They say cooking is an art. Everyone knows that painting is an art! Therefore, cooking is similar to painting. Delicious food excites our sense of taste, on the other hand a good painting is a visual delight. Both satisfy our senses in different ways.
Painting is like cooking, except that the ingredients are different. As everyone know, with cooking, the main ingredients are meat, fish, poultry, vegetables, sauces, salt and pepper, herbs and spices, etc. With painting however, the main ingredients are colour, paper, a bit of inspiration, lots of imagination, and believe or not, multiple cups of green tea!
As most of us can cook, does that mean anyone can paint too? I guess so, as long as the interest is there! For those who are interested, read through. If you are not interested, still read through. Ha! Get ready to whip up a nice fun painting. Just follow the recipe. Don’t forget your green tea, though!
Recipe for a day of fun painting:
Usual ingredients: Most of these are found in our drawers, stored and unmoved for months. The others can be bought from your nearest local art supply shops. One item is within you , so just look hard.
Paper – a piece of anything really (tissue, scrap paper, bond paper, etc). Set aside flat on a surface or table.
Colour – a pinch of anything (watercolour, oil paint, crayons, soft pastel, etc). Apply to taste.
Pencil – the usual pencil you buy from shops maybe, but do sharpen it, no one wants to draw with a dull, unsharpened lead (no one wants to use a dull knife either for cooking, right?)
Eraser – similar to water in cooking, used for thinning the soup if it gets too thick and you feel you need a spade to scoop it into your mouth to get a taste. Use the eraser whenever you think the colour has gone too thick, or muddy or just plain wrong or ugly!
Apron - really a necessity so paint don’t get into your nice designer shirt. Also, wearing an apron, also make you think you are cooking, err…painting something special, so give it a go!
2 liters of imagination – Put as much as you can, but also exercise control, unless you are making an out- of –this- world art, which I doubt even exist! Just be true to your sense of beauty, you’ll be on the right track! Pictures help fire up imagination, so don’t shy away from it, but don’t copy it!
Directions for painting: You don’t need oven-fire with this activity, but you do need fire in your belly! (kids don’t take this literally). And also most importantly, coffee or tea. Personally, I prefer green tea!
- Sit in a nice, warm spot in your lounge room or studio.
- Have a sip of your hot green tea!
- Now, get your paper and tape it on its sides. So it doesn’t move when you start doodling.
- Have another sip of your hot green tea!
- Start doodling. Just doodle, something will come up. If you have been staring at it for 4 hours and nothing has come out yet, pull out the pictures and start from there, but then again, don’t COPY it!
- Now that you have managed to draw something, reward yourself. Have another sip of your “now cold” tea. If you like hot tea, make a short trip to the microwave oven and re-heat it. Don’t wander off into the TV room, because you’ll get tempted to watch TV, and you won’t be able to get back to painting! So don’t wander off to the TV room. You have been warned!
7. Apply colour to taste. Stand back once in a while. If you stand back, you’ll get a better look of the painting, and you will see what else you need to do. You will get a feel which areas need to be darker or which ones need highlights. It is like tasting in cooking, you have a little taste of it and right away you know whether your concoction needs a little bit more water, salt, or pepper, etc.
8. Now, let it simmer for a while! Continue working. Much like in cooking, put your heart in it. Do it with love. Mums always say that food cooked with love tastes a lot better! Have short breaks, though. Chat with your friend, or flat mate about his day. If you get a blank reaction from him or he looks bored talking to you, save some dignity, excuse yourself and do something else. Don’t be dense, he obviously is not interested in a meaningless chat with you. Instead, have another sip of your hot tea!
9. Before you know it you have managed to paint a delightful picture! Stand back one last time. Have a look. Take your time. Do the final touches. Don’t forget to sign your painting! It is like announcing to your bored flat mate that you are done cooking and he can now eat your delicious food!
10. Last but not the least! PRESENTATION! PRESENTATION!. Ever wonder why your ordinary dish looks mouth-wateringly delicious on a nice, shiny plate? Well, it is because it is really delicious! Ha ha! Seriously, it would be good if you have got a nice, decent frame to hang your painting with. A painting usually look a lot better with a nice frame.
Now that everything is finished, remind yourself how much you enjoyed the activity. Then, finish your day with a hot tea again! Or chocolate, …or ice cream, …or a piece of cake, …or……anything!.
Cost-wise, a 3-inch (approx.) stick of soft pastel would be about $4.00 to $7.00, depending on the brand. Some known brands include Sennelier, Unison, Reeves, Schmincke, and Rembrandt, to name a few. On a rough estimate, there could be a few hundred colour selections available, so collecting each of them could be come to a substantial amount. A significant savings on cost of purchase can be had by buying in sets, but the colour range is much limited, so buying individual sticks is unavoidable. The better quality pastels cost a lot more, but it is worth investing in them because they really offer a wide range of colour selections and once applied on paper comes out brighter and more vibrant than the cheaper options. 
8. Now, let it simmer for a while! Continue working. Much like in cooking, put your heart in it. Do it with love. Mums always say that food cooked with love tastes a lot better! Have short breaks, though. Chat with your friend, or flat mate about his day. If you get a blank reaction from him or he looks bored talking to you, save some dignity, excuse yourself and do something else. Don’t be dense, he obviously is not interested in a meaningless chat with you. Instead, have another sip of your hot tea! 
Going back to the painting, I spent some more time working on this and now it is almost 90% complete! Still have to work on the dog, especially. At the moment, it is just a blob of white pastel shaped like a dog! The sea in the background works just fine. The reflection in the sand looks alright, but probably needs a little more work cleaning it up. The little girl is all done up and am happy with the result. Really, all this painting need is a bit more fine tuning. 
It is enriching to interact with another artist through comments and feedbacks as I went on to do my work (e.g. “Don’t use heavy strokes when applying the pastel”, “ Don’t rub yet”, “The man is tooooo fat” *ouch*, etc). It is just so mind – stretching to work in a style that is different to mine and see the whole painting process from another perspective. It is through these observations that one learns, and then the processing follows. How that gained knowledge integrates into one’s way of doing things, whether it is to absorb or to depart partly or completely from it. One has to choose. At the end of the day, the quest is for the development of one’s own unique style. Internalization of new knowledge eventually leads to artistic maturity. 
