This has been on my list of goals for this year from the beginning and I just put it off. I finally started. I’m doing a personal painting challenge ( hopefully with my sister ) in which I have a Pinterest board of images I’ve collected for the purposes of painting them. And by painting them I mean I’m going to reproduce them as realistically and accurately as possible.

I rarely do this, copy an image. To me, it’s so not creative. Not to mention it’s kind of like stealing if it’s someone else’s image. (FYI, I’m only doing this for practice, I won’t be making prints or selling the originals… if it’s someone else’s image. I’m also using some of my own. )

However, I think it’s a very important way to build skills. How can you be a good painter if you can’t initially reproduce what you see? Even if your goal isn’t photo realism, which for me it’s not, I still think it helps you to see things better which of course will improve your art.

So, this may or may not be a weekly challenge, it’s just going to be an ongoing thing I’m doing over time. I’ve already completed one piece and it’s super motivating and I enjoyed it so much more than I thought I would! I’m also going to make a video for each painting.