It is said that an artist never goes for a walk.

He/she goes for a look and there can be no doubt that once you start to sketch and construct images on paper, you find that it becomes a habit to look at everything much more closely and you become that much more observant.

How does a certain tree bend with the wind? Is that church tower really taller than the tree behind it? Is that roof the same colour all over? Mind you, you can get some very funny looks if you are out for a walk with the family and you suddenly stop and gaze into the distance, muttering to yourself.

They are not to know that you have just seen the perfect landscape view you have been looking for for weeks! After all this, you might reasonably ask, how you can get started in art. After all, you haven’t painted since you were at school. To answer that, I would have to take you for a stroll near where I live and we will wander up Cheddar George and try to imagine the scene years ago.

Contented

Sitting in the entrance to Gough’s cave might well be a caveman with his family, dressed in animal skins and chomping on a mammoth burger at the end of a meal, he may well sit back contented and relaxed and pull a burning ember from the fire, blow out the flame and start to scratch on the nearest piece of flat rock with the blackened end. There are many examples of such cave drawings world-wide, the most famous of which were discovered in a cave complex in Lascaux in the Dordogne in France by some schoolboys in 1940, having remained hidden from upwards of 15,000 years.

That was the invention of charcoal sketching, a medium which remains today one of the most expressive and sensitive forms of art. Art students starting out at college still spend many of the early days practising, and hopefully mastering, charcoal work as it provides a base for all subsequent ideas.

So, there we are. To start your artistic career you merely require a piece of paper or card and either a pencil, pen, felt tip or biro (or, of course, a burning ember from your campfire) and you are ready to go. In fact a famous Past President of the Royal Academy of Art, Sir Hugh Casson, did most of his outdoor sketching with an ordinary fountain pen and writing paper. He was able to sit down in front of the most complicated of subjects - Westminster Abbey or Milan Cathedral or the Doges’ Palace - and sketch away with his Parker 51 to produce lovely accurate images of such buildings. He argued that he could use pencil but then he could rub out mistakes. By using ink he had to look much more carefully and make a much more considered mark.

Having completed a line sketch, he would then lick his little finger and start to smudge and smear the lines to make shadows and textures. This he called his “ink and spit” method. You can hardly get more basic advice than that. Recommended for convenience and cheapness, if not for hygiene, I am sure that it contravenes at least one EU regulation!

Mastered

Naturally, as soon as they have mastered black and white sketching, most painters will be anxious to move into colour but this will have to wait for a later article. This is merely designed to make you dip your toe (or brush) into the water of painting for a hobby. Naturally anyone who has a fancy to try what is a fascinating pastime, would benefit from some preliminary guidance and advice, particularly about materials - you need a lot less than you might think.

There are art groups and classed in most areas and most libraries, and most authorities can usually give advice about contacts. The one thing I cannot stress too much, is that you must never assume that you can’t paint, as I never cease to be amazed at how apparent total duffers can, with a bit of advice and encouragement, improve and produce paintings which astonish themselves and their rather incredulous friends and relatives. “You didn’t do that, did you?!”

Nearly all fellow painters will have suffered similarly in early days, and are usually only too ready to help and support the growing pains. So be brave, give it a try. You could impress yourself as well as your friends and family.