What If …

My Painting Process

Last Saturday morning the weather was inspirational. It’s getting warmer, trees and flowers are blooming again and it was a sunny day. How could I not be inspired? Nature always inspires me and today it was shouting.

Like many times, I don’t know what to do. As inspired and motivated as I can be sometimes, what to do can be overwhelming. Have you been there? I decided to make a little game of it, and asked myself, “what if?” What if I actually painted something! You’ll hear many artists’ encouraging words to just make marks, put paint on paper, or ink, or whatever medium you are using. Just do something, even if it’s not perfect or you don’t like it, or you fail, just do something, be creative. That’s what I did.

When I do a piece that I don’t like or it’s a flop, I keep it but not for display. I recycle it. I keep it to use the other side for a do over. And that’s what I did here. I grabbed a large piece of watercolor paper and some watercolor brush pens and just started to make a small gradient . That’s it. Step number one of the “What If” game; keep it small, keep it simple. It’s more manageable, less intimidating. My next thought was to make a bookmark. I had purchased a book a few months back that had instructions using watercolors to make a bookmark and the warmer weather was making me think of the beach. I chose three-ish or so colors and started painting a sky, water, and sand. My first attempt looked flat, uninteresting. I tried again. This time I let the brushes do the work, I let them leave their marks and color. The look was starting to take shape and look more interesting. I could have left it there. But I didn’t, it needed more.

Then the question came again, “what if?” What if I took some white and enhanced the waves and water just a little? Aha! It’s looking more like water. Using what I have learned about making water on the shore, is to create a shadow under the water flowing over the sand. Thus the second step; build up or layer creativity on your painting. Add to it but carefully. A little can be a lot. It still need a little more but it was starting to gain more dimension. It needed a more and it needed contrast. I took a black fine liner and started to make some tall grass in the foreground.Then, I took a step back and it actually looked like a beach. That’s when I stopped. Of course now I see things I can do different, like make some clouds but the cloudless sky give me the opportunity to maybe write a quote over it.

That’s becoming my process as I learn. I ask myself the question, “what if …? and do it. Next, I break it down, keep it simple. My high school math teacher always told us to reduce our problems to lowest terms. So, keep it simple and small. Then I layer on creativity, I build on top of the simple image I created, with some detail using other media, asking myself again; “what if …”. And then I step back. Maybe there is more I need to do. Maybe it is done, but I step back and assess. Maybe I need to leave it, let it be silent for a few days to make sure it’s done.

As I let this little project sit overnight, that inspiration is kinda like God’s voice. It nudges, it encourages. Once again I asked; “what if …”. Don’t go away, stay tuned for next week as I explain that.

Would love to hear what inspires you and hear your process. Please be sure to like, subscribe, comment and share. As always, “Anchor in Hope.”