Growth

Hi Peeps!

I have a little something different to share with you today, hope it interests you.

I get a lot of compliments on how I colour up an image - thank you very much to those who say so!  In fact thank you to all who have left nice comments!

But I have not always coloured the way I do today.  And I'm not speaking of my kindergarten days either!  For many years, I considered myself an artist because I loved to draw with a pencil or pen.  But even though I could always draw well, I did not know the first thing about colour and how to apply it, or what colours worked well together.  Most of my art was in black and white -- for years!

I started drawing images for High Hopes back in 2005.  These were large open images that begged for some colour to bring them to life.  I wanted to colour them up and make cards with them. But I was stumped!  I did not know what to do!

I struggled SO much for that first year or two.  I tried markers and coloured pencils and water colour paint. No matter what I tried, I struggled!

For the first year or more, this was my routine:  Stamp off an image one DOZEN times.  Start colouring the first one.  Chuck it out.  The second.  Chuck.  The third.  Chuck again.  I would be so unhappy with my colouring that usually the first ten or eleven would go to CHUCK!  And let me tell you, Chuck wasn't giving me any compliments for the job I did either! LOL

Now I am going to show you one of the first cards I ever made with one of the first images I ever drew for High Hopes Rubber Stamps.  (gulp, swallows pride) No, my grandchild did not colour this.  I did.  Keep in mind this was the copy I felt was good enough to make into a card.  All ten or twelve of my previous tries had gone to chuck.

Now I am not saying this is terrible.  I'm just saying, I have grown.  And we all do grow, as artists and card makers.  If you are constantly making cards, week after week, you cannot help but grow and improve your skills.  It is bound to happen, just for the sheer repetition and practice you are doing!

I am posting this because I want to encourage anybody who thinks they can't learn to colour well.  If a colour challenged artist like me can do it, so can you.  All it takes is the determination to keep colouring, ask questions, study your mentor's work, and keep your mind open to learn new things.

I used to go to the gallery of an artist who I thought could colour really well, click on one of their cards, and put it up nice and big on my computer screen.  Then I would stare at it and study it for a long time.  I would keep it up on my screen, and then go and try to mimic what I saw.  This exercise really helped me a lot!  There were two galleries that I studied more than anyone else's: Jerri Kay and Anna Wight.  You can see that even they have grown, if you go back to their galleries on SCS and look at what they did at first too.

I picked their brains about their art work on more than one occasion and made friends with them in the process.  And I am happy to say that they are still dear friends to me.  Hugs to you Anna and Jerri!! xo  I still bow in your general direction!! ;-)

If you have stayed with me til the end, bless you and thank you for taking the time to read my post.

I hope you were encouraged to keep growing as artists!

Hugs,

Crissy