We could hear a lot of people telling us that looking back won’t help us move forward. That we should always think about the future in order to move on with our lives. I am not saying that I disagree but I think this statement is incomplete.
Indeed, living in the past is not good. However, not looking back at all will do you the same. If you’re going to ask me, I enjoy looking back and learning from it; knowing what went wrong in order to try to do things better in the future.
In this entry, I will be using the same concept with my art and I will also be showing you my process as well.
Grab your coffee or tea, get cozy, and join me to a journey through my creative past.
What you see is my entry for my “recreating old art” spread. Lately, a lot of artists are doing this in order for them to see the improvement of their art style and remind them of what they love about their previous style.
On the left side of the photo is my old art and the other one is the one that I did currently. I made the original piece two years ago.
Enough with the mushy stuff, let’s head on to the process…
MATERIALS
Side note: I was having my vacation in Philippines when I made this spread that is why I don’t have my usual materials. Luckily, I have hoarded paints and tools and was able to keep them at my bedroom.
Journal/Sketchbook
Watercolor tubes
Sketch tools
Two glasses of water
Mixing palette
SKETCHING
Whenever recreating an old art, I start of by determining the parts that I still love about the piece. From then, I will start to conceptualize my new piece. Taking all of the elements that I like and deciding how to use them for my new piece.
I always start with light sketches and will overlay them with darker strokes to finalize the sketch. I recommend doing the initial sketch on a different sheet of paper first then transferring them to your watercolor paper using a light table or a window with good light source. I did not do this step because I have neither.
PAINTING
After the final sketch, I paint my pieces with my favorite medium, watercolor. Nothing much has changed with my color palette, I still mostly used rustic colors because I just really love how they look like.
Maybe at least I can say that my style hasn’t been drastically changed but I would also like to think that I somehow improved. I take that as a compliment, as far as I want to grow as an artist, I want to be consistent with the feel and the main style of my artworks. I think that could separate me from others. I basically want to have an identity as an artist.
I will say this again, living in the past and always looking back is not healthy for anyone in any aspects if we just spend our time regretting. We have to move on; we have to take care of our future. But being able to look back and learning from it would definitely be an asset to you both as an artist and as a person.
I really enjoyed this painting exercise and I am already planning to recreate another one of my old artworks for a future post.
Let me know your thoughts in the comment section. I would love to have a discussion about this topic.
Thank you for reading this entry and I am hoping to see you on my next one…
I solemnly swear that I am going to write more often”
If you get the reference, then we should really be friends
HAVE A NICE DAY!
~Fenella Samson~
