So far this blog has been structured almost entirely around art supply reviews and art demonstrations, with the odd article or opinion piece thrown in for good measure. This has been deliberate; my brain likes structure, with every post having a proper category and no post being an ‘odd one out’ in terms of how it should be categorised, but as I’ve been doing more paintings recently, I’ve started to realise the limitations of this structure. Whenever I post art, it’s usually in the form of a demonstration post – showing all the steps I went through to create the finished piece – or in the form of an art supply review, thrown in at the end as a ‘sample’ painting or drawing to illustrate what I did with the art material I’d just spent a whole post waffling about. But when I created art with supplies I’d already reviewed or couldn’t be bothered reviewing at that time, I didn’t really have a category for it.
Hence I’ve decided to create the monthly Art Roundups, where I’ll post any new art I create in a given month that hasn’t been used in a review or a demonstration. Depending on how much art I create each month, I may also include art that was used in reviews and demonstrations so it’s easier to find for those who just want to see the art and don’t care about the supplies used. Depending on how lazy I am, I might eventually go back and create Art Roundup posts for past months as well.
Anyway, here are the new things I’ve painted or drawn in May, 2017.
Spring by the Lake – Winsor & Newton Artists Watercolours
This landscape was my first real attempt at a looser, more impressionist landscape. Though I love the impressionist style, my brain always demands that I make things look realistic and detailed, so I struggle to let myself work more freely. Though there are things about it I’d change if I did it again, I’m quite happy with how it turned out, and it was good practice for watercolours, which I find the most difficult medium to use. I also thought I’d ruined the painting at one stage by overworking a section, but in the end I managed to save it, and I think that the corrected area isn’t visible to most people.
T-Rex – Daniel Smith Watercolours
As I often do, I was dicking around on Twitter one day instead of doing what I was supposed to be doing: marking assignments. I Tweeted that I didn’t know what to paint and one of my friends told me to paint a dinosaur… so I did. I ended up ‘selling’ the dinosaur to said friend in exchange for churros and hot chocolate.
Reflections on the Shore – Schmincke Watercolours
I’ve painted a few seascapes in acrylics and oils but I hadn’t painted a watercolour seascape, so I decided to attempt one. I didn’t get the structure of the clouds quite right (and I couldn’t really fix it since I know I would have ended up overworking it and making it worse) but otherwise it came out alright, I think. It was loosely based on an old photo I took with my grandparents many years ago, when we were at the beach near their house. I do think it came out much nicer than the original painting I did for my review of Schmincke watercolours, so I’m going to go back and replace that painting with this one.
That’s it for this month’s art roundup. I do have a few other pieces in progress but I’ll wait til I actually finish them to post them. Now that I’ve finished teaching for the semester I’m hoping to have more time for art, but since I’m now off intermission, much of my time will now be taken up by research.
artdragon86 