Use an office or mini projector, on a canvas or a wall, you can connect it to your phone and project selfies.

Use the Open Source Krita and its Reference Images tool or get a Camera Lucida.

And don’t get mad, once it finally sinks in, that you were born an artist.

And as a side-note, you are perfectly capable of life changing genius.

Know that, there are very few real teachers to be found.

There is a rule that can never be broken not without robbing one self of meaning, in the absence of teachers, you must become a teacher.

Share what you have taken away from this text, and art will reward you such, that you will never look back.

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The first step to becoming an artist is learning what a painting is, and experiencing your first art show.

Then you have to advance and become a master artist, and the starting point is tracing.

You trace, until you don’t feel like doing it anymore, it can take years, it is OK.

The people that tell you that tracing is wrong, is just a test, or whetter or not you want to become an artist hard enough.

The definition of real art, is the kind of art that changes lives.

It has nothing to do with memorizing anything, to impress other artists.

A person that attacks you for tracing, is just an insecure bully, and a bully, by definition, cannot create real art.

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This method of learning your way towards becoming a master artist, actually has two parts.

Once you have your shapes, art will reach out, and tried to bite you with color.

Not only have you been tricked into thinking, that hand eye coordination is required.

But also, that there is such a thing as correct color, the color changes throughout the day an night, depending on light source.

think of it as following the core color of your subject, as it is seen through the lens of light, mood, season, and even technology.

And technology maybe the best example of the difference between, a person’s real colors, and the theme that you render those colors with.

We call it Photo Filters, alternatively you can look at “Autochrome Lumière” photograps, an early coloring process patented in 1903.

There is no such thing as the correct color, but your color filter must be consistent.

If you choose an Autochrome color theme for your painting, you should at-least-at-first avoid colors that Autochrome wasn’t capable of.

You have to be consistent, if you are not consistent with your color, then no matter how perfect your shape, the painting will not come out right.

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If you like computers, but still want to do canvas, you should probably start with Krita anyhow becasue you'll learn a lot about color.

And please, do not use Krita without a cheap digital pen and tablet, this is a mouse replacement, you should always use a pen and tablet for drawing and painting.

Aside from having an easier time controlling the pointer, the tip of the pen is a pressure sensor, you'll be able to mix colors and tone based on how hard you press.

If you are going to use canvas and brush, get some oil paints, acrylic is less natural when mixing.

If you are into Watercolors, practice with coffee or tea at first, watercolors have a different philosophy, and get the heavy paper.

To mix oil paint, know that it is a form of art in it self, and you need help.

You will need to print out whatever you are painting on paper first, so you need a color printer or a print shop that will print it for you.

If you want to save some money, then go to the photo section of your supermarket, and use their color printers to print out sections of your painting.

Then get a pane of glass, place it over your printout, and mix on top of the glass to get the exact color you need.

To de-saturate color, find a color wheel on the internet, and mix your color with the opposite on the color wheel - it will really take the color down.

Remember to use the correct colors, don't mess with color, your painting will not come out right.

Krita users can use the color picker while reference images they traced over are still on the screen.

When reference images are visible, the color pickerel picks from the reference, it does not pick from whatever is on the canvas.

In Krita, change the opacity of your reference images to 1%, and you will always color-pick the right color in the right place.

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As to canvas, what you need to understand, is that canvas is not the real artists paint on.

Artists, especially in the beginning paint on cheap wooden wooden panels from the hardware store, canvas is ju7st a much-much-much-lighter alternative to to heavy large wooden panels.

If not being able to afford canvas is stopping you from painting, paint on panels first.

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The consistent color theme, and the perfect shape, is all you need to become an artist.

But it is not enough, to be able to create art that changes lives, which is the very definition of good art.

Though, no one is allowed to tell you how to create real art.

But, as your interest in art is developing, you will come across a handful of works that will change your life.

And whatever it was, that grabbed you by the button.

Is probably the thing that you need to examine at great length, in order to eventually create art that will change the lives of others.