There is nothing quite like the joy of learning to paint and finding out all the little ‘tricks’ that improve your artwork.  As a self taught artist, who first really began painting just over a year ago, I am still in the process of discovering effective techniques- and I really do mean DISCOVERING.  There is an absolute wealth of information available in books, magazines, and on-line for anyone who wants to learn a thing or two about the ‘proper way’ of painting.  I could have spent hours and hours reading some of these sources of information in great detail before I embarked on my journey of discovering how to paint, but I didn’t.  I found that the more I read, the more I became overwhelmed with information and afraid that I would do it wrong.  As a general rule,  I just don’t believe that something done for enjoyment should be tainted by any sort of anxiety or fear of failure-where is the joy in that?  So I threw caution to the wind and started to paint, and despite having NO idea what I was doing, …