"I Can Do This" is my long time favorite saying. I used it to learn to ski and play golf. It comes in handy for creative activities too. I also remind myself of the 3 Ps, a mantra that we would recite to our son, "Remember the 3 Ps." There are a lot of good P-words: Patience, Participate, Persistence, Preparation, Practice, Pause, Powerful, and Peaceful to name a few. I could use all of them.
The last week of World Watercolor Month I thought I'd try painting rocks, something that has flummoxed me before. Rocks are hard, no pun intended, to paint so that they don't look like a bunch of potatoes. I tried once more and came up with a similar result. I found a good answer at a Julie Gilbert Pollard workshop put on by the California Watercolor Association. I finally succeeded painting rocks. I also realized that rocks are hard to paint, but water is even harder.
I did glean a few tips about rocks and water.
Even though rocks may be smooth in real life, I need to give them some angularity.
Splatter creates texture and the splash of water against rocks. Learning to splatter effectively is hard.
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You can see how connecting the splatters around the center circle can create the allusion of water splashes. |
The edge of a rock against water needs to be darker because it is wet.
And just like anything I paint, I need to think in shapes, not about what the object is in real life. I need to look at the object in relation to its neighbors. One of the exercises directed us to paint the values in the painting, not the objects themselves.
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Squinting at this will help you see the different values. |
Another showed me how to use DuraLar Wet Media film to test colors in parts of the painting
Reminding myself that I can do this and thinking of the 3 Ps, helped me to step back, take a deep breath, do preliminary work, practice before my final version, persist and go slowly.
Do you have a mantra that works for you?
Check out workshops with Julie Gilbert Pollard at: https://www.juliegilbertpollard.com
Read about Dura-lar Film here:
https://www.grafixarts.com/products/dura-lar-film/available through Dick Blicks
https://www.dickblick.com