Hi @cgwool ! Welcome to the forums! I love your profile photo, is that one of your acrylic pours? Can’t wait to see your work! Jesus loves you!!!
Welcome @cgalle69 ! That’s awesome that you are adding to your skillset, can’t wait to see your art! Jesus loves you!!!
Hello, my name is James & I joined the membership January of this year. I am 65 years young, a Navy veteran, married to my beautiful bride for 32 years this July. I started drawing a couple of years ago with graphite. The sketches were so-so & I began my search on the web in how to improve which led me here to the Virtual Instructor. I like many others did not like the shine of the dark graphite. My daughter bought & gifted to me a set of charcoal pencils. I love using charcoal. I look forward to getting to know you & see your art work. Thank you for sharing & GOD bless.
3 Likes
Hello James,
Welcome to the Virtual Instructor. I really enjoy working with charcoal as well as so many other mediums I have learned here with Matt.
There is a new watercolor pencil live series starting this Wednesday at 8 pm. They are really fun and it is a good way to get to know other Members. Everyone is supportive, encouraging, and friendly. The chat box is a lot of fun.
The other place I have learned so much about the elements of art are in the critiques. One comes out every Thursday or Friday. The instructions that Matt gives can be applied to any piece of artwork. It does not matter the medium.
Again, Welcome to the Virtual Instructor. I look forward to seeing some of your artwork,
Teri
1 Like
Welcome James!!! I hope that your skill and passion for art grow in your time with The Virtual Instructor!!! Enjoy &God bless!!!
1 Like
Welcome, James. I hope you love the Virtual Instructor as much as I do.
Brenda
1 Like
Hi James,
Welcome to our great community. I find that our members are so helpful and inspiring. I believe you will have a lot of fun with Virtual Instructor lessons. Join us during a live lesson if you can. You will not regret it.
Patricia.
1 Like
Hi everyone I’m Gabriele, I started learning a lot of different things these past few months like painting with oil, acrylics, gouache, watercolor and sumi-e but also drawing with charcoal, pens, pencils, colored pencils, pastels of various types and more, however I’m doing all by myself in real life since there aren’t places that teach me about this stuff near me and I feel like I’m not progressing much so yeah I subscribed to this place in hopes of getting someone to tell me what’s wrong with my stuff and learn, admittedly yes it could be a problem that I’m trying to learn too many things but all of them interest enough for me to learn them so yeah with patience and help I could become better hopefully.
2 Likes
Welcome Gabriele! You’ve come to the right place! Take your time and I’m pretty sure you’ll find what you’re looking for. I started last July, and there has been vast improvement for me in so many areas of art. I hope you’ll share some of your work as you get comfy enough to do so.
Brenda
1 Like
thank you, i’ve seen some of your stuff and i think it looks great so knowing you got there thanks to this place gives me more hope to be honest
1 Like
Go for it! I’m so glad I could encourage you.
Brenda
1 Like
Welcome aboard Gabriele. I understand very well your enthusiasm about all the mediums we can use to create art. I am very much the same. My studio is loaded with paints (acrylics, watercolor, gouache, water soluble oils), colored pencils, charcoals, ink pens and pastels. I recently got into using my soft pastels (I don’t care much for the oil pastels). I am officially in love with soft pastels and concentrate on that. My point is that, trying all these mediums will lead you to the one or two that you feel are more interesting to you. I signed up with VI when I retired 5 years ago and have found that, if you take the time to learn some of the basics, then move on to each course and see which one is best for you, you will progress a lot faster than you think. I had never done any type of art when I signed up. Now, I feel that I have progressed quite a bit, in spite of not devoting as much time as I needed to because I was taking care of my mother-in-law at home. She passed away last year, so now I am slowly taking more time to practice and feel like I am progressing faster. I encourage you to follow the live lessons if you can. The chat box is always lively and helpful and Matt and Ashley are a great team.
Patricia.
1 Like
thank you i’m here for the ride, if that’s the proper expression, also sorry to hear about that
Thank you. My mother-in-law had a nice long life living with us until the age 101. She was an inspiration in resilience and tolerance.
Enjoy the ride!
1 Like
Hello Gabriele,
Welcome to the Virtual Instructor. I have a similar story.
When I became disabled with Lyme disease in 2013 I always enjoyed doodling and drawing while thinking about something before.
A friend, who is now my caregiver. suggested I try drawing birds with some colored pencils. I was always an ‘A’ type personality and on the go, hiking, walking and running, the gym, taking food to the homeless, Red Cross Active Response Team, etc. So, drawing helped me to keep my mind still and focused. Then I started just trying different mediums.
I was self-teaching like you at the time because I have difficulty with speaking properly and getting around. Again, my caregiver suggested Bob Ross YouTube videos just to encourage me to continue. From there I started to look at other YouTube videos and found the Virtual Instructor.
I have learned so much in the past two years, and like both Patricia and Brenda have found this an exceptional place to learn. I started with 25 days to drawing and then the other graphite courses which helped me to get a good foundation. This was the smartest thing I did.
But where I have learned the most is the live lessons and the Critiques. I have actually had critique marathons when not doing well and watched almost all of the live lessons.
Like Patricia said, the live lesson is a great place to communicate with other members as well as Matt and Ashley, who are great teachers. Everyone here on the forum are supportive, encouraging, and helpful when questions are asked.
Like Patricia I hope to see you at the live lessons. We just started a new series using watercolor pencils and the first two lessons should be available to get caught up if you are interested. It will also give you a feel for how the interaction is on the live lessons.
I look forward to seeing some of your artwork.
Teri
1 Like
thank you, i may not be able to join the live lessons due to me living in what’s probably a different timezone from people here as it seems like there are mostly people from north america here but i’ll watch them another time for sure, as for my artwork i have to work on being less shy about it first, when i began i was proud of even showing my studies/sketches to friends but then i lost that ability so now i’m trying to go at least back to that
Gabriele,
You have found a safe place. People here are kind, encouraging, and there is the advantage that we all live all over the world. People come to the live lessons from Germany, Australia, Norway, Africa, North and South America, and all over. These are the ones I remember. But you are correct, depending where you are, some people are participating in the live lessons are 6, 9, 11 hour differences so I totally understand the time difference, especially when there are other aspects in life.
I enjoy watching the old ones too. Just know you are always welcome, here on the forum as well as in the chat for the live lessons. And your artwork will always be appreciated. We are all at different levels, enjoy different styles, and draw or paint different subjects.
As soon as you are ready, I for one would enjoy seeing your artwork.
Teri
1 Like
Don’t be shy about your art . It is great to be creative and express your self through art .
Hello, I have always enjoyed doing almost every form of art and craft - I find relief from the heavy imprint of ‘getting things done’ with playing ‘art and craft’. It helps change my mood to a relaxed ‘I choose to make life more beautiful’
I currently work full-time as receptionist and office manager at a small medical office so I see a lot of people daily (M to TH). With my time off I always do some form of creative work as well as do shared care of the household, (just moved to a new house so it is still hard to find all my stuff ! Small but steady steps will get me to where I can feel comfortable in this new place) I set the timer to carve out time for creative process: then choose to : play my guitar, sew a little coat for the dog, do some drawing in my sketchbook, ‘spiral’ around to opening moving boxes and clearing my projects up and putting those carefully away so I can find them next time. Good thing I can find my focus and order even in a ‘messy’ room. Glad to have found a 'Virtual Art Instructor ’ to learn from whenever I want! Thank you!
2 Likes
Hi Maureen. You are going to love it here. Everyone is very positive and supportive. Glad to have you as a part of the community.
Terri Robichon
1 Like