Good for Me

Painting in the World Watercolor Group has been good for me. It has made me think every day about what to paint. It makes me plan, It makes me paint. All this painting has maybe improved my watercolor.  For sure painting every day has helped me to not procrastinate quite so much. Okay, I exaggerate on that last one. Procrastination is still my biggest battle and one I rarely win. But the painting every day has been helpful. I like a challenge.

The idea of  Watercolor World Group was Charlie O'Shield's at Doodlewash. Someway, I ran across his Facebook page where he challenged artists to watercolor every day and post on the FB page. During July I painted 28 days of watercolors. But more amazing was seeing all the watercolors from around the world. They were just so impressive. It made it a real challenge for me. I watched to see how many "likes" I could get - what paintings people liked the most. In August Charlie changed the name from World Watercolor Month to Group, and we continued posting paintings. I did not do as many paintings in August. September has been a better month for me. So far I have painted every day, but it is getting tougher. It is tougher to find time, inspiration, and subject matter. Fortunately, Charlie has provided a list of prompts and a theme for the month, which is "vacations." No one has to follow the prompts or the theme, but they are helpful. I like painting from photos that were taken on vacations, so it has been good for me.

Here is one of my paintings that has received a few likes. This was from a photo that Jesse took while in Ecuador a few years ago. I have always loved the light and the kids on the river. The prompt was "public transportation" and I thought this would work well. When I finished the painting, I texted it to Jesse to get her thoughts. She said it was a good painting, but the kid on the right looked like he was standing on the far side of the boat. I texted back that I had made the boat too short - the boys too close together, but that in the photo (that she had taken) it looked like the boys were short-legged. I had assumed the boat was much deeper than it seemed in the photo. She replied, "Oh, I took that picture? Then it must be right." Ha! She is so funny.