Good evening,
I am new to painting in general. Without getting into the details, I've decided I will take up oil painting as a form of self therapy and to find myself a productive tactile hobby. I have a million questions I could probably ask, but I think it's easier to just ask where everyone suggests I start? Tutorials, video series, blog series, whatever. Assume all I'm bringing to the table is the very basic RGY understanding of color mixing we learned in kindergarten. I just learned what a medium is/does, for example. I'm about as new to painting as anyone can get, just after sticking your hands in the finger paint and glopping it all over a coloring book.
I tend to be the sort of person that learns how the Legos are made before trying to put them together. So if it could be helpful to learn about the compounds used to create the different paints (phthalo vs cadmium vs iron oxide, etc), that's one example of what I'm kind of looking for maybe. My background has been very detail oriented, very "master your understanding of it before you practice it", in nature. Why the Legos work the way they do is almost more important than the Legos going together in the first place (that's how I've been trained, professionally, and my profession has been more or less my life for two decades).
My first steps began a week ago when buying some canvas and paints for my daughters. My wife likes art - drawing, painting, clay, etc - and all three of my kids take after her. I bought some extra canvas and got sucked into a few Bob Ross videos later that night. I've done a few things just playing with colors, seeing how they mix. What I've learned is that there is more to mixing colors than "Red plus Yellow makes Orange".
I'm a bit of a metal head and love anything with weird colors and otherworldly aesthetic. My favorite movie art is The Land Before Time. I'm 40, and to this day nothing beats the art for that movie. I don't know if it's helpful to know this, but I figured I'd share it.
Tomorrow I'm going to pick a Ross video and just go. I don't have his exact paints, but I'll look up how to mix some of the colors I do have and get close enough. I'm excited to see how this all works out for me. I come from an engineering background, programmer by hobby and current education path. Creative things like this are not in my normal wheelhouse, but I very much need a passion that is real, tactile and produces something for me to be proud of. I'm in college and might even pick up a few electives in painting. This will help me grow closer with my wife and my kids, so I've got only good things to look forward to. I'm just hoping you guys might help point me in a good starting direction.