After a brief break, I’m finally getting back into the groove of daily painting. I’ve been silent on instagram this week, but that doesn’t mean that I haven’t been painting. It can be stressful to post to social media several times a week and I really needed the break.
I jumped back in with the dog painting I had started last week. Apparently it only takes a brief break from painting to forget how to do it. I fiddled with this painting for way too long, and it didn’t work out at all. While I didn’t really want to show it to anyone, I think it is important to not hide my failures. Not every painting is successful and that’s ok. The important thing is to practice, improve, and enjoy what you do.
The next painting worked out much better. The whole process from start to finish was much more enjoyable and I could feel myself slipping back into my painting groove.
I’ve been sitting on this sheep picture for well over a year. It was taken at The Hole in the Rock Zoo which is a tiny roadside attraction south of Moab, Utah. There are only a small handful of animals at the zoo, but you can purchase food to feed them as you walk through which is fun for the kids.
More and more I’m not interested in painting teeny tiny details. This painting was nothing but tiny details and it drove me nuts to paint. I used the smallest brushes and it seemed to take forever. I either need to stop painting whole bodies of animals or paint them on much, much larger paper. Despite my struggle, this painting wasn’t a failure. It’s a cute little portrait of my now fully grown pup Whiskey.
This next painting is one I’ve already done. It was one of the paintings I did the very first week of gouache painting. In that first week I had painted the whole body, but this time I focused on the head. Even if I had painted the whole body, the difference between my skill level in week one and now would still be apparent.
If you read last week’s post, you’ll know I have a commission I’m working on. I certainly haven’t forgotten about it but it is on the back burner for the moment. I want to get a few successful paintings under my belt again before attempting to work on it. Unfortunately, I’ve built it up in my mind as some big deal when in reality it’s just another painting. I will be tackling it soon enough though.