How often have you thought of starting over? There are times when the path of life feels like its lead us into a maze. We all make questionable decisions; occasionally we turn left when we should have turned right and now and then we find the “road less taken” has been abandoned for a reason.
We started out with the weakest idea of our identity and where we wanted to go when we began this site almost a year ago. For my part, as content creator there was only a mental outline of what my responsibilities would be. I found out pretty fast that running a blog is far more than creating content.
I’ll elaborate more on that in the next post.
Try Something New
This post is about beginning something you’ve never tried before and more importantly, where you let it take you. Even before we had any idea this site was going to happen, I decided to start painting (July 27 2019 to be exact). While I’ve done craft painting, I had never put brush to canvas in an attempt to create art. With a YouTube video of Bob Ross queued up, half-frayed craft brushes and a fresh new canvas on a cheap easel, I endeavored to paint. I stuck with the only paints I had lying around at the time; partially dried out craft acrylics- I wasn’t going put out too many resources if this failed miserably.
This is the result of my first ever painting.
I was surprised! I could distinguish a wave and clouds; rocks too, on a defined shoreline. When compared to Bob’s “happy waves and smiling clouds” my painting took on an otherwise turbulent dark tone. It’s funny how art can reflect the state of mind of even the greenest novice.
No doubt you’ve noticed that I deliberately didn’t put Bob’s original next to mine for comparison. Best to let this stand on its own, don’t you think?
Because this didn’t look too horrible, I found the confidence to try some more. I ordered some cheap acrylics and a fan brush, picked up a bargain pack of canvases, and searched YouTube for training.
Not-so-pro-tip: Most painters on YouTube are right-handed- I am not. My most sound piece of advice for a lefty learning anything via YouTube, download the “YouTube video flipper” app!!!
Playing the Long Game
Over the next three months I practiced two hours a day painting with different video tutorials as a guide, eventually figuring out what my own unique style would be. As I gained more confidence, I leaned more on my own approach to a painting. Throughout the year, I’ve painted about 30 paintings…some pretty good, some look like a toddler’s finger-painting.
With a year of practice under my palette, I thought it would be fun to try Bob’s happy wave again. This is the outcome.
There are some significant differences. Bob’s painting used oils where mine is acrylics, his canvas was 18×24 and mine is 16×20, and where Bob famously created his paintings in 30 minutes I took four days! I can say with some assurance…I am no Bob Ross!!
There are days when I look at my paintings, or photos, and especially when I read my writing; these are the times when I doubt myself. This self-doubt has lead to avoidance, and that avoidance has meant no content for ten months.
Bob Ross was an unquestionable master of instilling confidence. But to compare Bob’s first episode to his final one 31 seasons later, you can see the improvement of technique and style. While the paintings may have changed a little bit, the videography and all-around production of the show are the areas where you can notice the biggest improvement
Practice, repetition, trial-and-error, and at times a little luck bring about improvement. Evolution often is a slow process. How many times have you heard of the “over-night sensation” that has been plugging away at their craft for the past 7 years?
The take home
I may never sell a painting or photograph; my writing may never reach mainstream status, but starting something new lead to an idea and that idea lead to a website. Where will things go from there, we don’t know but we’re still going…
This site is about to come upon its first anniversary. Things have moved slowly. In an upcoming post, we’ll explore some of the issues we’ve faced. As the chief producer of content I’ve been a bit overwhelmed with the realities of a blog and website. Year one has been plagued with terror and doubt (and a real life plague), but we look forward to year two as a period of positive development.
May every mistake you make become a “happy accident”! Thanks Bob!!
