THE SLUMP HAD TO END

 Finally back to the Sktchy challenge I signed up for - 30 days + 30 portraits turned into 60 days but that’s okay.  Some I am doing twice, especially when I do one before watching the instructional video!

Teacher for the first one was Kyle Legaspi and the second version was done as she did her’s (the first one was done in my own way prior to watching the video/lesson).  The next painting was done and Ana Vivian was the instructor.  Not crazy about it and won’t do it again.  It seem the teachers are trying to come up with new and interesting aspects of painting the portrait with lots of shadows/shapes, etc.  

STRANGE DAYS, INDEED

 Well, I usually get into ruts when I’m not in a challenge, workshop or anything but this RUT has got me.  I began with the Sktchy.com challenge of 30 faces/30 days and was doing well the first few, then really struggled with a portrait that beat me…and then somehow I had a change in my mindset and I was thinking “I can’t do this.”  So…gave it some time.  Decided I could give myself 2 months to do the challenge instead of just 30 days.  And did a few more and then…another roadblock where I could not paint the portrait like the instructor again no mater how many do-overs I had.

Hmmm…perhaps the problem is that I just have to paint like me, not like the instructors.  Maybe I’ve gone far enough along in my journey that I do have a style and it is fighting with the instructors’ styles.  I especially struggle when the instructor leaves a lot of whites or open space with light colors.  

So…taking a break.  Giving myself some breathing room.  My sister (my only baby sister who means everything to me) is having health issues and I am worried a lot.  My sweetie is having age-related health issues, too, and that is worrying me, too.  So maybe worry and creativity don’t mix?

Anyway…back in time for Cinco de Mayo - but until then, I’ll have a few margaritas just to get ready!

Hope your spring is showing you some beautiful sights.  The other night at 1:30 am there was a mockingbird in our bushes in front of the house singing and going through quite a repertoire of songs and sounds - pretty cool but why at 1:30 am??  Don’t they sleep?

SO FAR BEHIND BUT STILL WORKING ON IT

 Two more from the Sktchy challenge of 30 faces in 30 days…I have decided that I really need to give myself 60 days to do this and will just do these as I feel like I can do them, without the struggle so much in the past few days.  Afterall, this is supposed to be a learning experience but also not a stressful one!

MORE TRYING WITH SKTCHY TEACHERS

So I tried this one again and still could not paint it like the teacher! Ha ha. Oh, well, really worked it and changed it and lifted and added and put on some gouache and…calling it Sadness.  She looks very sad and pensive and pondering something deeply.  

Decided it was time to move on.  And ruined the next painting completely.  This is “okay” and it is the second version after tearing up the first effort.  I think I hit a bump there for a few days for some reason.  I know a lot of artists say just continue to paint all the time and don’t let bad days get you but I know me and if I don’t feel like painting, I may as well save the paint and paper and time.

GOT STUCK

 I was rolling right along with the 30 Faces/30 Days Lessons from Sktchy and then…I got stuck.  I did not follow the teacher’s instructor well and just went and did my own thing and thought, okay, that’s okay…but I wanted to try it her way so did it again and…well some days are diamonds and some days are stones.

So I started with the first version…not bad but nothing like the one the instructor did (which I will show at the end to show you just how different it is).

Then kept working on it and working on it and walking away and coming back and thinking, just a bit more and…well…the last one is finished and I’m calling her Mother Nature Ponders the Future because, well, why not?

And this last one is the way the teacher (Lorraine Simonds) did it, which I was supposed to be following, but could not, for the life of me, do it that way.

  

And Lorraine Simonds is one of my favorite Sktchy artists.  I like her style and her brushwork and she leaves enough to the imagination and I don’t.

So…I started another and knew, from the get-go, that it was also not going to be like Lorraine’s.  Why can’t I do this even remotely like this?  

TOTAL ECLIPSE OF THE SUN - 2024

 Did you see the eclipse?  Did you travel to see it or was it in your area of the US?  If you missed it in the US, another will be around in 2044.

We did not have total coverage here but about 90%.  Good enough.  I’m not that crazy about travelling and spending money and time on 3 minutes of eclipse so stayed home.

30 FACES/30 DAYS WITH SKTCHY INSTRUCTORS

 A few more of the portraits.  Each instructor picks his/her own muse and then does it in an individual way.  Some want to do monochromatic paintings, some stress the design of light and dark, some just go in with colors.  

One of my favorite teachers is Dritan Duro.  He explains things so well and you can follow along fairly easily with him without getting lost.  

He usually picks a straight-forward portrait but an interesting face to paint.  His version is much more bold and colorful than mine but I’m not unhappy with my version.

Kyle Legaspi picks some interesting portraits to do - this time focusing on the almost monochrome and shadowed portrait.  I didn’t get it right but that’s okay.

And Ana Vivian just went totally monochromatic for this old-timey one.  She used Arches paper and I was using my Hahnemuehle paper (which kept the water in there a loooong time so I was getting impatient with it).  

These courses always teach me something and I can carry that learning on to the next thing after April (can’t believe it’s only just begun with the 30 faces/30 days!

I do not try to free hand draw these photos because it’s about the painting style and technique, not the drawing…that would just add too much stress trying to get a likeness (some of the teachers even say they trace of project the photo on their paper and don’t spend time drawing; others draw the portrait out and spend time drawing the face). 

30 FACES/30 DAYS WITH THE SKTCHY GROUP

 Started the latest 30 Days/30 Portraits challenge on Sktchy.com and here is a few I did.  This is just 2 days.  I did the first one totally wrong - supposed to do a fine line around the drawing and then paint but my line was too thick and sepia and just didn’t work…so I did a lot of scrubbing back and reworking so it looked nothing like the teacher’s work.  The second one, I learned from my impulsive mistakes and mine is more like the teacher - but, as always, two people never paint exactly the same (especially since I don’t care what colors the teacher uses, I use my own versions).  The instructor for this painting is Liz Chaderton, and I liked her teaching style (no stress).  

The second day, the instructor was Charlotte Hamilton, and other than the fact that she kept pronouncing the pigment ochre as Okra, I was okay with her teaching.  (Do Brits pronounce ochre as okra?).  Each teacher picks their own “muse” from the Museum app associated with Sketchy (free photos to use for portrait work), and Charlotte chose an older gent I think I did in the previous 30 Days/30  Portraits.  

MARCH MADNESS OVER BUT…

 I signed up for a 30 Days/30 Portraits (all in watercolor) again with Sktchy.com.  They offer great courses and this will continue all week with different instructors.  Looking forward to it because the last time I did this - back in October 2022, I learned a lot about watercolor portraits and I know I’ll learn more this time.  So the madness continues in a different way through April! Ha ha

Until then, here is a little ginkgo study.  Does anyone know why botanical artists never put shadows under their work?  I put shadows here and then realized that they do not…they try to make the painting as realistic as possible but never put shadows under it.

The second painting is a comparison of the same subject on Arches hotpress paper 140# - the left side is watercolor and right side is gouache.  I did this once before to compare and liked both sides equally.  This time I think I have a preference, but only because the background I muddied up behind the watercolor made the flower look green!  Isn’t  that interesting?