The Artist Inside

I've always wanted to take a painting class of some sort to see if any talent at all resides in my hands. So, I enrolled in a beginner's water-based painting class here in Richmond. We are working with watercolors and basically anything that can be cleaned off with water instead of spirits.

I've never tried to paint and I really didn't know what my drawing abilities were. I used to get figurines around my parents' house and draw them. I thought they always turned out pretty well, so I think there may be at least a little mediocre artist inside of me. Yesterday was my second class and our objects of the day were continental breakfast items...French Press, croissant, newspaper, fruit bowl, etc. There were many items on the table, so I would only pick 3 or 4 to draw for each exercise.

As I began an exercise in which we had 5 minutes to draw using a viewfinder, this thought crossed my mind and I laughed out loud a little: Never try to draw a banana if you are a beginner drawer. Especially when the entire class will be critiquing the drawing at the end of class. Needless to say, I flipped the page and began a new drawing, sans banana.