It Can Only Get Better

The second week of our vacation wasn’t much more productive than the first one, unfortunately.

Could I have done better?

Was I too ambitious wanting to paint every day while on holidays with a two-year-old?

I try to console myself that it’ll get better again when we get back to normal back home:

I’ll commit to a 15-minute sketch every day; my online watercolor course is starting soon, and I’ll surely get some practice. I could get up 20 min earlier, do only 30-minute workouts instead of 45 and make it happen without having to get up earlier than 5 am? 

Yep!

For now, even just a quick brush lettering practice will have to do.

I’m slowly starting to realize that I have to let go of the pressure I put on myself with wanting to produce a piece of art every time I pick up a brush or a pen. If I push through the resistance and allow myself to “fail” I could learn a few valuable lessons and get a much-needed practice.

How do I see my subject? How do I depict form so that my subject doesn’t look flat? How do I mix the right color? What color is the shadow? Should I paint this wet-in-wet or wet on dry? Are the edges soft or hard?

I had to ask myself all these questions when I finally overcame my resistance and hesitantly sat down to paint a quick sketch. I read somewhere that painting and drawing are all about problem-solving. I could spend my whole life just reading about this, but I get to internalize this process only by going through it on my own.

By painting and drawing stuff that is far from perfect.

I ended up enjoying my ugly and imperfect sketch. Failing is, indeed, not doing and getting a not-so-great result, but not doing at all.

Hopefully, I will remember this tomorrow when I take out my pocket Moleskine watercolor book and my tiny palette and just do the work.