Finding Something I Had Lost

Sometimes, it only takes something simple to bring a little joy into my life. I recently attended a service project at my church; it had already been a long day and I only planned to stay for a little bit so I could go home and sleep. but things don't always go as planned.

Now, let me give a little of my painting history before I continue. I've been interested in art since elementary school, and I took some art classes in junior high. I mostly did colored pencil drawings, and I hated when we did a painting project because I was awful at them. I got through them, but stuck to my colored pencil stuff. When I got to high school, I chose to do music as my main elective and couldn't fit art classes into my schedule. I still did art stuff on my own as a hobby, but nothing extensive. The closest I got to painting was this silhouette drawing I did as a wedding gift for my brother. Everything is in colored pencil except for the silhouette parts.

Fast forward to the summer after high school graduation. I don't really know why, but as I was sitting at home one day I suddenly got the urge to paint something. So I did. I got a canvas and some paint and just kinda went for it. This was the result:


I thought it turned out pretty ok, and it was fun! That's when my painting journey began. Super cheesy, I know...

I started painting more, and this eventually led to a fun project I took on my sophomore year of college. My roommate and I hated the boring, white cabinets we had in our apartment kitchen, so we decided to change it up and paint them all with fun pictures! Here are just a few of my favorites.

Harry Potter. Because obviously.

EXO is a K-pop group I like, and I got my roommate into it so...

Howl's Moving Castle!

We both love the Mesa temple and it's so beautiful! This was fun to paint.

Our favorite super heroes.

My roommate's favorite Disney princess.

This project led to a couple of commissions from one of my mom's coworkers.

Once I got to my junior year of college, I kinda stopped painting. The only painting I did was for the mural on my bedroom wall (see previous post). There were several reasons this happened, some of which I'm only now realizing. For one, college got really busy. I was a music major, and a TA for one of my classes, so I was busy with tons of classes, grading papers, choir rehearsals, and concerts left and right. It wasn't a priority, since it was just a hobby, and I chose to focus my time on school and music stuff. Another reason, one that I hate to admit, was that I kinda got sick of it. Sometimes it got tedious. Art was supposed to be my stress reliever, and it got to the point where it was doing the opposite, so I decided to take a break. Looking back, I also realized two things: one, that I was usually painting for someone else, not for myself; and second, that I never gave my paintings my own flare. I know that sounds weird but it will make sense later in the story.

I still did art things for last two years of college, but it was mostly sketching here and there for costume and dress ideas. My main crafty hobby those two years was sewing, which is for another post entirely.

So. It's 2018, I've graduated from college, and I'm without a job. Look at all that free time I have!! 😅

And now! We're finally back to the service project! The service project was to make crafts for foster children, and one of the projects was painting kindness rocks. Like I mentioned, I didn't plan to stay for very long. But once I started painting I completely lost track of time. I felt like I found something I had lost. I was happy.

 That was my starting push. I pulled out all my blank canvases that I had stored away. I pulled out my easel that I hadn't touched in two years. And I started painting. I started small and without any plans. I just wanted to paint. That was also something I had learned. I always tried to take on ideas that were too big, paintings that had so much detail that I got tired of it before I finished. So I just painted. I let whatever I had in my head come out on the canvas. Here are the results. I'm pretty happy about it.

In light of my renewed excitement, I pulled out a painting I had left unfinished two years ago. This painting fell into the "too detailed" category. Well, I decided it was time to finish it. So I did. I know now that if I take on an idea like that again, it will be something to come back to little by little over a long period of time. I still really enjoyed it. I just have to avoid burnout by taking breaks from it. This is where I realized that I needed to add my own flare or style to my paintings. Landscapes are fun, but just doing regular, real life landscapes doesn't feel right. Don't get me wrong, I'm obsessed with gardens (which is what most of my landscape paintings tend to be). But they need creativity. Something...improbable, if that makes any sense. Anyway, here's that painting I finished:

You're probably thinking, "What is she talking about? That really isn't all that detailed..." But I'm also not Bob Ross who gets exactly what he wants the first time he puts it on canvas. I have to redo every detail I paint about twelve times until I get it just the way I want it. I'm still not 100% happy with this one, but I decided I just needed to let it go.

My goal now is to build up a decent portfolio and a good stock of paintings. Perhaps I'll try to sell them...

For now, here are some pictures of my current set up. It's nice to leave it out so I can just paint whenever I want. My mom probably isn't too happy about it though. I'm pretty messy 😂😂