When I was around 4, my sister began taking drawing classes from one of our Mom's friends who ran art classes from her basement. Once I was 5, I joined her. On Saturdays, we would go over to her house and join the many other students who were learning art. While neither of us were looking to do art as our occupation, we still enjoyed learning this useful skill. Our teacher had an order of artistic areas that she had most of her students follow, including us. It started with animals made of simple shapes, which we drew with HB pencils and crayons. Then more complex cartoon-style pictures, such as a subject with a background, but using colored pencils instead of crayons. Next would be either be 3D shapes and shading or colored pencil landscapes. After both of those units would be sketching busts that resembled the style of Greek statues. Many would then start painting, which started with acrylic and then only occasionally advanced on to oil. At that point, many would then either continue with their preferred medium or already be old enough to be heading to college.
When I began, I was one of her youngest students, and advanced at the normal rate. I followed the order mentioned above fairly closely, and had a lot of fun learning various drawing and painting techniques. My sister left when she reached middle school, but I continued until my sophomore year of highschool. I didn't leave because of any reason in particular, it's just that the times that I used to be available to go to drawing were now taken up by all-day-long competitions like robotics (in middle school) or Science Olympiad (high school). While I don't go to classes anymore, I still enjoy drawing when I have the time to.
I started with colored pencils
Then I moved onto oil pastels
I went back to colored pencils and started using graphite
I participated in a few competitions
I also used acrylic paints
Here are some progress pictures of one of my recent paintings
