A new perspective
Sometimes a new perspective can make all the difference. At the start of the week I was finding it hard to keep drawing cats. So I decided to change things up a little - but still keep within my theme for the month.
One of my favourite parts of any painting is the eyes. Today I drew a close up of a cat's face giving me a chance to draw bigger eyes, with more scope for the details I love so much.
Happily I can report that I loved every part of this painting process. Sketching was fun because it was a little bit more of a challenge to try and get all those important proportions right. And a new angle means you have to look harder - even at a familiar subject.
Painting was fun too. A new angle meant different brush strokes would work better as shapes and details were all larger. I must admit I experienced the same sort of delight when I painted an unusual pose earlier in the series - do you remember this one? A small adjustment like a change in angle, light, distance or pose can make a big difference.
It is funny how a new perspective can be all it takes to breath new life and enthusiasm into a tired project or problem.
What do you think? Has a new perspective worked for you before?
A graceful leap
I love the grace of cats, especially when leaping and bounding. Cat no 11 in my watercolour series for the month is making a graceful leap over a wall.
Hope she brightens your day!
A watercolour kitten
There is something irresistible about kittens. Even those who are not so partial to cats can't help but succumb to their charms.
In choosing a playful subject like a watercolour kitten I am hoping to remind myself to keep an attitude of play in the painting process. I think this is really important for many reasons, and feel strongly enough about that to have written about it before!
I have been enjoying painting cats more than I actually thought I would. I think that has made me want to paint them more skillfully. Consequently I am finding it harder and harder not to be disappointed with the outcome. So playful kittens as subjects are my current solution.
I think it works quite well. How can you not feel happy after staring at cute kittens for an hour or so?
Painting with watercolour is glorious
I saw a picture of a very regal looking grey cat, sitting in a lovely natural setting. I was looking forward to drawing him. Sadly, I can't say I liked the finished painting. Ah well... another day, another cat.
It has to be said that even though I didn't love the painting I ended up making, I always love painting with watercolour. The process of pushing paint over textured paper and watching pigments flow and mingle in the water is undeniably glorious. You really have to try it.
Don't let the inner critic with her harsh judgement spoil the whole experience in the final moments. And if you can, try to let go of attachment to the results before you begin. Oddly enough, the less one cares about creating impressive output, the better it turns out.
Try it for yourself. (Please don't forget to let us know if it holds true for you!)
Cat no 7
I wanted to paint this cat as soon as I saw it. I love the playfulness - nice to see she is still in touch with her inner kitten.
It was hard to know when to stop when this one. After much fiddling and adjusting I finally made myself put the paintbrush down and declare it done. So this is it for Cat No 7.
Getting past the 'ugly' stage of a painting... or not
I painted my first cat today without my Crazy Cat class - which I am rather missing, to be honest. Actually I also painted my second cat without Miriam's help. And the second is the one I am showing you. The first one is beyond redemption I fear.
All paintings go through an 'ugly' stage as we like to say. Usually you can get past this stage if you just persist. However, I think it is also wise to know when to quit. Let's call it letting go and moving on as opposed to quitting, shall we?
I used to think that moving beyond the ugly stage with a watercolour painting was impossible. In that regard acrylic is much more forgiving as the paint dries fast and is opaque, so it easily covers whatever it is placed on top of. Watercolour is transparent, and some colours stain so lifting out colour can be harder in some instances. Considerably more patience (or a hair dryer) may also be necessary as watercolour paint behaves differently on dry, damp and saturated paper. Not only do you need patience - you also need some experience to know how the paint will behave in each of those instances. The only way to gather that experience is to get on with making more paintings, whether they be good, bad or ugly.
I have learned that you can experiment, tinker and correct watercolour paintings far more than I once believed possible. But sometimes all you need to do is take a deep breath and find a new sheet of paper.
Ok, I know I have now made you more curious about the painting I 'let go of' than the one I posted up here. The question is... am I brave enough to show you....?
... oh alright... here it is.
Sigh.
Let's not speak of it again.
Painting white flowers can be a tricky business
Painting white flowers can present something of a challenge. White watercolour paint will just not do. Painting white flowers on white paper leaves you with little option but to paint them by not painting them at all. You have to paint the negative space around them leaving the untouched part of the paper to make the outline of the white flower. Then you can improve its shape and form by adding in some shadows.
It's a fascinating idea to have the daisy represented more by the space it takes up and the shadows it casts than by its own form. It makes me wonder if that is a little like the way we live our lives. Our impact is felt by the space we take up, and the imprint we leave behind. We can't help but be shaped by the way the world treats us. In equal measure, we leave our own mark on the world. Our environment and the people around us are changed by our presence. Hopefully for the better.
Occupy your space in the world proudly. Cast happy shadows. May the imprint you leave behind today be as joyful as the daisy's.
Watercolour poppies for beginners
Watercolour poppies for beginners
I found a really fun video on You Tube for today's watercolour flowers. Loose, happy poppies sitting on some grass painted with a straw - yes a straw!
Having access to so many ideas and techniques relating to whatever we want to learn is obviously brilliant. However, I am painfully aware that it is also something that stops us from taking action. It is very much easier to watch some one else paint than to get out all the supplies and have a go yourself. Especially if you suspect it will probably not turn out looking much like the one in the video. And of course, You Tube will then offer you all sorts of other similar videos to watch. Before you know it, you have spent the day watching lots of other people skillfully practicing something you wanted to do.
What a fascinating irony that the videos designed to teach us to paint something can also be the very thing stopping us from doing any actual painting ourselves. I fall prey to this all the time, but today I can say, (with a little less hypocrisy) switch off the video and get out your paints!
By the way, if you would like to paint along (or just watch and think about what it would be like to paint along..) here is the link to some watercolour poppy paintings for your viewing pleasure, including the one with the straw.
If you are a budding painter looking for a quick, manageable project, I think you will enjoy these watercolour poppies for beginners. The video is a fun introduction to painting without a pencil sketch (be brave, you can do it!), painting wet in wet, and using some less conventional painting tools.
And if painting flowers in watercolour is your thing, how about painting these joyful hydrangeas?
This is an easy painting project for a beginner. Learn all my tips and tricks to loose expressive watercolour painting in this real time narrated video tutorial lesson.
( No drawing is required - I’ve done that for you! )
Click on the button above and start painting loose hydrangeas today!
The best watercolour brush for beginners
Watercolour is fast becoming my favourite medium. I can't say it is easy - acrylic paint is far more forgiving I think. If you are just getting started with watercolour it is easy to get discouraged. If that resonates with you, I have two suggestions that might be helpful. They relate to one of the most important watercolour supplies for beginners. A great brush. The best watercolour brush for beginners can make all the difference when it comes to enjoyable painting.
Luckily, a good brush doesn't mean an expensive brush necessarily. When I started out I had a set of paints which came with a brush. I always wondered when to spend more money on a brush or if it was even necessary. It felt like a cop out - you know, a bad workman blames his tools. But there is always that little shred of hope - perhaps my painting would be so much better if I had a better brush....?
I now have a brush which has become the only brush I want to paint with. It is a Princeton Neptune Round No 12. Yes, that is quite a big brush. The thing about a good brush though, is that it holds its point well. That means that if you just use the very tip of the brush, and hold it vertical to the paper you can achieve a lovely fine line - even with a number 12. So my first suggestion is to find yourself one of these brushes. They are not too expensive and a total joy to paint with.
The second thing you can do to help yourself is to learn how to use this brush.
I think one of the easiest ways to do this is to watch someone else using it. One of my favourite You Tube teachers is Angela Fehr. She is also a fan of this very same brush, and recently put out a video which demonstrates some easy some leaf painting. Angela makes watercolour painting seem much more approachable. Check out her video here.
Explore more of the Tea Time post series here
See the kitchen inspired artwork available in the shop today
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Learn to illustrate with Danielle Donaldson
Creative Girls with Danielle Donaldson
I have been taking Danielle Donaldson’s delightful class at the Jeanne Oliver network. I have always loved drawing little characters and I have been trying to learn to illustrate by taking classes with as many different people as possible so that my own characters eventually find their own style. I am enjoying watching how my girls morph from Jane Davenport girls to Juliette Crane girls to Danielle Donaldson girls. I think with each transformation they retain a little something from each experience. I am fascinated to see how they end up. Maybe there is no ‘end’. Perhaps the point is that our drawings taking on a life of their own and perpetually evolve. I like that idea.
What is in the class?
This course covers character building, journal making, a little lettering and perspective and is mainly using watercolours which I am currently in love with. (Mercifully, as I was off to a bit of a rocky start with an early attempt at ‘traditional’ watercolours!)
Here are my Danielle-ish girls. I even played with my twinkling H2Os for the first time. Danielle doesn’t use those in the course - I just couldn’t resist giving the girls a bit of bling in a rather subtle way. Hmm.. Is that possible?…subtle bling?
Creative girls with Danielle Donaldson
Themed journals
I love the idea of a themed journal like this one that Danielle teaches you to put together. I didn't opt to bind my own journal although I do love doing that too. At the moment I have set my book up as Danielle instructs and I am trying not to feel scared of messing it up… I’m working in pencil like Danielle which is unusual for me - never been a fan of graphite but… yippee, you get to erase!
Cover Girls
Danielle’s cover girl is a character called Bad Penny. She is super cute. However, I couldn't quite bring myself to call any of my characters ‘bad’ … so I have a different Danielle-ish girl. I have popped her on the first page in my journal. I might recreate her on a separate sheet and stick her onto the cover of my journal eventually.
Working small
The course also teaches you to work small to build up confidence in developing illustration skills. This is an idea close to my heart, as I first learned the appeal of working in a teeny journal when I took one of Joanne Sharpe’s classes Draw Your Awesome Life, which I also highly recommend.
Perspective
Another part of the class I have really enjoyed is learning perspective. Danielle incorporates just enough of the technical skills of perspective to really help make more lively, realistic (and yet still whimsical) drawings. There is not so much of the technical skill building to stop the class feeling like fun as opposed to school. Look at my chairs… who knew drawing cute little chairs could be so fun?
This class is Danielle’s second creative girls class on Jeanne Oliver's network. I never took the first one, but after taking this class I think I might have to.
How to get creatively unstuck in 10 minutes
Get creatively unstuck with a ten minute journal
The creative voice is a quiet one. Sometimes, barely a whisper.
I think I'd like to draw. (Or paint, or write, or sing.)
She is earnest, hopeful and painfully shy. So easily shouted down by her noisy big brother's torrent of 'buts'.
But you are rubbish at drawing...
But what would you draw...
But you will make a mess...
But you don't even know where to start or what supplies to use...
But you should be doing something more useful...
Steven Pressfield calls this Resistance. The opposing force that fights our creative tendencies. To me it is the bullying brother of the little creative spirit. Cruel, perhaps, but protective. There to keep the fragile creative soul safe by preventing it from stepping out of its comfort zone or trying anything new.
Being safe is all very well, but it leaves you with a creative block. Recently, I have found out how to get creatively unstuck in 10 minutes.
Watercolour page from my 'Ten Minute Journal'
Rather than bullying that creative spirit into inaction, all it needs are some boundaries. Just like a small child.
I am taking Juliette Crane's online class called 'Bliss', in which Juliette talks about regaining the fun and freedom of creating by doing little 5 or 10 minute paintings. Well, she is quite right.
I had managed to make drawing and painting feel like an overwhelming task that I could not fit into my day for so very many reasons. But adopting this technique of a ten minute journal has really helped. Often it spurs you on to do a bigger project, but even if it doesn't, you have had the delicious little pick-me-up of a quick play with colour and line.
So the rules of my ten minute journal are designed to create a happy, safe and fun place where I can just enjoy the process of drawing and painting, liberated from those 'buts'. They go something like this:
the journal is small (and square which I love, but I don't think it matters!)
the paper is nice enough to take watercolour but not so expensive that I will feel bad about 'messing it up' (life is too short for bad paper, as Jane Davenport would say)
each painting takes 10 minutes
I can only use watercolours and black pens and white pens
colours are limited to a palette of three (yes, I break this rule often... and usually regret it)
each picture includes a character (e.g. a face, a figure, maybe an animal or bird)
The good thing is that these limits are totally liberating. I am using my travel watercolours and a waterbrush so I can do this anywhere - usually on the couch in front of the TV. I don't have to make decisions about what to draw and what materials to use. Each picture is going to be done in 10 minutes so it's never going to be perfect. Some times I love them, sometimes I really don't. Either way it doesn't matter. In ten minutes I will turn the page and forget about it.
Try it and see.
Abandon perfection and just enjoy being creative.
Permission to be a beginner
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| Mixed media painting of quirky animals produced in the online class 'Lifebook 2014' |
I have been watching my children learn new things, as only children tend to - with joyful abandon. A child is free from judgement and gives themselves permission to be a beginner. They are children, therefore, by default, they are beginners at everything and we have little or no expectations of them. When do we stop granting ourselves the same freedom? Learning new things is like breathing to me. I think it is healthy and that we actually all do it continually, consciously or otherwise. But as adults we have much higher expectations of ourselves, even if we are trying to do something we have never done before. So when we pick up a paintbrush/golf club/musical instrument for the first time in our adult lives we can be so easily discouraged by those first attempts. Poor first attempts are inevitable. Actually, they are an entitlement. We have the right to play and experiment with something new, just like a child would. Turn out something as atrocious as you please - it may be the only way to getting to producing something you actually like! Jane Davenport advises that you 'trust the mess'. I see what she means. You start drawing or painting. You don't like it. Sigh. But it might just be that if you can figure out what you don't like you will have a go at changing something. Nothing to lose, right? That 'figuring out' and experimenting is the way to learn. There don't seem to be any short cuts. In an interview with Ian McKendrick (which you can hear, here) watercolour artist David Bellamy has similar advice for beginners. He suggests we should just "Get out and do it... accept that you are going to make a mess to start with". Hearing David talk about his own early work was a reassuring reminder that even the accomplished started out at the same sort of point as we did. So let's go and try something new and be prepared to do it badly to start off with. Is there something you have considered trying to learn? Does fear of being bad at it put you off trying?
"Never compare your beginning to someone else's middle" John Acuff
The delicate art of giving and receiving feedback
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| Mixed media journal page created in Jane Davenport's online class 'Create Emotion' |
Feedback is a great way to learn. We all need it...but can we take it? As you may know, I have something of a mixture of fear and reverence when it comes to watercolour. My early experiments had given me enough confidence to think about taking a class. You know, an actual live in person class... Remember those? It was an evening class which already gave me pause. I take it as an indication of my enthusiasm and commitment that I signed up in the first place since, typically, by 7 p.m. I am not good for much other than curling up on the sofa in front of the TV. Anyway, I dutifully (and nervously) packed up the necessary supplies... An extensive list, as watercolour can require a fair bit of paraphernalia, and having rushed around feeding the family early, I dashed off to my class. In the second lesson, we were painting yachts on the sea. The teacher would demonstrate at the front, then walk around the class a bit while we had a go at replicating what she did. When she got to me she paused. "Hmm," she said. Uh-oh. Then she whisked the paper off the easel, held it aloft and called everyone's attention in order to discuss the problems associated with introducing too many colours, and not properly integrating them. A perfect example of this error provided by my good self. It's okay, I'm a big girl, we are a small intimate group (of strangers who met for two hours last week). I can handle it. Everyone is going to make mistakes and we will be doing this with someone else's work next... Actually no, just mine...it turned out. Too little water, look at this everyone, ...not enough paint.... Typical composition error... etc, etc. Outwardly I think I handled this admirably. You know, a bit of grave nodding, hopefully looking detached but interested. My inner child, however, had her arms crossed very high over her chest, thunderous eyes looking up through lowered brows, bottom lip thrust forward. I think she may even have stamped her foot. Well, by the third time my painting went flying off the easel I could see her point. She thought I should tell the mean lady that Lovely Jane does this so much better. Isn't it customary to begin with a random platitude? Perhaps even a "very-nice-dear-but-perhaps-you-could-try...." ? Feedback is so important, it is such a good way to learn. But I think that giving helpful feedback might be even harder than receiving it. I think I might stick to the safety of my online classes till I have acquired a bit more skill, or a thicker skin. I'll aim for both.
Three ways to get started in watercolour
I have something of a love-hate relationship with watercolour. I have owned a set of watercolours for over 10 years. Mostly they encouraged me to buy more books on how to paint with watercolours, but actually using them has been the hard part.They are daunting. Sounds so simple. Just add water. In fact it is the water that is both the charm and the vice here. It is because of the water that the colours blend and pool the way they do. It is because of the water that control of the colour is so elusive.I have a few suggestions if you are thinking of dipping your toes in the water...colour... so to speak....The first is to let go of trying to control the watercolour and just playing for a while, figuring out what the water and paint will do together. In fact, there is an entire online class I found that is based on this premise. It's by Michelle Brown and it is called 'Loosen Up'. So obviously when I heard about it, I knew she was talking to me.
The second is to let go of the idea of trying to produce something like the classic chocolate box landscape or seascape entirely in watercolour and use it more simply, as a colouring medium. Start with a permanent pen (i.e not water soluble) line drawing and then use the watercolour to fill it in like an illustrator might.Thirdly, keep it simple. Try painting a single subject with no background, like a flower or a pear. I took Martha Lever's Color Drop Flower class. In fact it was the first time I actually used my watercolour set in 10 years. Martha makes it all seem quite approachable.Watercolour is actually quite glorious. But it takes faith in the medium and quite a bit of patience to find this glory.
Is it possible to be disciplined without a deadline?
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| Tiny journal page from my latest online class 'Draw Your Awesome Life' |
I have been feeling a bit overwhelmed by being a bit behind on my online classes. On the one hand, there is really no such thing as being behind. The classes typically have long access, 6 months, a year or 'forever' access. So actually you can complete them in your own time. On the other hand, there is a lot to be said for the sense of satisfaction that comes from completing something promptly. A bit of structure is important I think. Does one actually need a deadline of some sort in order to be disciplined enough to complete the task?
I remember in high school I had a maths teacher who said she would happily correct our homework if and when we chose to hand it in, but that was up to us. I could so have got a better mark for maths. I blame her. I don't want my art classes to end up like high school maths, left to last because other things had more urgent deadlines. So with the weight of those uncompleted art assignments added to my maths homework (which I have obviously still not done), I sighed and started web browsing.
Before I knew it I had... signed up to another class! I know, but it seemed logical at the time. And this class is different. (Not really). Well, a little. It is completed in a tiny watercolour journal. Hurrah, I had one of those knocking about already. It is even a Moleskine and I have had no idea what to do with it since I bought it several months ago.
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| Another tiny journal page created in 'Draw Your Awesome Life' |
This class is called Draw your Awesome Life, by Joanne Sharpe. Each lesson video is brief, maybe even 5 minutes or so, and since you are working in a tiny journal, the page can possibly be completed in 10 minutes. Even if you sit down with a cup of tea you will probably be only half an hour from the start of the lesson video to the completed page. That's not to say that I don't love the long detailed lesson videos I do in other courses. Of course, they are fantastic too. But these little bite-sized lessons offer very achievable, happy journal pages, for de-stressing. There is a time and place for all of these things, don't you think?