Here Are The Sound Ingredients For Fantasy Drawings

by Jeff Thelen
(Brick, NJ)

Mom -- was she smart or what? She gave out the right sound of encouragement. My mom would tell my two brothers and me that we were talented at music, drawing and sketching.

Most of us are like children when we're learning a new skill. When we're encouraged we start to learn better and faster. She would listen to records with us and tell us to draw while we were listening. If we were watching television, she would encourage us to draw or sketch whatever we were watching.

"Heaven and Hell" started out while I was creating a base for a mountain scene. As the painting was coming together, I noticed a pit emerging behind the tree. And then it hit me, "Someone would drop straight to hell!". Below the blue heaven, hell churns as a flame-licked orange sphere. I liked it.

Next I masked off the lower part of the drawing protecting it while working on spray painting the top. This painting is on poster board. I used the shiny side and started painting without a sketch because of the idea I had in mind.

I have MS (multiple sclerosis) and it was challenging for me to hold paint brushes. Then I discovered spray painting. It allowed me to see that there are other art media to pursue before my hands get really bad.

It is really important to paint in a well ventilated area, wear a mask, and have a fan blow the fumes out a window.

Learning by experimenting is a good idea. If you want to pull out colors and highlights from black paint or a base layer, you can try waded up newspaper or magazine pages, sponges, your fingers, rubber gloves, and building nails. You probably have most of these tools in your creative studio. They help create texture. I use them to gently lift or scrape away some of the paint to get different effects.

Spray paint dries fast. There are times when I want to work over a certain area of the canvas again. Simply spray over the section with "clear coat" spray paint. It loosens up the paint and you can work on it again.

Right now I'm off spray painting because of the nozzles. Nozzles on some brands drip more than others. This can ruin a painting. Another favorite enamel acrylic spray paint brand went to a larger nozzle. This makes it almost impossible to control the fine detail work I like in my drawings.

Creating artwork is important to me because it is an outlet, a release. It calms me. So while I figure out the next medium to learn, I'm focusing on my health and music.