Hello there! It’s been a hot minute. If you’ve read my previous posts, you know how life can sometimes get away from me — the last few months have been like that. Painting has not been my top priority recently, even though I wanted it to be.
I barely touched a brush in the last few months. Painting has been on my mind almost constantly, but my spare time has just not been my own — and when it has been, I’ve been too worn out to do more than splash some colors around here and there. But finally, FINALLY, I found a free whole hour this weekend. I rushed to my art desk, whipped out my supplies, and got straight to work.
Well, wouldn’t you know — I am RUSTY. I had to try to remember how to do certain things that would normally be like second nature. But you know what? That’s okay! I am just so pleased to have created something again. I played around with some tools and explored techniques. Some things didn’t turn out as I would have liked, but that just means I’ll have to have another painting session to straighten things out.
So anyway, here’s the finished (sort of — I would have liked to do a bit more, but ran out of time) painting. I’ll leave some notes on specific observations below.
I LOVE painting skies. However, I’m not too creative with them — I usually stick to a soft Cobalt Blue base, and some gentle mixes with Light Red for cloud shadows. This time, I wanted something that popped more — a bit more vibrant. Bright, summer-y. Winsor & Newton’s cerulean Blue was a great option for this! I typically shy away from this color on its own, as the granulation is a bit stronger than I prefer, but I’m happy with how this turned out.
I almost always have grasses in my paintings, but I really struggle to create strokes that are natural — not too uniform. This time, I decided to take a rigger and turn it to its side (parallel to the page). The resulting strokes felt much more natural! I’m excited to explore this more.
I forgot to cast shadows from the eaves of the roof! Oops. But at least that roof has nice texture and dimensions. Winsor & Newton’s Burnt Sienna and Brown Madder make a lovely pair for rustic roofs!
Well, that’s a quick summary of my thoughts. What do you think? Any feedback for me? What do you do when you return to painting after a break — do you dive right in, or do you focus on warming up again? Leave a comment below!
I know nothing about painting but I really like your art and it’s really fascinating to learn more about the process through your blog posts !!
Thank you, Naomi! Glad to have you here 🙂