Beach Family

I spent a happy few hours yesterday painting the Different Strokes from Different Folks project, and blew out some of the doubts and negative energies that have been assailing me, though I must say for the first hour or so my overriding sensation was one of fear and panic - performance anxiety? Until little things started happening with the watercolour like
<--this and
<--this
which just made me remember how I love this stuff and to enjoy the process. I've also been devouring various articles, such as the latest Painter's Keys clickback and Karin Jurick's pep talk on motivation on DSFDS, which addressed many of my ponderings, and dipping into my copy of Art & Fear... it's wonderful how you can send out a little SOS to the world at large, and the answers come flowing in.

Karin's boots

I managed to do the Different Strokes project this time, with time to spare even! I liked the laces winding in and out and around, and thought I'd make that the main feature - but now I think I could have exaggerated them more... and I hoped the blues and browns I used (ultramarine, burnt sienna, Smalt and magnesium brown, all W&N) would granulate and make the boots look worn and scuffed, but they turned out looking pretty well-polished!

Shadows from Different Folks

After all that purple oil paint, I decided to join in with the Different Strokes from Different Folks project at the last minute. I got out my watercolours again, and some Caran d'Ache crayons for texture, and had a go at those shadows. They didn't come out the way I was intending them to - the Grumbacher Indigo that I used for the darkest tones, doesn't like mixing with others, and it is very dark indeed! But I quite enjoyed the unexpected results. I think this has a slightly ominous feeling, with the plain blue background... is it water? Is it sky? Is it a light?
I loved looking at all the interpretations from all the artists taking part - some fabulous paintings!

Different Strokes

Oh my, I couldn't resist - I had to do Karin Jurick's Different Strokes from Different Folks project this week. I feel like I'm lurching around from pillar to post trying this and that, on another of those byways depicted on a previous post 'Diversion', but I hope I'm learning from doing these exercises. This image reminded me of a little oil painting I did some years ago, of a woman sitting in a bus shelter, that was on one of my very first blog posts. I like the simplicity of the figures on the plain geometric backgrounds, and the ordinariness and quietness of their activities - maybe a series one of these days.

One thing I learnt is that I'm out of practice at drawing and painting people, something I do aspire to do well (I want to paint like Karin!). I like the newspaper man better when I stretch him upwards a bit and he's not so squashed looking, but that would be cheating. Well, on with the Still Life Duo project, and I have to paint our front garden path while it's looking lush and blossomy, and my son still wants his Old Masters portrait...