My Mom has a gentleman friend named Herman. He has a Masters's degree in art from Yale. He also buys very expensive chickens when asked to stop at the store. 😹 He is a very special man and I admire him more than I can express in words.
When I started on my art learning journey I would text him a photo of a few of the art pieces I had made. He was very sweet and always gave me positive feedback to keep going and learning. You can not ask for more than that from someone.
Time went by and a few weeks ago he sent me a care package. Inside the box was his watercolor set, his set of oil pastels, and a Yale magazine with a bunch of articles about writing children's books and art. I was so excited to receive that package!
Over the last months, I have been working on a concept for a character that would be the building block of many stories to come.
I have many sketches of her. Some painted some not. I never liked how they ended up. Something was always off with each sketch or painting I had tried to make until the day I added flowers in her hair. She wasn't perfect but she made me smile. I decided I was going to try and paint her on the good watercolor paper I had.
Last night I realized the dining table was not going to get cleared off anytime soon. My husband wasn't going to cut the plexiglass, he brought home and asked if I wanted, into usable shapes for me anytime soon either. I taped the watercolor paper to my computer desk.
Yes, I started painting at about 1 AM. Doesn't everyone decide to start a very important project at that time of night? 🙉
The colors of the watercolor set Herman sent are beautiful. I was in a hurry to start painting and did not do my own swatches of each color. I was basing the paint colors off of the color sheet that came with the box.
Let's just say making swatches of those paints is next on my list of things to do! But really, when have I ever done anything in the order a normal person would?
3:30 AM
At 3:30 AM I decided I had pushed my very limited skills in mixing colors, painting, and patients to the nth degree. My desk was covered in my painting. It was time to stop and go to sleep. The paint needed to dry also. It always amazes me how different watercolor looks after it has dried.
I figured when I woke up about.....1 PM'ish I would start working on it again. Yeah, that didn't happen.
What did happen was every truck in the Village I live in decided that 8:30 AM was the perfect time to clean up the leaves on the road in front of my house. Once I knew to sleep, anytime soon, was not an option, I walked downstairs to look at the painting. She needed help. Badly.
While is a sleep daze I finally mixed up a skin color I liked. I made sure I mixed enough paint to not run out. Trying to duplicate the same color is always a crapshoot. While I was letting the new skin color dry a bit I decided the rest of the smaller details would be done in black pen liner.
Looking through the bag I had stuffed the liner markers in I came across a walnut bush tip liner. If the words 'I wonder IF this will work' enters your head, chances are you should put it down and go with your first instinct and grab the fine liner black marker. Live and Learn! 🙀
I love how she turned out!!
Yes, there are many things wrong with the final piece of art but it doesn't matter. Looking at it makes me happy. Looking at it makes me smile. Isn't arts purpose to tell a story and make you feel something when looking at it? I think it is and this painting does that for me.
Thank you for reading about my art journey. I am sure you will see her in other forms a few more times while I learn more and more each day.
Now I am finally going back to sleep for a little while. Have a wonderful day!!
Help someone smile today. It can not hurt you.
Snook
All photos are mine unless otherwise stated
