I have been struggling with an art block lately. I
have little motivation to sit in front of the PC and paint. I do try to
force myself into doing so, but that kind of defeats the object. Pencil
drawing holds little appeal, too (I used to do most of it during
transit, but now I tend to read instead).
Last Friday, however, I
got hold of a decent set of watercolours, and I've been genuinely
itching to try my hand at using them. I think that might deal with the
block!
I am still very clumsy, and I need better brushes, but I'm liking them very much.
The fluffheap tree is from a rougher pencil drawing I made this summer. I
used tracing paper to transfer it on my watercolour pad (by tracing it
on both sides of the paper and using one side like carbon paper). The
necessary cleaning up was done on the fly. Inking was done with very
diluted India ink (and a pen with an annoyingly scratchy nib).
The landscape is a variation of a somewhat failed oil painting I started
and abandoned about a month ago. Since then I got some insight on what
went wrong with it, though, so maybe I should pick it up again, or redo
it from scratch. Problem with oils: long drying times and the fact that
turpentine, which would speed them up, disagrees very badly with me. I
also feel that using a hair dryer is not exactly the next best approach.
I should probably get some Liquin.
Lastly, this is the unfinished digital study (referenced
from this photo)
I apparently don't want to paint. I tell myself it's useful, learning
to paint forests, but I don't seem to believe me. Why, self?!
