Craft Painting

Craft Painting has been around for thousands of years, with many different races of people indulging in this addictive and creative rainy day craft. Indeed, even if it was in very basic form, stone age people over 10,000 years ago even made "ancient wall paintings" - some of which are still visible today!

Today, craft painting has been taken to a totally new and overwhelming level, in that it is being used to create some of the most wonderful and awe inspiring images of nature that man has seen. Before photographs and cameras were readily available, craft painting and drawing used to be one the main sources of seeing what somewhere, someone or something looked like and was therefore a hugely practiced craft as it was a means of communication. In the 21st Century, painting has been relegated to a rainy day craft simply because its been replaced by photographs, video cameras and now digital photo editing.

Although craft painting is no longer a form of communication, it is a form of expressing your feelings and emotions on paper, allowing everyone to see it to get a feel for what you feel. Indeed, some of the most well known and famous craft paintings of modern day are not beautiful depictions of nature but are stylist and "mutated" forms of everyday life with the artist's own adaptations and feelings pushed into the painting itself.

One of the biggest problems for any budding craft painting artist is simply where to start! It's all very well saying just put brush to canvas, but what do you paint, how do you apply the brush strokes, how many layers of craft paint do you apply, where do you get your ideas from, etc.

You see many craft paintings which are simply fantastic, but the real deal behind the artwork is simply that the craft artist took years to develop the painting skills needed to make such a wonderful piece of craft painting.

So, how do you go about craft painting? How do you explode your creativity and design abilities onto your craft painting canvas!?

Well, there is a simple set of rules I use for my craft painting:

1) Make it Interesting - For your craft painting, make sure you are going to see it through. Therefore, if you are going to paint a bowl of fruit, decide beforehand whether it is something you will be enthusiastic enough about before you start painting.

2) Decide your craft painting style - For your craft painting, if you are going to do a serious painting then I strongly suggest against using unusual and different styles of painting since it will deter anyone who actually looks at your craft painting to the actual meaning of your work.

3) Make sure your colors are correct - There's nothing worse in a craft painting, than having colors that don't quite fit right. For example, by not getting the sky blue the right color. Believe me it will stick out like a sore thumb if you mess up the colors.

Craft painting needn't be too extravagant or "fantastic" for you. Remember it's about keeping yourself motivated and interested throughout a rainy day, so craft painting is all about *you*. Without your own input, techniques and habits, your craft paintings will simply look bland and uninviting to look at.

Just keep to the three basic points that I outlined above and you should be fine. It's all about keeping your ideas and creativity flowing whilst not compromising on quality. Remember to keep your colors in check and to keep checking the overall craft painting looks good.

Don't make craft paining a chore - make craft painting exciting so that it gets you through that rainy day! Make sure you follow your heart and feelings more than anything else... because at the end of the day - craft painting is all about spilling your feelings and thoughts onto canvas!