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Each project no matter how big or small teaches us something.  I’ve been working on a watercolor of a dog.  She’s not any dog.  She is Millie and Millie is a family member.  Millie lived halfway across the country but she still was able to teach me quite a bit. You see this is a gift for a friend of mine. Millie passed away a few weeks ago and my friend was devastated.

(Note: I wrote this last February and forgot to publish it then.)

Each and every piece of work you do teaches you something. The first thing Millie taught me was that I need to feel an emotional tie to my work. It not only makes me all that much more eager to do but to do it right.  I have always had the attitude that I want everything I do to be awesome.  Recently,  I made an active effort NOT to do this.  To allow myself the freedom to “waste” paper and supplies on just looking around and sketching things.  It took a few attempts  but it was liberating. I felt myself giving in and I was able to actually get a bit of pride from by sketches and water color plays.  I gave into the idea of experimentation.  I let go of my emotional bond with it.  I tend to rip out things in my sketchbooks that didn’t come out right and that’s not a good thing.  If you didn’t like something, walk away. When you aren’t as frustrated with it, come back to it and write down notes on what you didn’t like.  Learn from the exercise.  You may not be taking a formal class but we are all perpetual students. Teach yourself.

When I went back to doing something serious like a gift for someone else, I regained that emotional tie and really truly felt it this time. I can really see the difference this made in just the last two water colors I have done.  The mermaid is from a book/ kit called Faeries, Mermaids, and Angels: Creating Magical Worlds with Watercolor.  I’ve always been in love with mermaids and angels.   This really seemed like fun.  Now don’t get me wrong it was fun.  I loved sketching it out and doing it.  I was proud of how it turned out but not ecstatic.There is just a different feel or emotion when your artwork is someone who you know.  The emotions attached to the dog, in this case, not only urged me to do “a good job”   but it helped me to see deeper into the subject as more than something on the paper.  I so wanted her personality to shine through.  I wanted to exact an emotion in the dogs owner.  I wanted him to feel her love and affection looking back at him each time he sees her. I want him to see her  not “it”.  To feel like a little piece of Millie is still watching out over him.

That was the biggest lesson I learned from Millie’s painting.  I also was able to play with some more advanced blending techniques.  I realized that It’s time for me to move on to professional grade watercolor paper. The multiple layers of paint and water began to wear away at the paper and that was frustrating.  I also learned that even though I thought I wasn’t sketching too hard or using a dark  leaded pencil, I still needed to use a lighter touch.  It was distracting and hard to erase the marks under the paint.  You can add to that not to shade in darker areas like I so with graphite sketching.  Next time I’ll just make marks of key placement points.

Before starting this project I had read two books that showed me techniques that were key to my new success in Millie.  The first I have mentioned before, Lee Hammond and her drawing techniques were key to making Millie look proportional.  Her graph technique is a mainstay in my artwork now.

The second book is a new one I just bought from Amazon called Watercolor Secrets: An Inside Look at the Techniques of Award-Winning Splash Artists.  Rachel Rubin Wolf  puts together a geat group of accomplished water colorist and has them share a favorite technique they use.  I had my “Ah-Haa!” moment when I saw Catherine O’ Neill’s painting she named Two Grands.  The multiple layers of golden hues getting darker and darker were covered with browns and blacks.  When her step by step photos showed the warm golds just burn through in the richest hues by her re-wetting spots and dabbing with paper towels I was amazed.  That really helped me in putting the highlights into Millie’s fur.

Thanks for your time. I hope you like my painting and you decide to experiment a little.  I love the “forgive-ness”  of watercolor painting. Is that a word?

hugs!

Tags: Watercolor

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