These are two of my favorites from 2019! In my mind and when I look at them, they are successful. They came easily... but there is a reason for all of this. Practice, practice practice AND planning and patience!
PRACTICE PRACTICE PRACTICE: Yeah, right, isnt that what our parents and teachers all told us? Strangely they are right. I have "practiced" painting waves during the last three years in a workshop with Douglas David in Florida. (special note: my mom and I have taken the classes together 3x and it was super fun. Plus Douglas is great!). The first class was called "Anatomy of a Wave" Huh? At first I didnt get it. Really who cares and waves dont have anatomy. But they do! And learning the shapes and patterns of waves in order to paint them is actually kind of important (thank you teacher Douglas David!). I also highly recommend going into them. There is a high probability, it will make you a better artist.
PLANNING: I planned the layout of each canvas before I started. I had my sketches, reference material and color studies ready. Plus my brushes were clean before I started (this helps) and I knew the color palette I wasnt to use. I put the canvases side by side and painted the one of the left, Lefty and the one on the right, Righty at the same time. It was fun.
PATIENCE: When I paint with my right hand, I tend to overwork everything. The paint gets muddy and I get frustrated. Since I painted these paintings at the same time, the left hand encouraged the right hand to stop. Plus I got tired. So I stopped and a few days later went back, looked again, made a plan and finished them up.
IN SUMMARY: I felt like I was in "The Zone" when I painted these waves. The zone was open for business because of the practice, planning and patience. Who woulda thunk? Probably our parents already knew that.
Lesson learned in 2019!
