So far I've said almost nothing about technique. I think it's best to have a solid sense of your own creativity, of the way you want to express yourself, before committing large amounts of time to learning technique. Technique is definitely important to all art forms. It is the left brain complement to the right brain of feelings and creativity. Uniting the two gives you a whole experience of yourself and can lead to your most satisfying works of art. Here are some quotes about technique by some of our greatest artists:

-- With practice the craft will come almost of itself, in spite of you and all the more easily if you think of something besides technique. (Paul Gauguin)

-- One mustn't let technique be the consciously important thing. It should be at the service of expressing the form. (Henry Moore)

-- You can't learn techniques and then try to become a painter. Techniques are a result. (Jackson Pollock)

-- To be interested solely in technique would be a very superficial thing to me. (Andrew Wyeth)

-- If we now seek the spiritual significance of the technique of Michelangelo we shall find that his sculpture expressed restless energy... (Auguste Rodin)

These artists knew technique very well, but subordinated it to the expression of an idea. If they had not had an idea they wanted to express, technique would have led them nowhere. Express yourself. Be an artist.

Quotes are from The Painter's Keys.