Day 361: Plans for Improvement

Since Christmas I’ve spent some time most days pondering… how has this year impacted on my skills? what have I learned? am I where I thought I would be by now? and mostly, what do I do next…?

A few people have asked whether I will continue after I’ve completed this year of daily practise that I set out to achieve (it’s only a few days away now). It’s an easy answer: Yes! I’ve found that daily practise has become a habit, and I need to keep doing it. I also think the blog has been a part of the commitment, without it I don’t think I would make time every day to create something… however, there have been many times where I’ve skimped on one to make time for the other… I like creating, and I like writing too, but since I have limited time one tends to suffer for the other (and sometimes they both suffer!).

I’m still working out how that might change in the coming year, I’d like to give more effort to both… I’ve also been considering what I’d like to improve in my practise… and that one is harder! I hate posting work and complaining about it so I have to find a better way… I look at artists I admire and know I have an enormous amount to learn, that’s going to take sweat and probably tears… it’s hard to let go of techniques that mostly work to try new ones that almost certainly won’t straight away.

Anyway, I thought I’d try and share some of the confusion going through my head right now… last year was an enormous leap for me, especially sharing my progress, and I hope this next year I can push myself further still. Thank you everyone who’s travelled with me this far, I hope you’re enjoying it as much as me!

So, after all that philosophy… I came across something I thought very useful today on another blog I follow by Judith Farnworth, who also runs the loose watercolour group on Paint my Photo. Yesterday she mentioned colour planets which I hadn’t heard of before, but which made great sense – a method of seeing how different pigments blend together, and a great reference for future paintings… I played with a few of my favourite colours on some tiny watercolour pads I got for Christmas (A7 size!) I intend to do lots more and build a library of how my paints react to each other.