A first for me....

Every year in the town where I live there is an open art exhibition and whilst I have had digital work accepted in the past I decided that this year I would try and do a painting using real paints !!!
I haven't done any painting since leaving school more than 50 years ago so it was going to be quite a challenge.
I decided that I would use oil paints as I had never used them when at school, and paint on canvas.
Having bought all the necessary paint and brushes etc it was then a question of what to paint and how to paint it....
I had intended at first to try and paint a portrait ,so went straight to you tube for help....good grief there where so many different ways and ideas etc that I decided that perhaps I needed to find another subject which given that I was doing this outside of my comfort zone perhaps wasn't a bad idea.

I'm a supporter of the towns professional rugby league team and go to all the home matches where at the half time break the young kids from clubs in the town come onto the pitch and play.It's great to watch because some of them are so small they look lost in the kit and they show so much enthusiasm often they are more entertaining than the real thing....

So having watched a game a few weeks ago I came up with the idea of a youngster carrying the ball ,dressed in the town colours, being chased by two professional players ..the title being Living the dream ( playing for the professional team) catch me if you can..

Great I had a canvas 30" x 20" but couldn't decide how big everything should be..so I drew the whole thing out using my cintq to try and get the proportions how I wanted them.The two players running in the back worked out at A4 size so I printed the line drawing of each of them out so I could trace them onto the canvas.
The little lad was more A3 size and I only have an A4 printer....what to do ? it was Sunday and the printer I use is shut and I wanted to make a start ,although I was thinking the exhibition is only in August/September so I have plenty of time, but now I'd started I didn't want to be held up so I put the screen of the cintq level, blew up the drawing to the size I wanted ,stuck some tracing paper on the screen and traced away...Finaly the drawing was on the canvas...
Then I found I had a problem..entries for the exhibition had to be in by 2 July at the latest which gave me only two weeks !!! not two months as I had thought

I never realised how long it took oil paint to dry..it dries quickly on the computer, I had to make some quick decisions ,I wasn't going to have time to put in all the details I wanted especially on the two chasers so I decided to concentrate on the little boy and just block in the figures behind.
I was reasonably pleased with how it turned out for a first attempt and have a lot more respect now for those who paint in oils or acrylics or watercolours or any medium for that matter as I have found out just how easy it isn't.....
Hope you like it..