My Creative Journey - watercolor days

Sooooo...got a little obsessed with watercolor paper and inks one night last week. It was a strange day and I went a lot of places in my head while I worked.

I was curious to see how I could play with the inks, how wet I could get them, how I could spread them, how they could work together. Basically a continuation of the mostly dry-brush stuff I'd been doing. After watching a couple of youtube videos on inking and watercolor I had some ideas that I wanted to try.

This one came out okay. I could see that I was still trying to adhere to what I did before rather than breaking out into unknown turf. My hesitation doesn't come as a surprise, it usually is pretty scary when I move to something new. There's a lot of these attempts, dipping my toe in the water, over and over, then, suddenly, deep end. It might be the subject matter. Skulls have gotten a little boring...

Next came this. And, I have no idea from where. I started with a couple lines and a basic idea, but, in the first couple seconds got completely lost. Yes, lost. I laid them down and then my mind completely blanked on what was next. Happens sometimes with improv painting. I kind of like when it happens. There's this sudden rush of confusion, but then your mind immediately rushes to fill the void and figure out what it should be. I mean, you have a brush in your hand and somethings gotta happen so...then you think for a second, and put down another, then another, and quickly things can come together into something recognizable. Basic, boring, but mine, hehe.

This one is either a hit or a miss...not sure which. It will probably take you forever to figure this one out unless I give some context. Skulls. I laid down the first line, realized I had screwed something up, and so, took a second to figure something new. Kind of like the last one, but I kept the subject the same. Well, it took more than a couple seconds. Distorting images is something still really, really, new to me. I think I've only done it a couple times before.

I wanted to make sure I could still do a skull right...or at least close to right, lol. I call this my general skull.

After I finished that skull I was like...let's do something else. So, I returned to some of my familiar Geisha images to see what I could do. I think I've drawn this one a couple dozen times now, and each time it's different in some way. Not necessarily better or worse, but, different. Man do I love ink and watercolor paper...so many possibilities.

These are definitely my favorite for the evening. A series of self-portraits emphasizing different aspects of my face. How I did them was pretty simple. I used my phone to take a picture with the light close to my face for drama and then painted my interpretation. I say interpretation because I wasn't necessarily going for accuracy. I was going for mood. I even decided to try influencing what people saw by adding different colors along the side, and bits of highlights at certain points which corresponded with the background. To kind of give the idea that the place where this is lit is that background color.

I have to laugh when I do self portraits because I used to do a lot of them with my camera. I can't even tell you how many evenings I was depressed, high, got my camera out, and shot some crazy stuff. And, now, here I am doing something similar with paint. It feels purer though, this way. With a camera it still felt like there was a bit of a barrier between me and what I wanted to say...but that might have just been that I didn't know how to use a camera well enough.

Anyways, that was a crazy night of inky fun. It's always a blast when you get on a roll creatively and just let it flow out. It's an almost pure moment when you feel it happening...the almost coming because at the moment of realization is when it starts getting polluted. Skulls, Geisha, and weird-ass portraits.

Thanks for stopping by and checking all this out. I hope you enjoyed it. I'd love to hear what you have to think. Comments always help to fuel me. Got a question? I'd love to answer it. Got lots to do as always so see you next post!

Wessel

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Previous posts:
My creative journey - sketching sketching sketching
My Creative Journey 52, 53, 54...55? Do numbers really matter?
My Creative Journey 51
My Creative Journey 49 + 50 (shit tons of art...)
My Creative Journey 48
My Creative Journey 47
My Creative Journey 46
My Creative Journey 45
My Creative Journey 44
My Creative Journey 43
My Creative Journey 42
My Creative Journey 41
My Creative Journey 40
My Creative Journey 39
My Creative Journey 38
My Creative Journey 36 + 37 + Watch me Paint! Ep. 16

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