[TerryCurley]

Hi to all newbies. I'm a newbie too. Already wrote an intro and it's below in this group. I'm not a serious artist just a hobbyist (retired grandma) having fun following online videos. I've been on this forum for a few days and haven't had much success getting any conversation or friend to talk to. My observation is the only active portion of this forum is the newbie intro category. Perhaps there is a lot happening behind the obvious scenes that I don't know about, I'm not very savvy when it comes to finding things online, but I try hard.

The reason for this post is that I'm hoping that I can get a friend list of people that I have something in common with that I can talk about painting at my level (which is below most of the artists here). I'm doing acrylic and oil painting. Mostly from online videos and I don't really care if that's not creative, to me it's fun.

So if you are interested in having an old lady being an online friend here just post a reply and I will add you to my friend list and you can add me to your friend list. BTW that's in the profile area of this site, I found it. Then when we each post new pictures we can view them and talk about them and so on and so forth.

 

[Liz]

Hey, just friended you. I consider myself a hobby artist too although I have and do sell my art but I don't make enough to earn a living from it.

 

[TerryCurley]

Cool

Well actually I have sold some pictures. 5 in total, but they were to friends I knew from an online forum I belong to. Nothing to do with art. I show my pictures there and they wanted it. So I mailed it to them and sent me a check. Three different people, 5 pictures in total. But I didn't ask for any money, they just sent it to be nice.

I don't feel comfortable asking for money for my pictures because most of them are not original compositions. Just pictures from online videos. Some are originals, but not all.

 

[Liz]

There's this free photo site www.morguefile.com that allows their photos to be used for art or any other commercial project. There is a lot of stuff there you can use as reference material.

 

[TerryCurley]

Thank you

I'll look at this site today. Thank you. BTW - I did mess up on that Blue Jay picture I was working on yesterday...grrrrrr!

 

[TerryCurley]

What a wonderful resource.

I'm looking over the site morguefile.com and it's wonderful for findings subjects to paint. I've already downloaded three that I want to attempt to paint. That's one of my biggest downfalls, composing a picture in my mind. I have much better success when I take a photo and use that as a guideline to the composition. The site is a treasure cove of pictures.

 

[Liz]

Yeah, a lot of the time I have trouble coming up with a composition too. BTW how's your bluejay coming along, you didn't give up on it did you?

 

[TerryCurley]

No didn't give up on it

I've repainted the background with oil and now I have to wait a few hundred years for it to dry before I can do anything else on it. I've started other pictures I'm working on. Just finished an ocean scene with an orca today. Thanks for asking.

 

[Liz]

What about doing a painting completely in acrylics? I gave up oils years ago for several reasons, one being the slow drying time. Which brings me to a cute story I want to share, at least I think it's cute: Back in my oil painting days I left a painting to dry in the foyer, couple of days later I noticed a trail of green paw prints on the ceramic floor. Went over to examine my painting and there in the grassy part of the painting was my chihuahua's smudgy paw mark. Another downside to slow drying paint, ha, ha.

 

[TerryCurley]

Only just started in oil

I've done all my paintings in acrylic up until a few weeks ago. I was talked into trying oil by the guy whose videos I watch for instruction. I love the flow of the oil and the blendability. I just seem to make better pictures with the oil. Plus I don't like that the acrylics never look as bright once they are dry. I may change back to acrylics now and then but right now I'm on an oil kick.

I loved the story about the paws on the painting, I'm sure you didn't love it when it happened.

I'm an animal lover big time. I have 4 dogs and 3 cats.