Some people have been interested in the digital sketching process – so – here’s a video export.
I used the app ProCreate on the IPad. One of its neat features is the ability to automatically make these replays of every brush stroke. If only it was this easy to record a watercolor!
[^ Just a screenshot ^]
Things to note:
Big brushes: I use the biggest brushes I can. Even bigger relative to the image size than with real-world media, because digital makes it possible. In real life, this would have to a 6” diameter Japanese calligraphy brush. And it would take a bucket of paint. This would be pretty messy and expensive (so much paint!).
Layer/Draw/Erase loop > A: Swipe and Erase: This is something I do all the time. It’s essential to my approach to digital painting.
- Use a new layer so I can lay a big swipe of color across the painting.
- Erase it back to the shape I really wanted. I just find this more accurate – and I get more interesting edges than if I tried to force the software to draw exactly the right shape in one stroke. Especially for something tiny like this ribbon of light onto horizon.
- I use the ‘Jagged Brush’ preset in ProCreate quite a bit – (it’s like a splayed mop) and I use the same brush on the eraser, so none of my digital mark-making has that ‘overly clean’ look of digital drawing.
- Stay away from the generic mono-weight digital pen stroke!
Swipe and Smudge:
- Make a new layer,
- Sketch in some lines, patterns of dots, or just draw a brush swipe,
- Smear the edge of that shape with the smudge tool (shaped like a finger).
- This is similar to the stroke-erasing method, but gives a different edge quality. It’s sort of how you expect blending to work in oils, but much cleaner. More perfect amount of blend. You can also adjust the size and pressure of the blend tool.
I should also say – I do not use an iPencil or other stylus. I prefer to just paint with my fingers. I can’t be bothered keeping the pen charged etc, and – you’re always doing things like [two-finger pinch and zoom] or [two-tap for undo], [three-tap for redo]. I find it annoying to put down and pick up the pen all the time. I just finger paint the whole thing and I have gesture controls – at my finger tips! <wooomp wahhhh – dad joke]
Anyway. I find digital painting terrific for studies. I’m not sure I’ve figured out using it for finished work yet. But one day! I keep hoping it will become a wonderful new art form. It has so much promise for ease-of-use and instant sharing.
Feel free to post any of your own digital art in the comments!
~m
Day One : #30x30DirectWatercolor2019 : Stormy Skies
Ok! Here we go with thirty paintings in thirty days! Wish me luck and you’ll have that goodwill back in spades for your own painting marathon :)
This was my very first sketch. It was the first idea for the entire series, containing everything all in one painting. The massive black shapes, the high contrast glints, in a way, this is the first drawing and the best one in the series.
At this point I’ve done 45 or so black and white digital sketches like this, and am just starting to translate them into watercolor. I’m very interested to see what actually happens. My hope is, I can take these black and white shape sketches and add color instinctively. With no plan when I start, just instinct.
It’s quite a gamble, to do the entire project based on this theory :)
That’s probably why I did three versions of this right off the bat. All painted on the same day. These cloudscapes can go pretty quickly. There’s so little drawing to do, I can simply start filling the page with color.
Each one of these uses wet-on-dry painting. That is, starting with dry paper. I paint the sky all in one go, trying to preserve the whites as little gaps in my huge brush strokes.
I leave a little dry edge so it doesn’t bleed into the sea, and repeat the process – painting the lower half, all in one go.
The biggest difference is the use of granulating blacks in the second piece.
I’m using Lunar Black. A pigment from Daniel Smith. Here, I probably mixed it with Turquoise, which is giving a blue-tinted bleed.
Lunar Black in an incredibly granular pigment that just falls out of the washes in this pebbly effect. It’s hard to control if you want a specific effect, but I love it for what it does on its own.
Now. This third one. I intend to show it like this.
It’s a perfect painting of a field of dirty snow. Something I know quite well from living in Alberta.
It is, of course, the third variation of the sky. But I happened to put it down on the table flipped, and found out by accident that I like it.
I don’t know what you think about flipping a painting and saying – “Oh yes, I meant to do that. This is perfect”. But A: I don’t care, I like it. And B: I don’t care, I like it. :)
I mean – it works! There’s kind of a weird psychological kink among *some painters*, where a thing has to be as hard as possible or it isn’t worth doing. If something came accidentally, then it’s not valid. Because you didn’t sweat for it. I think it’s tied to the idea that the number of hours something takes is how you measure its value.
I just don’t think art is measured per hour like plumbing or legal representation. Art has an inherent value. The mystic power of a painted image to create an imaginary world into which your mind can travel. This has nothing to do with whether “it happened by accident”, or, “it took me a hundred hours to paint it”. Because of course, accident isn’t always accident – it can be experience. The ability to see something and make a decision to accept it.
Besides. If I’d never told you, you’d never have known.
Oops. Meant to publish in the AM. Ok no problem – we start a few hours early :) ~m
Good morning everyone! It’s the first day of #30x30DirectWatercolor2019!
I wanted to start out easy with a mini interview with our co-organizer Uma Kelkar. (NOTE: All the paintings in this post are Uma’s work.). I’ve been getting to know her better during the ramp up to #30×30 – so I took the chance to ask her some pointed questions.
MARC:
This is the second year we will be doing 30×30 together. I know we both have big plans. (Find out more about Uma’s Project Vivify)
I want to ask you a few things that are on my mind. And I hope new readers can learn a bit about you.
I know you do both watercolor and iPad paintings. We both have worked in tech, and know the power of new media. So my first question: Why do you persist in making art ‘by hand’? (paper, pigment, and brush) – versus committing to making images ‘with technology’. (Software, photography).
UMA:
Art is primarily selfish and I enjoy pleasing myself with it. All self-pleasurable things build on themselves – and especially watercolor painting which is never the same as the day before.
It keeps giving the self-satisfaction – even self-consolation at times. My relationship with painting is almost sexual – when the brush touches the paper and I get the right value and smooth gradient with a brush, it’s akin to sexual pleasure.
MARC:
I certainly appreciated Uma’s answer :) but I asked her for some more about digital painting – because it’s on my mind this year, considering my own strategy for 30×30.
UMA:
“The brush touch is better than an iPad touch. The ‘feedback’ – the drag of the paper and the spring of the brush. In comparison, the iPad feels cold. The glass surface is too slick, to un-yielding”.
“There’s pleasure in controlling something that doesn’t want to be controlled.” (watercolor). Digital drawing takes away this risk and therefore makes it less thrilling. Also – it’s faster – 30 minutes of watercolor gets you so much more than 30 minutes of digital”.
(Ed. note; paraphrasing a chat) In fact, Uma says she tried to enjoy digital with every generation of the iPad, but it just wasn’t good enough until the introduction of the iPencil in 2017. It is only with the new pressure and tilt control that she finds the iPad to be a real tool for art.
MARC:
Assuming you are painting primarily ‘from life’ – (I see mostly “places” in your published work) why is this your subject matter of choice? Is it simply convenience, is it a question of skill-building, or is it driven by (your belief about) what other people like?
UMA:
“When we spoke this morning Marc, you hit the nail on its head calling art as a stand-in for virtual travel.
Painting rescued me when I was a new mother by being this intimate activity I could do just for me, where no one else’s opinion mattered but mine and the watercolor usually reacted to my emotions.
My older son was still young and I couldn’t travel. A full-time startup job and there were no more hours in the week to make trips. So, painting beautiful scenes was my escape. I’ve always wanted to live among trees (I am a complete wimp about rats/mice/bugs but I think I will overcome this fear). Trees calm me down.
Hiking is another family past time. Hiking and drawing is a way to make time for art. With a young family whose day time was precious, we could unwind in nature and I could get a quick painting in.
This is the story of why I became a ‘landscape’ painter primarily in the eyes of the viewer. For the record, I draw absolutely everything and my collection of bathroom sketches is extensive. Where do you think new moms draw? Bathrooms!
Anyhow, Silicon Valley lifestyle led to another skill: I spend about 2-3 hours daily in mind-numbing commute. Which means, if I see a good composition, I can actively see, note it to memory and then repeat the looking either next day or the next time I pass by the composition.
I recall this scene when I paint next. I front load my memory with the scenes I have seen and when I am back in the studio (yes, got a studio in 2018) I can put down the atmosphere I felt onto paper.
At least that’s what I’d like to think I can do.”
MARC:
Later in a chat, Uma said some more about how she balances work, life and art. She says it’s actually an advantage to have a busy life. That she would not make the art she does if it were not a conscious decision to make time every week.
Being a working mother forces her to be present and ready to create when it’s time. It sounds like a good solution to never having artist’s block.
Uma also talked about the importance of building a supportive circle around your art.
UMA:
“You need a supportive family – even the kids – they see you happy, so they want to make the time for you to work – that’s important. To make them part of your art practice”.
Uma says – and I think this is genius – she consciously trained her family, but at the same time they want her to succeed and make art, so it’s a positive, virtuous feedback loop.
I asked her if she ever resents her career and family – many female artists have been vocal about the sacrifices they had to make in order to be artists. Uma says this is not the case. It works for her, and it is not her ambition to be a full-time artist. The proper balance of art, a tech job, and family is exactly what she wants.
Very interesting answer! I don’t hear that often in artist interviews.
MARC:
Last question: Is it necessary for art to have narrative or conceptual content? (Story, Politics). Or is it sufficient that it be a physical/visual experience for the viewer? Is painting propaganda, or is it a message for the viewer? (or a roller coaster ride).
UMA:
”Art has to work for the creator. Eventually, as long as the artist does the job of sharing her/his work, the requisite audience pools around artists whose work they connect with.”
I think she slightly dodged my question – which was aimed at ‘what is the message behind your art’. But she said later in the chat that this isn’t really relevant or important for her.
Her work doesn’t have a pre-determined agenda because it’s a reflection of her experiences. She is producing art as part of her life. Her work is a projection of her feelings when she’s in a place. The world around her is reflected back in her paintings.
“This is a kind of ‘documentary’ or ‘journaling’ art practice that I think is the core of plein air painting or urban sketching or any of the various movements where the artist is going out into the world to see what they can find.
There is more ‘out there’ to inspire than back in the four walls of the studio”.
>>>>
So that was a fascinating discussion! It’s been great to learn more about what goes on inside the head of one of my favorite painters.
I can’t wait to see what Uma does with this year’s 30×30 painting marathon.
My Goals for #30x30DirectWatercolor2019
I’ve been thinking about my goals for #30×30.
If any of you guys are participating this year – maybe you are also planning right now?
It’s an interesting working model – a 30 day marathon. A self-contained chunk of time. Significantly longer than a week-long sprint (for instance #OneWeek100People). 30 days is long enough to complete something major, but short enough that you can pose yourself an interesting (risky?) problem. Maybe one that won’t have a solution. Or won’t become the mainstream of your art practice.
If you succeed – great. If you fail – ah well, not the end of the world. :)
To that end I’ve set myself some simple-but-ambitious goals for #30x30DirectWatercolor2019.
- Main Goal: Paint 30 watercolors in a new body of work, with a consistent theme/style. This is going to be the next logical step for me and Direct Watercolor. I’m working in the studio, as opposed to on location, working from invented compositions rather than life, and, working with larger brushes and pre-mixed paint, as opposed to my plien-air field kit.
- Bonus Goal: Extract two pieces to enter into our national competition (CSPWC) which happens to be due at the end of June.
- Double Bonus Goal: Produce a monograph about the project. Kind of a companion pice to the first Direct Watercolor book, but even less of an art-instruction and more of an art-art book.
- Prep Work: (Already Complete!) This year I wanted to be ready *before* the first day with at least 30 preliminary sketches. (Final set is somewhere around 45). I chose to make monochrome studies – sometimes called Notan sketches. Though a true Notan is pure black and white (with no halftone) I’ve allowed the colors to smudge. I did these sketches digitally, (Procreate on iPad) in order to work rapidly, and with the ultimate in flexibility.
Ok! That’s my plan.
What about you guys – does anyone have a specific project this year?
It’s ok if not. “I just want to do 30 in 30” is totally fine :)
But if you *are* doing something structured please drop me a comment or email – it’ll be interesting to hear what people are up to. I would like to keep track of any interesting slash ambitious projects.
Our co-moderator Uma Kelkar has a very interesting project which she is calling VIVIFY. This is going to be a scientific study into the effects of music on painting. Do you listen to music? or paint in silence? I personally listen to podcasts when painting. A habit I picked up from my days as a digital illustrator. But – I’m participating in the study myself and I’ve been assigned to the silence group! It’ll be interesting to see how that feels.
If you want to find out more – or volunteer to join the study – check out her project notes.
Ok – see you next weekend for #30x30DirectWatercolor2019!
-m
Coming up in June: #30x30DirectWatercolor2019
Where did all the #30×30 posts go?!?
I’ve moved everthing from #30x30DirectWatercolor to its own page.
Click Here – or – go to the tab #30x30DirectWatercolor on the navigation bar.
Thanks!
Original Post:
It’s almost time again for #30x30DirectWatercolor2019. The annual event where we celebrate the speed and power of Direct Watercolor by making 30 paintings in 30 days in the month of JUNE 2019.
I’m sure most of you remember how this works, but let’s do a quick recap how simple it is:
- PAINT 30 watercolors in 30 days, from June 1-30, 2019.
- SHARE your paintings in our new Facebook group <HERE (We’d like to centralize the discussion around this group, to spare our usual sketching clubs all the extra traffic this might create :)
- HASHTAG work on your own social pages with: #30x30DirectWatercolor2019. Here are some FAQs on how to use hashtags: FB | IG | Twitter.
Forward momentum is the key. You’ll surprise yourself when you push past caring if the work is ‘good’. Or if anyone else likes it. Or if you’re using the right colors. Or getting the perspective right.
All these things fall by the wayside when you’re working intensely. Showing up in front of the paper day after day. Past the halfway, your subconscious starts dreaming about painting. When you come back the next day, the paint just flows.
So get ready – buy a stack of paper – and we’ll see you in June!
~m
#OneWeek100People2019 Comes to a Close
Thanks to everyone who participated! If you want to see everyone’s success stories – check out our Facebook group.
From past experience I know people will stay in the group all year – so feel free to join even now that it’s over.
I won’t be moderating over there till next year – but I’m already thinking about what kind of project I might try for 2020. I’ll be looking to line up a more intensive reportage of some kind. Something to sink my teeth into :)
Take care till the next adventure: #30x30DirectWatercolor2019!!! (Coming up in June).
#OneWeek100People2019 Day Five: Play Time!
On the fifth day, I just messed around.
I was clearly not going to reach the 100 goal with what I’ve been doing the last few days – so – I gave myself a pass and just played today.
Clearly, I’ve been out of synch this #OneWeek100People2019.
But it isn’t about me anymore! It’s about the other 1500 sketchers in the FB group! – and I know people have been having a great time over there :)
It’s very interesting how a project I set up to be fun and games – back when sketching was king – becomes so hard for me, now that I’m thinking about oil painting all the time. Very eye-opening. You don’t always know your own mind (apparently). I didn’t anticipate how hard it is for me to change topics.
So what’s a fellow to do!
Seems like the best idea is – paint something FUN :) :)
And start thinking about how to redeem myself next time!
Model Credits: @laceferatu, @rinrindoll, @voodoodolly, @itsvanillabear, @wistywish.
I hope you had a great time with #OneWeek100People2019.
I’ve been following along all the posts on the Facebook page, and I hope to hear from all of you how your week turned out! Thanks for playing our little game :)
~Marc
#OneWeek100People2019 Day Four: Acrylic Paintings
Artistic inspiration is a funny thing.
I wasn’t planning on making acrylic paintings for #OneWeek100People2019. But after a couple days of my watercolors, I was moping around going – hmmmm what next? More of the same? I would learn something if I did it. But hmmmmmmm. I don’t want to waste time repeating myself. (Even though, I know I should! Refinement comes from repetition! You are *literally* watching me not take my own medicine).
But, I’m thinking – something is missing…
Oh right!
I’ve been doing opaque painting for the last (many) months. That’s what’s missing.
I know! I have all these acrylics left over from my student-days.
Out comes the big tubs of paint and the old hog’s hair brushes for a whirlwind painting session. I should have stopped at round one. It’s kind of interesting in the half-finished state :)
I was hoping to get seven acrylic paintings in a day to match my practice in watercolor – but this first attempt took me five hours! Clearly – watercolor is the faster medium.
I think a big part of this 5 hour piece was mixing color. I whipped up a few batches of color – just adding a hue when I needed it, until I had a bit of a fleshcolor palette.
There’s seven colors here – a yellow, a green/grey and three values of magenta, then two warm darks.
For portraits, I think it’s best to mix your major colors in advance, then intermix as you work. Rather than putting out globs of primaries and trying to mix a new hue every few brush-loads. Re-mixing all the time is A: very slow, and B: too hard to match your own colors later in the piece.
So – start with creating the major values in the image, then inter-mix them to make transitions. You waste more paint this way at first – until you get good at guessing how much you’ll need.
(BTW – I think this is why watercolorists have endless discussion about new colors to buy. Because they can’t pre-mix batches for the day’s work).
I’m using pre-tinted canvas boards. Yes, canvas boards are yuck, but meh – I had them in a box for years now, just waiting for their moment.
They’re primed with a mottled flesh color – in fact, these are old art-school era figure paintings, erased with leftover paint.
You can see in this second piece, I got the hang of using the undertone as a middle color and sketching with a few values of light and dark on top. This underpainting probably took 10 minutes, because I’d spent so much time making my colors before.
Once you have the basic planes, then it’s just a matter of refining the shapes of light and shadow, and re-stating the darks. Voila!
It was quite a joy to be able to blast in bright highlights over the head, and use a rich opaque near-white on the background. Look at that thick paint! I don’t know – after all these years of watercolor, I feel guilty using so much paint :) But I can’t help it. It’s so much fun.
Selfie #3: Once again – planar sketch – (pretty much what I would have done in a direct watercolor) – then refinement of the shapes, breaking the blocks of tone down into smaller subdivisions.
Side note – the best thing about glasses in a portrait is painting the distortion in the lenses.
So to sum up this take on acrylic painting:
- Start with a toned canvas so the gaps between strokes are not white.
- Pre-mix the five or six major color values you’re going to need. Try to make enough not to run out.
- Sketch the planes of the head in your flat (ish) values.
- Intermix the pre-mixes if necessary to make halftones for modeling.
- Refine edges, tighten shapes, restate darks.
- IMO it’s more about matching values on planes of the head, rather than getting the exact right color. These are very pinky, but look ‘right’ to me. You could mix more accurate colors, but I don’t feel it matters in the end. The piece will hold together – it’s internally consistent.
#OneWeek100People2019 Day Three: Going Direct
Ok – got some life-stuff out of the way this morning, and we’re back in the studio.
I decide to return to the selfies with open with some ABSORBED LINE.
That is, sketching in line with a pointed round, then, immediately, absorbing the line into a blocked-in shadow shape.
Work fast, and the lines you enclose will vanish completely into the larger wash.
This third one is working for me. Probably my favorite so far. What do I like?
- Sketch looks like George Takei.
- The background bleed into the shoulders is just right. (Luck + adjusting the tilt).
- Underlying head shape is a simple abstract blob that captures the light with reserved white. I like the cooling of the side planes and the wet-in-wet implications of beard stubble.
- The rich red strokes thrown into the wet in wet have bled nicely. You need a jelly consistency to get nice strokes like this. I’m using cadmium red for the first time in years, (want to get rid of an old tube). It’s a dense color, feels quite opaque for a watercolor.
Here’s a better shot at an underlying head shape. I looks totally wrong without the eyebrows :) but you can’t put them (or the beard) in too soon or the darker hair will bleed too much. I also want this as wet as possible so the warm and cool stuff can merge nicely. It’s 100% instinct. I’m just dropping color according to what I see, looking to make the head feel dimensional just with planes of color.
After I’ve hit the wet head-shape with the hair dryer, I can just draw in all the darks with honey-er mixes. These days I’m not drying it bone-dry before I start back in. That way the second pass has a very slight chance of blending in.
This is the one I would use on my Tinder profile.
One more time. Egg Head to Selfie.
#5 for the day – and I’m sort of remembering how watercolor works. The egg-head actually looks dimensional hey? If you can get that volume into the base shape, then you know it’s going to work out in the final.
So, that’s a good likeness. It’s a clean sketch, well executed. But – I’m still underwhelmed. It’s not very interesting. Just a boring snapshot of me.
It’s like – the ones I find exciting and the ones I find accurate – it’s never going to be the same ones. Alas.
#6: Got a little frustrated with the blandness, so did another Destruction Test. How much water can I throw on? How much black (neutral tint) can I slather on the background?
Apparently a lot.
But, a thick coat of paint can be lifted-out with a wet brush. And even that dripping head eventually dries. Eventually, I can pull out a few details with honey-mixes.
This is an inconclusive test. It’s interesting. But it’s not really a portrait is it? It’s sort of faux psychological – the appearance of a moody image, but it’s fake – because any mood it projects is just an accident of the process.
I do, however, enjoy the textures that show up from all the overworking.
Ok! So apparently seven selfies a day is a comfortable number. After dinner, I went back for one more simple one. Just a classic water-sketch.
It’s day three of #OneWeekOneHundredPeople2019 and Old Man Holmes says, “Goodnight Folks!”
#OneWeek100People2019 Day Two: Selfie Series
Alright – time to get serious. The recent life drawing has been fun and games – I could do that all week.
But let’s talk motivation.
#OneWeek100People2019 is about everyone drawing together to share in the motivation. The group excitement. But also – the shared guilt. Nothing like making a big social media announcement to give you a short-term jolt of motivation!
But I think we also have to have long term personal goals.
If you’re a beginner it’s easy. Your goal is probably “I want to get better”. But after a while, you have to think about – “Get better at what?”. Why am I getting better?
Behind the scenes here, for the last year or so, I’ve been painting landscapes in the studio. This has become my most serious project to date. Serious enough I quit my day job! (Ok, well, I didn’t really have a day job, but I quit taking freelance illustration).
I feel like my opaque painting is taking off like mad. I’m loving it, and I’m thinking some very ambitious thoughts about big paintings and big art shows.
So, I do have long term goals! And my issue is how to fit 100 people into that :)
But you know what – right now I’m worried. Just like I was concerned I’d forgotten how to draw people, it’s been a LONG time since my last serious watercolor.
Thus, I’ve decided – for #OneWeek100People2019 – I really need to check in with water painting. Because #30x30DirectWatercolor is coming up right on my heels, and that’s a project that is going to me much more in line with this year’s goals.
To be honest – It’s not really responsible for me to be doing more life drawing on the street. I feel like, I’ve go that in hand. In previous years I’ve tried to lead by example and do all 100 on the first day. Last year I was one caffeinated drink short of making it. Gave up an hour too soon. Fun as it would be to do it again – it seems like it isn’t time well spent for me.
So – I’m going to enjoy all the figure drawing on location the rest of the world is doing – but at home, it’s time for some self-centered reflection on the meaning of life.
So – I say to myself – this year I’ll do 100 Selfies. 100 self-portraits have to teach me something.
Some artists make a rule for self-portrait series – no two portraits can be handled the same way – you must change technique or media. You’d HAVE to learn something just by brute force. So. I’m not sure I can do that, AND train my watercolors at the same time. But hey, let’s see what we see.
Some few warmup sketches later – I’ve realized selfies are a terrible subject in the context of #OneWeek100People!!! (<Already losing my way :)
A: It’s insanely boring – repeatedly painting my own face. I only made it to #3 and I’m gritting my teeth.
B: I’ve drastically slowed down since I was at my peak painting plein-air! The studio work, the relaxed pace of oil painting – it’s made me soft!
So – lets recap:
I really don’t like this painting.
I’m rushing to paint as fast as possible, aiming for that 100 goal – and not concentrating. I’m ending up with a kind of cartoon likeness. It’s illustrative. It’s high contrast – in the manner of an ink sketch. Which I love in ink, but I find obnoxious in paint.
When you don’t have middle value – (because ink is pure black/white) – then fine – you live with it. When you DO have values, I regret the instinct to go to a choppy hard-edged three value scale.
It’s a waste of potential. Watercolor is supposed to be subtle.
Alright then. Try again:
This time I get mad and act out with the Cadmium Red. But that’s a cheap trick.
Ok – what about DESTRUCTION TESTING!
Keep going well past the point where I should stop, and see what happens.
This is the same red painting, just overworked to death. I’m going to count it as a new work though. I washed over with naples yellow, pushed back with a solid 100% neutral tint, and scrubbed out with dirty water, dragged with a 2″ house painting flat, then rebuilt just a bit with richer honey-paint.
Doesn’t look much like me. This is Christian Slater-Me.
But it’s nothing like the way I was painting this morning.
Huh. Go figure.
I’m learning by brute force.
Try another set.
Mix bigger puddles, and blast some underlying shapes. Maybe I can make this one really loose – super wet in wet, yet ALSO improve the likeness.
Nope! Nice try. Doesn’t really look like me. This is George-Lucas me.
If it had been amazing – I’d have let it live. But naw – this is still nothing – still too cartoony.
Getting closer to my 51-year-old, 195lb face. But still, ain’t worth keeping.
So let’s destroy and rebuild:
Poured paint from some 2oz mixing cups. Tilted it around, poured some more. Raked with the 2″ bristle brush. Dropped in globs of Chinese white.
Alright! It’s not a sketch anymore – it’s a painting. Not – in my opinion, a great one – but still. I’m trying to really soak myself in watercolor here.
So that’s seven selfies on the first serious day. A long way from 100. But – I think you get where I’m at here. Maybe not an earth-shattering breakthrough – but – I’m
Off to bed, tomorrow’s another day in #OneWeek100People2019!
Citizen Sketcher 