My parents were big fans of American landscape paintings, and I used to adore going to the museum to look at them as a kid. I dreamed about painting landscapes when I grew up. I had many skills as a child. I was a good writer, a talented musician, and even decent in mathematics and my other subjects at school. I was well liked and fairly good at sports. One thing I was never particularly good at, however, was art. I just didn't have the knack for it. I had poor small motor skills, and they got in the way of me drawing out what I saw. Nevertheless, I used to dream about painting landscapes.
Painting a landscaper, you see, seemed like the ultimate tribute to the beauty of nature. When I was a kid, I liked nothing so much as being outdoors alone. It made my parents pretty nervous, but nevertheless, whenever I had a moment I would sneak away. I got pretty good at it. They could always find me, of course. I wouldn't go far. I would just walk down to the creek, look out at the water, or stare up at the clouds.
I started painting watercolor landscapes. That did the trick for a while. You see, people have pretty low standards for kids art and anyway, I had a good sense of color. Once I got a little bit more serious, however, my own inherent limitations became more obvious to me. Painting landscapes was always tough for me because I didn't understand perspective. I took some art classes, and they helped me, but I still couldn't quite get things to look the way I wanted them to.
Finally, I got a program designed for painting fine art. My cousin was a landscaper, and he used it for some of his design work. It would help him to create and to examine a particular layout from a particular perspective. Rather than just imagining where everything was, he could actually see it on the screen. I got a touch sensitive pen, took an online tutorial, and was soon painting landscapes. I felt like I was cheating a little bit, but nevertheless, I couldn't deny that they looked pretty good. I'm still not what you might call a great artist, but I do enjoy my hobby. It really keeps me busy, and it feels good to be able to make art that looks pretty good.
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