Somewhere along the line, a painter ceases to be a 'student', and becomes a 'painter'.
In years long passed, painters underwent a long apprenticeship, and then became journeymen, when the apprenticeship was finished. I do not know if this sort of system still exists in the world somewhere, but I do not think it exists in my neck of the(urban) woods... Chicago, Illinois, U.S.A... and if is does, I never had an opportunity to participate.
I just started painting in January 1996, and developed a plan as I went. I began in what seemed at the time to be a rather backwards way... after turning out a few paintings in 1996 (which was not a very productive year... 24 pieces), I discovered terra cotta clay, and began working in three dimensions. After a couple months, I stopped working 'in the round', and began making terra-cotta bas relief panels.
Then, in the spring of 1997, I discovered acrylic paint, and abandoned clay, and most 3D work. Beginning in December 1997, I did a lot of drawings with pencil and charcoal working from photos, which continued throughout the winter of 1998, along with acrylic painting. In the spring of 1998, I began painting seriously in oil, which continued throughout the summer, and in the fall of 1998 I shifted my focus to watercolour paint, and as the 1999 winter progressed, ink, and pastel (Conte chalk), and then oil pastels, and oil bar.
During the summer of 1999 I returned to painting in oil, and in the fall, reverted back to watercolour, but this time, also began to use acrylic paints on paper... treating them more like watercolours, than I had when applying them to canvas.
In 2000, 2001, and 2002, this pattern was repeated... oil painting in the summer, and water media in the winter, to avoid the smell of the oil paint, in an unventilated basement.
During these years, another phenomenon was taking place... my paintings were becoming smaller. I had begun painting large, and as I progressed, I began to run out of both materials, and places to store large finished work. While these were two driving forces behind the down-sizing of my work, I suspect that there was a third... what I was learning, could be learned just as easily (or more easily) on a small surface, as it could on a large surface.
As I progressed through 2002 towards the present (May 2003), another dynamic made itself apparent... I was beginning to 'loosen up' my work. When I first began painting, turning out work that was as 'accurate' as possible was very important to me. Because I was attempting to master things like perspective, the human face, etc., which I did not have firmly in my grasp, achieving these ends was my primary goal. By 2002, I had reached the point where I had produced some extremely accurate work in realism (or what passes for realism under my hand), and the internal pressure was diminished, for me to 'prove' myself to myself.
I began to draw political cartoons, and discovered that years of producing work from models, photos, etc., had not prepared me at all, for working from imagination, or memory.
In summer 2002, I went through my inventory of materials, and realised that I had a large quantity of small papers, canvasboards, and pieces of stretched canvas lying around (some for years), and decided that it was time to use it, before it became ruined. Also, by this time I had discovered eBay, and found out that one could sell their artwork on eBay, but that the work would sell for about the same price whether it was a very large oil painting, with a month's work invested, or an ink on paper, measuring 9" by 12", with an hour's time invested.
I began sketching... in pencil, dry media, watercolour, ink, oil... no matter the medium... they were all sketches, and increasingly I began to depend on memory and imagination to produce work, most of which still had its feet in representationalism, if not strict realism. Finally, in this past month... May 2003, I began to think about the journey my work has taken over the past years, where it is heading, and when I will decide for myself... as there is no 'master' to decide for me... I will end the 'student phase' of my work, and begin the 'journeyman phase' of my self-education.
According to what I suspect is usually taught in art schools and courses, people expect to progress from the 'basics'... pencil and pen sketching... to the more 'advanced'... complex oil paintings, and other multi-layered media. In my seven years experience working in the fine arts, I began at the 'difficult' end of the spectrum, and gradually progressed to the 'simpler' media, while at the same time, my compositions also became simpler.
I think that the confusion may lie in the language... 'simple' and 'basic', being confused with 'essential'... at least in my mind.
Beginning this month, May 2003, I have shifted my focus to what I consider to be the most difficult challenge I will face, as a 'student' grade painter... that of going to the easel and painting realistically, more than less... but without the aid of photos, preliminary sketches, or models, live or still life... constructing entirely from memory and imagination, what it is, my brain want to say. I figure it will take twelve to eighteem months, to grasp this skill to the point where I own it.
Then I will feel safe in considering myself a journeyman painter... after eight years of study... by the end of 2004.
It may be possible, that others can achieve this in less time... but I really cannot imagine how. I couldn't.
As for becoming an artist... well, heh. I will leave that discussion, for another time.