The Half Month Project pop-up newsletter: learning watercolour painting #2/4
: of drills and dues
“Well, today is The Half Month Project1 deadline day! Mel, Mel, Mel, what have you gotten yourself into. What are you gonna share? What do you have to share?... Gonna be quiet now and trust that the Lord will guide me.”
And so, the prelude to this week’s newsletter. 😅 What goes behind the scenes inside my brain when I prepare my newsletters.
Week 2 notes
To the readers who are looking forward to seeing some paintings this week, there are none, yet. Though I thought I’d have something to show, reality taught me otherwise—pay your dues.
All I have to show you are these brush strokes practise. And I’d need to continue practising them as many times as I can.
Paying my dues—brush strokes and brush strokes. Listen out for the "Gah! I made a mistake gasp" at the end of this video.
This week’s learnings taught me things beyond learning watercolour painting.
In no particular order, I’ll list them below:
Humility.
That I know nought about watercolour. And I have to start from the beginning. When—I already have something going on with my pen line drawings.
Authenticity.
No pretty paintings to show or to [subtly] pad my pride. No waiting until I can show a decent painting before I share them with you. No pretty timelapse with jazz music too.
Vulnerability.
As uncomfortable as it is, I chose not to hide. These are real behind the scenes. Mistakes, frustrations and all.
Self-discipline.
To be willing to do the groundwork. To persist with the project when it’s way, way harder than I assumed. To persist even when I don’t have to. Because I have committed—to myself.
🤓 Geek out
Tools: watercolour
Watercolour pigment
Don’t rely on the names for the colours. The same name, for example, “French Ultramarine” for one brand will not be exactly the same colour for another brand. Instead, check the pigments on the label or the manufacturer’s website. Example of tech data pigment here.
Watercolour properties
How in the heavens would I know that the different colours of watercolour paint have different properties such as staining, non-staining, transparent, semi-transparent, easy lift, hard lift, granulating, opaque…?! And it will affect the painting. Now, I know.
Other things I didn’t know but now I know
I realised I have ventured into traditional watercolour painting. I was thinking of learning some watercolour basics, so that I can add colour to my line drawings or some on-location sketches (and know what I’m doing with the colours).
Question: do I want to venture further into traditional watercolour painting? What would be the basis for my decision? 🤔
I can’t avoid buying at least a student-grade watercolour paper. I wanted to use the mixed-media paper I bought before taking this class, not to mention the two travel sketchbooks, but it’s making my learning harder as the paper doesn’t take water that well.
Fact: watercolour painting needs watercolour paper. 😅
These learnings reminded me of life.
The more you know, the more you realised what you don’t know.
Feel free to leave a comment. See you next week!
🎨 Melinda
Buy me👩🏻🎨 ☕️
The Half Month Project is a 15 days challenge for me to kickstart learning watercolour painting.
I want to document the experience. And I want to share a weekly summary with you.
Once a week, I’ll send photos/videos, along with some words. You can always respond with questions, comments or even by sharing your very own The Half Month Project.
Your regular HopeMail will resume on June 3, 2022.
At the time of writing, I’m at day 6/15 day of learning watercolour painting.
The production quality in the YouTube video is nice. :)
I heard the exact same feedback about watercolour paper, word for word from another friend who is also learning water colour painting.
Your experience reminds me of Dunning-Kruger effect: a cognitive bias that states that the less we know, the more confident we are.
What it means is that as you gain knowledge and start to realize just how little you do know, your confidence will plummet and reach an all-time low. If you choose to continue to build your knowledge by learning and gaining experience, your level of confidence starts to rise again, finally matching your level of knowledge.