I have never been someone particularly creative or imaginative . I don't knit or crochet. I'm not a natural baker and I've never attempted calligraphy.
When I went into self-isolation I decided that I would use my time to focus on some activities I've been wanting to do for a while. Obviously, this means they have to be things I can do either in the house or garden and without the need to go shopping for props or supplies.
One of my proudest achievements was my Art GCSE. There is a part of me that wishes I'd continued on to A level Art. But I've barely done any artwork since. For my GCSE exam piece I used oil pastels and turpentine. I have limited knowledge of how to use oil pastels and our art teacher had very little interest in teaching us! I spent hours on that picture and stank the house out with the amount of turpentine I used. But I was proud of the end result. I can't recall what our theme was but my main piece of coursework was an elephant.
A couple of weeks ago I found a sketch book in the garage (we moved house recently). Last week I finally ordered a set of oil pastels from Amazon. I've also been watching some youtube videos to learn how to create the different effects with oil pastels. Youtube makes creating a masterpiece look so easy. I just about remember how to draw a face and a lesson I had on drawing "perspective". Thankfully there are now more resoruces online than ever before. Some artists have started running art classes via 'Facebook live'.
I'm going to be in lockdown for at least another three months giving me lots and lots of time to practice and hopefully develop some decent pieces. I'd love to create something I would be happy to display on my own walls. I find people's faces fascinating but I'm going to start with something much simpler. One of the videos I watched on Youtube was of creating a landscape image, it looks simple, but we will have to wait and see. This
What creative hobbies do you have? Are you planning to learn any new skills during lockdown?