A few months ago, I received a gift from fellow artist and YouTuber Oto Kano, who as well
as being incredibly talented, makes really in-depth and useful videos about watercolours,
swatching all different brands and even making their own- I definitely recommend you check
the channel out, I’ll of course have a link below, but back to the gift, it was all of
the Holbein watercolour paints- all 108 of them, swatched into pallets for me to try.
It was a really thoughtful and unexpected surprise and just the way it was so carefully
laid out, filled me with inspiration right away.
I knew I wanted to do something with these paints to make the most of how conveniently
they were laid out in colour order.
I thought and thought about it, did other things and kept coming back to it, and then
Huevember came along and I fell in love with the challenge, especially watching Kasey Golden’s
videos, I thought, I’ll do something like that with these paints!
So I swatched them all to get an idea of what I had, and then I put together about 16 different
colour combos with 4 colours that would go together, so four yellows, four reds etc.
and I thought this would be a great opportunity to branch out with my art a bit.
Using a limited pallet and really focusing on value and how that can be used almost exclusively
of colour.
I’ve also for a while now wanted to experiment with my style, which I think relies quite
heavily on linework, I wanted to see if I could make something illustrative and clear
and cohesive with just shapes, and added texture, which is a style I love and would love to
emulate more, but just cant seem to figure out.
So I had this idea, I had it for a while, I was going to do a painting a day, using
these colour pallets, each with the theme of a different type of place, so a desert,
a cliff, a volcano etc.
The idea was fully fleshed out, I’d even filmed the opening scenes to the video where
I’m swatching and whatnot, but… then I just couldn't get myself to actually do it.
I kept planning and planning and when it came time to actually paint, I just knew it wouldn’t
turn out how I wanted it to.
Because I was doing something I didn’t have experience with, painting in this style, obviously,
as I always say on this channel, you have to make mistakes to learn, you have to try
and and fail a few times to eventually start moving forward, but I didn’t want to fail.
Especially on video.
As much as I know you guys like honesty and artists showing their weaknesses, for some
reason, this time I was particularly insecure.
Maybe because I’ve kind of said it all before.
And I feel like I should be improving but I’m not.
I honestly don’t know.
I just know, I was supposed to start these paintings at the beginning of the month and
here we are almost two weeks later and I’ve only just convinced myself to give it a try,
and just know that it isn’t going to turn out how I want it to.
It’s that typical artist feeling of having a vision in your head of how you want your
art to look, having an idea for a piece and not feeling brave enough to do it because
you know it won’t turn out like what you’ve got in your head, you know you’ll be disappointed
and that idea will almost feel like it’s been wasted.
And that happened with my first painting.
This is the one I agonised over the most, to the point that I even thought about skipping
‘desert’ and going straight to the next one.
I planned out so many different layouts, tried it over and over in procreate where I can
easily tweak and erase mistakes, but in the end I had to just go for the real thing.
And I really didn’t like it.
It’s just so far from how I wanted it to look.
It looks like I’m a beginner at this style, and like I don’t know what I’m doing,
but it looks like that because that’s true, I don’t.
And once that one was done and out the way, I kind of felt encouraged to carry on with
the next one.
This one had had half as much planning, and I just went for it more intuitively, and I
already felt like I’d learned some lessons from the first painting to take into the next
one.
I was a lot more relaxed, and more open to just go with it.
I find that when I spend days and days or weeks at a time not drawing or painting, I
overanalyse in my head, just how hard it’ll be to get back into it, when in all honesty,
once I’ve loosened up and made a few mistakes, I really just stop caring.
I’m only scared to fail before I start, not actually while I’m doing it.
So spurred on by the slight improvement of the second painting, I moved straight onto
the third, and I was finally starting to enjoy myself.
This one seemed to come together a lot more easily and it was such a clear indication
of how, just after two attempts, I was making progress, I was learning a little bit, and
if I could make that progress in the space of 2-3 small paintings, to get closer to the
style and skill I’m hoping for, then it’s actually quite exciting to think about the
difference it’ll make to complete this little challenge of mine, using all 16 of the pallets
I came up with.
This final painting is definitely the best, but still very far from the simplistic style
I was looking for, but it’s an improvement on the second painting which was an improvement
on the first, and that really is the only way to get better.
I know I say it all the time, but I rarely follow my own advice, and like I said, it’s
especially hard to make ‘bad' art on a public platform like this, but I’m glad I did.
I’m going to carry on with this personal challenge, my little version of Huevember,
I might even go back and re-do the ones I’m not keen on once I’m closer to figuring
out the right way to approach them.
Let me know if you want to see the progress of the rest of the paintings and I’ll be
happy to share the journey with you.
Otherwise, thanks so much for watching and I’ll see you soon for the next video.
Bye!