Do you remember those little palettes of Crayola watercolors that were on your school supply list in Kindergarten? I do. I may or may not have one in my backpack at this precise moment. What can I say, they're fun.
Despite this, I really am not very good at using watercolors. I ADORE the things that I can do. There are examples of watercolor paintings floating around out there that absolutely astound me. I'll refrain from leaving some examples here, because if there's one thing I've learned, it's that showing a master's work before your own is, simply put, dumb.
So here's my latest, unmasterful effort:
Despite this, I really am not very good at using watercolors. I ADORE the things that I can do. There are examples of watercolor paintings floating around out there that absolutely astound me. I'll refrain from leaving some examples here, because if there's one thing I've learned, it's that showing a master's work before your own is, simply put, dumb.
So here's my latest, unmasterful effort:
A Mini Cooper! Just after Thanksgiving, my handsome man Paul and I went to a Cars and Coffee show down here in Knoxville. I got to take my camera and try to blend in while taking as many pictures as I could. Environments like that are a struggle for me. It was a HUGE event. They had everything from the local teenagers' rusty and neon-encrusted tuners to a McLaren 650 driven into the carefully-guarded lot of Jaguars, Lotuses, and other foreign, metallic beauties. Just deciding where to let my eyes rest for more than a second was a challenge. Then, I have Paul bouncing around like an electrocuted racquetball, blowing by just long enough to share some fact that bubbled to the surface of his freakishly massive ocean of automotive knowledge (which, by the way, is always interesting and cool to hear). And somehow, in the fray, I am supposed to be taking pictures of decent quality without being in the way of everyone else who's trying to get a glimpse of the automobile... It was a bit of a soup sandwich, my friends. Still fun, though! I'd do it again in a heartbeat.
In terms of the attempt at watercolor... I mean, look at it. I give watercolor a shot for use in an actual painting roughly once every three months, and following this attempt, I'm definitely going to do so far more often. I pulled off the finer details much more aptly than I expected I would, but then there's the back passenger tire... Oooh, lordy. It's... flat? Swollen? Lumpy. Diseased. All of the above. And that's just the start of the obvious flaws.
I remember a moment during an art class in college when the subject of my iffy watercolor came up. It wasn't even for a real painting. It was a big sheet of paper with a bunch of abstract stencils traced all over the place, filled in with watercolor. During the critique, I jokingly made a reference to my insecurities when it came to watercolor, because my self-confidence hardly exists, and somehow it makes me feel better to bring to light any and all flaws I know myself to have as soon as possible so that no one who is about to speak thinks even for a second that I might think, laughably, that I know what I'm doing (<- see, perfect example). What followed was a mildly humiliating session of everyone in the class giving suggestions as to what I could do to suck less at watercolor (masking fluid, using gouache instead, etc.). In a way, I asked for it. I blatantly said, "I suck at using watercolor." But then I got all sensitive when they responded appropriately. And here I am, a good year later, still immensely insecure about my lack of watercolor skills.
Moral of the story (because there is one, I swear) is simply to keep trying! I know I will (which means that there will be more shoddy watercolor images to come - YOU'VE BEEN WARNED), and I hope that you will too, with whatever it is that you choose to pursue. This wasn't my first failure, and it won't be my last. But with some research and a ton of practice, I know that things will turn out.
And it'll be fun.
Thanks!
In terms of the attempt at watercolor... I mean, look at it. I give watercolor a shot for use in an actual painting roughly once every three months, and following this attempt, I'm definitely going to do so far more often. I pulled off the finer details much more aptly than I expected I would, but then there's the back passenger tire... Oooh, lordy. It's... flat? Swollen? Lumpy. Diseased. All of the above. And that's just the start of the obvious flaws.
I remember a moment during an art class in college when the subject of my iffy watercolor came up. It wasn't even for a real painting. It was a big sheet of paper with a bunch of abstract stencils traced all over the place, filled in with watercolor. During the critique, I jokingly made a reference to my insecurities when it came to watercolor, because my self-confidence hardly exists, and somehow it makes me feel better to bring to light any and all flaws I know myself to have as soon as possible so that no one who is about to speak thinks even for a second that I might think, laughably, that I know what I'm doing (<- see, perfect example). What followed was a mildly humiliating session of everyone in the class giving suggestions as to what I could do to suck less at watercolor (masking fluid, using gouache instead, etc.). In a way, I asked for it. I blatantly said, "I suck at using watercolor." But then I got all sensitive when they responded appropriately. And here I am, a good year later, still immensely insecure about my lack of watercolor skills.
Moral of the story (because there is one, I swear) is simply to keep trying! I know I will (which means that there will be more shoddy watercolor images to come - YOU'VE BEEN WARNED), and I hope that you will too, with whatever it is that you choose to pursue. This wasn't my first failure, and it won't be my last. But with some research and a ton of practice, I know that things will turn out.
And it'll be fun.
Thanks!