It’s time for another art challenge!! This time it’s World Watercolor Month! Another month long art challenge and you bet I’m participating and excited to reach that finish line. Amongst all the other things, I’m working on with the comic, and now planning a wedding amidst this pandemic, I’ve added this extra art exercise to my schedule as well.
Why? Well to be honest, I love the steady growth and experimentation that art challenges provide. I’m not as rigid when I participate in them, and they let me explore whatever pops into my mind. I’m not harping on myself about being consistent or trying to be a perfectionist. I take it for the learning experience it is and just create. In times like these, that kind of energy is exactly what I need to keep my creativity and self in a healthy state of existing. I also get a lot of filler characters done during these challenges for the comic too. I mean I’m going full in on the fantasy, so gotta bring the people and beings of the world to life too. Productivity all around!
I’ve wanted to dedicate time to improve my watercolor game for a few years now. Heck I even thought it would be a great idea to color all backgrounds or architectural references for MagicalMashup! in watercolor (and even did a few) before realizing that the amount of work would still be the same.
I still have to get over myself about backgrounds and just draw them more ( not only that, but mixing the palettes necessary for each nation would consume a ton of time bc I’d be trying to match the digital swatches by hand and just woof. I mean just making the digital coloring palettes took weeks alone :V).
In the end, I just kept back-burning dedicating the time needed to up my watercolor game. Often to focus on getting my digital art together, figuring out what do with acrylic inks, or learning how to use Alcohol Markers adequately.
Art is a never ending journey of learning, so I figure alternating between the mediums that I’m invested in while giving each one its own dedicated study time is the best way to satisfy my itch to use a variety of mediums. This way I can develop all four while giving them the attention they require to see improvement and get a better understanding of each medium. I love creating in all four mediums for different reasons, so logically I’d love to combine all four and see what happens. A lofty dream that will end in something amazing or terrible. Either way, I’m going for it… but not just yet. There is still only so many hours in a day. I’m still developing a comic after all and that comes first, so I get my physical media practice in usually on weekends with a few acceptations.
One BIG acceptation is an ART CHALLENGE!! What better way to start the practical part of the learning cycle then with an art challenge! It just so happened that when I was deciding when to start taking all my color theory and light studies into practice I heard about World Watercolor Month (the universe has spoken)! I’m looking forward to seeing what comes of this month long journey and sharing the results, but first I want to talk about my prep!
