In watercolor, I like staying away from subjects like landscapes or still life or nature or basically everything realistic, because: it’s hard. And I feel like my output sucks.
I realized that I keep comparing my output with that of the masters and obviously, this isn’t what sane people do. Of course, my work will never be as fantastic as theirs, and that’s perfectly ok. I highly believe that our unique life experiences mold us to be different artists, and that’s what makes this world so fascinating. (I shouldn’t even be comparing in the first place!)
Practice helps improve your drawing muscles, so I try to practice as much as I can when I’m not OT or too tired from work.
Today I had OT and I had to do the laundry but I could not resist challenging myself with a landscape painting, something totally outside my comfort zone.
I used Kolan Peterson’s book: Watercolors Step-By-Step and decided to be inspired by his river painting but realized that I only have two out of around 10 colors he had mentioned I should use. In my excitement, I didn’t use pencil to outline the drawing (still not a pencil fan), and failed to stretch the paper as well. Ack. I splashed the base wash around the paper before I realized this so there was no turning back. I had to finish this since I didn’t want to waste the paper.
I tried my best to mix colors to be accurate to the painting and used my liner brush for the first time to draw grass and branches.
After 5 hours, I finished the painting, my first time to paint a landscape with watercolor.
What’s your fave subject to paint?
