My biggest art challenge yet

no update! just up…

End of Project Notes and reflections

Whew. We’re at the end. Finally. Now let’s reflect and learn from the experience. I’ll try to collect these thoughts in short points rather than my usual stream-of-consciousness rambles so that I may look back on this project and easily re-read the take-aways.

1. Main goal was met with four paintings (very close to) finished in the (bit more than) four weeks allocated to the project. Success!
2. Stuck to the schedule rather well and did not fall behind until the very end. Another Success!
3. My weekly themes were used more as guidelines than I’d first anticipated. I felt the need to paint what I felt like in the moment rather than what was in my head weeks before. I did cover all four themes in a more integrated way rather than make it the main focus of the piece.
4. a)This process with deadlines and weekly goals was a great help to kickstart any new piece and settle on a composition with more confidence and speed. b) I did feel some anxiety, but nothing out of the ordinary. I always feel a bit of fear when painting. c) I’ve spend little time on other art projects which means my Instagram has not been properly fed this month. I knew this might happen, but I’d hoped to have the energy to share behind the scenes, process vids and pictures. I did not. So I’ve been unsuccessful in keeping up with my SoMe goals.
5. I actually still want to paint even after this marathon of artwork production. Very unusual, as I often feel the need to take a break after these 30 day projects. I’ll definitely spend less time painting these coming weeks, but that’s mostly because my new book on hand sewing just arrived and I’m itching to get my hands on some fabric. Next DK30 theme is already queued!
6. The final pieces turned out mostly satisfactory, though the first one is definitely the weakest. Makes sense that I needed a few tries to get the techniques tested out. My favorite is number three - I feel like I really hit the mark with a unique and very me painting style.
7. I like to paint big and I really want to as well - even bigger than these approx 30x22" pieces, but I don’t think watercolor is the right medium for anything larger. The paper warps and makes the color collect in spots you don’t want it to. It dries out on you so you can’t blend one color into the next. You need to bend uncomfortably over a table because the easel is too vertical so the watercolor would drip right to the bottom. I’ll stick to my A3 and A2 formats for now and maybe try my hand with some oils on canvas when I feel the urge to paint big.

I think that’s all I’ve got right now, at least on the thought-department. I do have a picture of the fourth and final piece at it’s current 90% finished state:

Yes, this is unabashedly fanart and I stand by it!

I’ll post the pieces (upon actually finishing them) on my instagram @sketchymille if anyone is interested in following along over there.

This was fun and challenging and 10/10 will do again! Bye now.

Week four notes and progress

This week has been such a wreck. First I was held up by work, then a slight illness and now I have to leave for four day to attend social events and out-of-town work. What little time I have had to work on my project I spent mostly on penciling out one composition on the big canvas only to realize halfway through that I hated it and decided to start over. Needless to say I’m far behind schedule and will have to finish this painting on Wednesday and Thursday next week. But finish it I will!

Here’s my initial sketches:

I penciled out the comp on the right and erased it to go full fan-girl mode and pick a screenshot from The Last of Us series as a direct reference. I’ve managed to get about 2/3 of the linework done and this is where I’m at:

I’m not too disappointed about not finishing on time. Life happens, things come up, and all we can do is adapt as best we can. And, honestly, four days delay is better than I expected to achieve when I started this project a month ago. If I finish before the end of March, it’s a huge win for me, so that’s my new goal.

Bonus content: On deleting your art

I consume more Drawfee content than I care to admit openly, and they a bit back they started a saying: delete your art. It’s more of a digital thing to ‘delete’ where I, as a traditional artist, erase or discard and start over. The thought process still applies though: if you’re not satisfied with what you have, do it over. I find that I never really do this. I always think to myself: I can salvage this, I can make this work and yeah, sometimes I can make it work, but maybe it would have worked even better if I gave it another shot? My arguments always lie in I’ve already invested physical and mental resources in this, I’ll have to finish it and it is so hard to throw things down the drain you’ve spend energy and possibly money on. I do hate to waste things. And yet, I have a stash of artworks which are in fact quite bad and which I felt no joy completing because I disliked them from an early point in the making of them. So in the hope of trying to force out a good product from a mediocre sketch I’ve spent even more energy and resources on completing a piece that just didn’t turn out. Classic sunk cost fallacy, I’m afraid. So how do we find a balance on when to quit / start over and when to push through and keep going? They say there’s an ugly stage to most paintings, but that doesn’t stop artists from turning out great artwork. And they say delete your art when you’re not happy with it, but what if it has potential that is hidden behind an ugly stage? I don’t have a good answer yet, but I hope to contemplate more on this during my next projects. I’m very happy I deleted my art this time and changed my composition this time. I feel joy when I look at this piece now (even if it’s barely halfway done and certainly in the ugly stage). Maybe I have to go more with my gut feeling when deciding whether to proceed with a piece or not and try to ignore the waste-not-want-not qualities in me. I’ll definitely try!

Week three notes and progress

I was feeling so ahead of schedule at the start of this week that my brain decided it was appropriate to procrastinate until Saturday afternoon. This is very typical me and exactly why I need to set deadlines for myself. Once I realized how hectic next week is going to be with work and social activities I kicked myself into gear and finally started lining this piece. Looked something like this:

And today (Sunday), I jumped straight into coloring with just a teeny one-minute mock-up as a guide:

And fortunately it’s turning out quite pleasant. The painting process gave me a lot of joy. I experienced no real ugly stage to this one, just layer upon layer of lovely warm colors, each one improving and adding to the depth and intricacy of the piece. And here’s where I’m leaving it for today:

I need to add a bit of splashes and color drops around the edges, and looking at my reference I now realize the chimney is white and not dark. Easy fixes for tomorrow morning! And then it’s on with the last painting, which is meant to be a dystopian cityscape and I have absolutely no clue how to make such a composition. Guess I’ll have to rewatch The Last of Us to find some good references (yes, I’ll use art as an excuse to consume good media, sue me).

Bonus content: An artist’s quandary - by me

I’ll reflect a bit about being a creator in general. I love starting new projects and I love finishing a project. I find joy in many of the processes in between, especially with painting. But there’s also very often a phase I simply have to get through. It’s the part where I second-guess every decision I’ve made so far as well as every bit of preparation I’ve made for the continuation of the project. It’s very straining and time consuming, but I also think it’s important to be critical of my work in order to make it the best it can be. So how do I balance that? I know I’ve already become much better at adapting quickly to new decisions and it feels like I can go with the flow more easily now than when I started this DK30 just a few weeks ago. I’m certainly working faster and in a more energetic way. So maybe the balance between a flow-state and a conscious decision-making-state comes naturally when I’m no longer terrified of making mistakes? And do I want to not be terrified? The thrill of conquering fear is at least partly what drives me into trying new things. So when I get too comfortable with a specific process I have a tendency to change things up to challenge myself. But which is better: being mediocre at many things or diving deep and being comfortable in a single process? I should put it to the test and endure a bit of boredom and stagnation. Maybe next DK30 will be me painting the same thing over and over and over until it is perfect. Gosh, I’m bored just thinking about it… It’ll be the greatest challenge yet!

Third art piece progress

I’ve been feeling on top of things so far this week and have managed to power through the sketching phase and penciling. This motif hits close to home, basically being the scenery of my childhood and I thought it called for a calm and pleasant composition. Probably not the most interesting perspective compared to the other pieces but I couldn’t make myself make this look anything but serene.

Here’s the process so far:

I’m busy with work tomorrow so I’ll continue with lineart on Thursday.

Second art piece progress

I’ve returned from skiing vacation with fresh energy and the will to finish this project on time! So I spent all of yesterday on the second painting and I’d call it 90% finished already. Here’s how it looks:

I need to figure out which movie poster to put on the billboard (the square I’ve left white in the middle). I’ll photograph the piece proper before painting it in, so that I can print the piece and paint in other posters according to potential buyer’s preferences.

I’m really happy with how the colors turned out - very vibrant and both loose and detailed at the same time. The lettering on the sign is among my favorite details:

I’ll move on to the next painting today, and since I already have a few compositional sketches done during my trip, I’m back on schedule and it feels great!

Week two notes and progress

My original goal for this week was to finish the second painting, though starting several days late (due to a mild case of art-block) I adjusted my expectations to finishing the lineart and leave the watercolors for next week. I also discarded the theme (wood/foliage) and decided on another iconic building from Copenhagen; the colorful cinema called Palads. I made sure to include some trees just to get a bit of the prompt represented.

I’m extremely happy with how it turned out. I wasn’t rushed for time, I wasn’t anxious about the subject (except the bicycles cause who really knows how to draw a bike), and I figured out the composition super fast compared to the first painting.

Here’s the initial sketches:

And here’s the lined piece:

I’m off to the slopes to continuously fall on my butt for the next week. I’ll bring my sketchbook and do a bit of prep for the third piece while away. I think I have an idea what subject should be. 'Til then!

Week one notes and progress

The week started out really strong with much energy and a clear idea of how to tackle the first large painting. After the initial sketches from last update I rigged up some strings to my easel at my vanishing points to guide the penciling of the large piece.

After several false starts and countless adjustments to the perspective and placement of the buildings I went into the somewhat tedious yet calming task of lining everything with my .8mm fineliner.

Satisfied with the result after about two day’s work with the liner, I took a day off to rest my wrist and then proceeded with the coloring. The first layer of color was a struggle. I had a plan but the nerves got to me and I felt like I messed everything up. This is quite normal, but always a difficult point to get over. I pushed through and continued working on it throughout the day - since it was technically the last day allocated to this specific painting - and I’ve been adjusting things today as well. Took this picture yesterday, so it’s not the final result but pretty close. I’ll surely return to it and fix up some areas later.

Also, I didn’t want the paper to sit vertically on the easel while painting, so I taped it to a table and raised it slightly to get just the right slant… genius!

I’ll leave it for the time being and start the next painting. I’m already about two days behind schedule and I’m feeling the pressure build inside me. A part of me wants to adjust my expectations from four artworks down to three, but before making that decision final I will try to get at least sketch and linework done on my second artwork before going on my vacation. That way I’ll still only be two days behind when I return. I think I’ll have to change the theme for this next one because I no longer care for the prompt I gave myself just two weeks ago. That’s art, baby…

Okay, back to the drawing board - Literally

For the colored sketches I found a way to rig some strings to my table to help me chisel out the perspective. With the large painting, I’ll have to do this either on the easel or on the floor, but now I have the proportions and know the distances required so I can more easily wrap my head around it on the large piece.

I tested different linework techniques and find the wobbly one the most pleasing. However, on the large painting the lines need to be much thicker. I’m not sure I have a pen big enough, but I’ll try with my .8mm and see how it goes.

Then the coloring. Did quite a lot of testing and haven’t found the perfect match yet. Here’s where I’m at:

I’ll try a few more ideas before moving ahead to the large painting.

Oh, was that the starting gun? Better get to it then…

I started this 30 day project off by researching subjects and come up with cool composition that favors this week’s theme: perspective. Here’s my initial sketches for the first painting:

The subject is these old half-timbered houses in the center of Copenhagen from a fun (and challenging) perspective. Since most buildings in Copenhagen are colorful and often in tones of orange, I’ve made a little color palette as reference:

Next step is to make some small versions of the piece to test the colors with the composition. I also need to figure out how sketchy to make these final paintings. I love the look of loose watercolors when done right, so I definitely have to practice that!