Climbing ART

So much talent showcased here!

I always wanted to be able to draw and paint, but I have zero talent for it.

Kai Larsonwrote:

So much talent showcased here!

I always wanted to be able to draw and paint, but I have zero talent for it.

It doesn’t matter! Do it anyway!  I started about 25 years ago when I was between jobs for a year. Took a drawing 101 class at a local community college and kept going from there. Drawing 101 is a lot of composition often just uses pencil or charcoal which is cheap.  cC teachers are usually excellent because they are often very good artists working to supplement income or get insurance.

I’m still a highly mediocre painter who gets great joy out of the process. After climbing, it’s my favorite passion. And they are complementary because I need rest days!

Eric Dwrote:

I did some illustrations a while back that made it into the Climbing mag. Let me see if I can find them.

EDIT: Found a couple

Bro, you gotta illustrate my man some pro here! That, or your gonna need a lot more red paint in a sec.

Here’s an example of what someone with no talent can do. Every year I make handmade cards for my 12 nieces and nephews for Valentines Day. This year I decided to play around with stencils. These are acrylic on paper. When finished, trim and attach with double sided tape on card stock. Stencils about $10 for 50 or so different ones.  I do a different heart theme every year. They always love them. 

Jason Millswrote:

Super cool. You should fashion some small nut or hex keychain pieces and sell together. I'd buy!

Welch Peak, Cheam Range British Columbia Cascades colored pencil on paper

phylp phylpwrote:

It doesn’t matter! Do it anyway!  I started about 25 years ago when I was between jobs for a year. Took a drawing 101 class at a local community college and kept going from there. Drawing 101 is a lot of composition often just uses pencil or charcoal which is cheap.  cC teachers are usually excellent because they are often very good artists working to supplement income or get insurance.

I’m still a highly mediocre painter who gets great joy out of the process. After climbing, it’s my favorite passion. And they are complementary because I need rest days!

Thanks for the encouragement.

I actually have taken a number of drawing 101 classes.  

In spite of having some excellent teachers, these classes all confirmed that I really suck at making art.  Whatever the art equivalent of being tone deaf is, that's me.

It's ok, though.  I have channelled my artistic enthusiasm into photography and have become a mediocre photographer, which is enough to enjoy myself.  

Love seeing other folks' artwork. I took up painting landscapes during a particularly bad shoulder injury so that I could keep going outside to climbing areas and crags with my friends and enjoy being there. It turned out to be a pretty life changing thing and now I'm almost (ALMOST) grateful for the stupid injury for motivating that newfound passion for painting. I chose watercolors because they're portable and easy.

Usually I'm painting facing away from the crag, not towards it, like this one painted from the Big River Wall in Diablo Canyon NM: 

Or sometimes I just get inspired from past climbing trips and paint from home...

Amy Jordanwrote:

Love seeing other folks' artwork. I took up painting landscapes during a particularly bad shoulder injury so that I could keep going outside to climbing areas and crags with my friends and enjoy being there. It turned out to be a pretty life changing thing and now I'm almost (ALMOST) grateful for the stupid injury for motivating that newfound passion for painting. I chose watercolors because they're portable and easy.

Usually I'm painting facing away from the crag, not towards it, like this one painted from the Big River Wall in Diablo Canyon NM: 

Or sometimes I just get inspired from past climbing trips and paint from home...

Wow, those are so good!

Alpenglow on The Hulk. One of my partner's pieces inspired by our time spent up there last summer.

Painting does mix well with climbing. I kept running into Meatloaf in Leavenworth and the Creek. He follows Maria everywhere. Best crag dog ever. I painted him in my truck during an Indian Creek snowstorm.