Beginning Art

[OneTooManyBathtimes]

I'll preface this by saying I did Applied Art for my GCSE back in 2009-2010 And loved it, but compared myself massively to the others in my class who were all much better (and also had encouragement from parents etc, I didnt)

Anyway, I've decided I want to get back into it but I want to start from the beginning. I'm talking Mark making, shading, etc.

Is there anyone here who could help? Either by pointing me in the right direction, or helping me to figure out a good way to do this? I usually prefer acrylics but would love to work with oils and watercolours too.

Watching with interest. I loved art at school,was probably one of the best in my year and had a very encouraging art teacher. If I had my time again i would have gone to art school, my dream job would be an illustrator for children's books. However as I haven't kept up with this skill or done much with it for years, in keen to know the answer to this too OP!

Whatever you do regarding technique or tuition, I cannot recommend highly enough a copy of 'The Artist's Way' by Julia Cameron. Don't be put off, although I hope you won't. Do do the work. It's opened up so much and is the only thing ever to have given me a genuine sense that the fingertips are reaching a sound, personal confidence. Good luck and please don't let this hope dry up. Also did a 2-day workshop by her in London in 2017, was a real highlight.

Thank you! I'll take a look in the morning when I'm not dealing with a bed-wetting toddler aha.

Totally understand @InTheCludgie my nan (RIP) was a very good artist and my dad back in the day was a good watercolourist. He's now starting to get back into it, but never helped me or encouraged me. It was always my writing (I'm good, and can be very good, but currently struggling with PND so I'm in a Bad Weepy Mood all the time) and I just... Yeah.

I've decided I need to start with the basics, so Mark making with pencils, crayons, whatever I want to use, then work on shading and blending. Just pages and pages of that for now until I feel confident.

I remember doing a colour chart as well where we had to make the different shades. I think that would be good for me, so I know that if I want a particular the I need to mix 2 parts with 3 parts etc.

Interesting, just looked up Artist's Way on Amazon and the most recent 2 reviews say there's too much 'God talk' in it - that really surprises me (and sorry if that would be a big dissuader for you).

That's really not what stood out for me - I do remember some shades of that but really the much more startling, lasting benefit for me was in the practical exercises that help you to dismantle self-erected cages that are not doing you any favours, and that get reinforced by a lot of cultural and past unwritten rules. I realised that I downed my brushes and pencils around the age of 13, but now I have got something of this back, this area is the only part of my life and curiosity that never really got to be refined and 'trained out' into something that suits some other ideal, fits in nicely for work and the grown-up layers of the world - and that's still really fascinating. Authentic.

There are about 1500 other reviews of the book on there so do have a read and see if they help. Your starting points sound great.

The art tutor website is really good and they're currently 50 percent off.