I paint to be brave. Actually, I do a lot of things to be brave, but painting requires me to really step out of my comfort zone in a lot of ways. I don't feel confident sketching, making mistakes, letting go, learning to see the truth in the lie and not feeling like a liar, showing the art to other people, etc.
I love how my head feels when I paint. The process puts my brain in a really good, non-emotional place. This is especially important in the winter, when I'm not outside getting as much sunshine as I need and when I tend to brood. Brooding is bad unless you're a bird. Which I am not. Even though my name is Robin.
SO. For the next while, I'm going to be posting my artwork on the blog. I am not looking for approval, I'm just putting it out there so I can see it from a different perspective.
The photos of my art won't be fabulous. I paint when I can and that's often when the light is not great. I paint anyway. The photos aren't in great light either, but my goal with this is to get it posted, not get it ready for jurying into a show. So I'm posting them anyway. Feel free to ask questions.
Notes: I paint two or more paintings at a time because I hate waiting until things are dry to do more work on a piece and you kinda have to do that with watercolor. With 2 paintings, I can work on one while the other is drying. This was a great strategy! Double the practice and I can try something a bit different on the other painting as ideas occur to me. Bonus - I like different things about each one.
I'm taking a watercolor class online via Craftsy.com and many of these will be homework from the class. The teacher is Mary Murphy. I like her a lot and I like the way Craftsy lets you post projects, talk to each other, ask questions, etc. I'll be doing a landscape painting class later with a different teacher. I let you know when I start that.
Boat 9x12. Watercolor. December 2015Goal: Use a sponge for texture.
Execution: Used a fine sponge for added detail in grass in foreground.
Learned: I'm not a big fan of sponges, but now I know how to use one.
Goal: Use big brushes.
Execution: I started with the bigger brushes [1" and 3/4" feel huge to me] for the background, then worked smaller as I went.
Learned: I love working this way on larger paper!
Goal: Use really big paper.
Execution: Used really big paper.
Learned: It was a lot more comfortable than I expected. I need to start buying more big paper.
Goal: Use Frog Tape to tape out sections of the foreground/subject so I can paint better backgrounds.
Execution: I used the yellow tape to tape out the boat, did the backgrounds, then pulled the tape off and did the boat.
Learned: The tape trick totally works. Will do it again for large areas. [I also have the masking fluid for fine lines, small areas.]
