alright guys (and girls), here you can all help..

[wendal]

alright?

i'm new here, but not new to the world of art, however, i have just started an HNC in art & design at college and a lot of the work is sketching and painting still life. i have never done this =/ i've always just came up with ideas in my head etc.

so i went out and bought all the neccessary materials (gouache, oil, acrylic paints and oil pastels) but i am not exactly sure how to begin learning?

any pointers guys?

i mean, a lot of the people in my course have painted before, but i am just new to the painting concept.

so any pointers, information, starting points.. anything at all would be appreciated greatly.

thanks,

richard.

[Main Loop]

just dive in. get comfortable with the tools.. play around, set up some stuff to draw/paint, use the stuff for a while.. soon enough you'll find more specific problems that you'll need help with

[Big-Dave]

Do you have a sketchbook? If not, buy one, cheap is fine. Now draw everything in it. You can use paint, graphite, charcoal, hell, even a ball point pen would do (I've seen some people get very nice results from a basic bic pen), but draw at every opportunity you get, drawing whatever you see. Take your time when you do it, too. Observe lighting, look for secondary light sources (this is an important one, but is easy to forget), and try out different techniques. Practice for 2 hours a day (this is the real difficult one). If you miss a day, try and make up for it the next day or over the next few days. If you keep practicing it you'll find yourself picking it up fairly quickly

Oh, and try and simplify things to basic shapes. Not necessarily cubes and cylinders, but simplified forms of what they are. Like, a thigh would be a deformed cylinder, a head would be a sphere with two flattened sides and a strange box shape for the jaw, etc.

And yes, it is intimidating seeing this. That's why it took me a year to actually take my own advice (and a further year to do it regularly). It's definately worth it, though. Especially for those moments when somethign finally clicks and you think "So *that's* how it works!" Anyway, good luck with the painting. I'm sure youll get on just fine :)

[wendal]

thanks a lot guys.. i'm just really scared and nervous - but you've both given me confidence so thanks a lot :)

[Returner]

Be sure to ask lots of questions! I'm majoring in graphic Design, and I took a painting class a while ago with a bunch of studio art majors that were quite profficient in Oil paints. It blew my mind at first! My best advice to you is ask the teacher lots of questions as well. Even if it seems like you might be annoying them sometimes(most of the time they like it), it's really worth it in the end. Some teachers take the "hands off" approach to teaching, so mind probing them is the best way to learn. lol Since my buddy gave me this advice, things have been goin a lot smoother in class. Hope it works for you too ;)