” and “Seriously? You did this? That’s frickin awesome!”
So how do you go from level 1 reactions to level 3? Well, you don’t sensationalize that’s for sure, lol, the secret is actually in the details and taking your time to make sure things are ‘just so’. Really, the biggest part of painting is paying attention to the details and taking your time to get it right, or go back and redo it.
Wait…we can go back and erase stuff?
Why yes you can… to a degree. To do a bit of fixer upper with watercolors I suggest one of those magic erasers you can get in the cleaning section at the grocery and for fixing acrylics it’s either a matter of lifting off a bit of your mistake while the paint is still wet or just painting over it since most acrylics are opaque.
At any rate I just wanted to touch on this thought of the 3 levels and to encourage everyone to keep on painting! We might never become like Vincent Willem van Gogh but we can certainly become the best artist that we can be by trying out different styles and mediums until we find the right fit.