Enjoying the Process

As I mentioned on Saturday, I am now showing what I  did in my art class today. It looks like I did a lot in just three hours, doesn’t it? It does to me, anyway. Although the truth be told, a watercolor like this (without too many details or colors) tends to go more quickly.
On the other hand, it was not like I just sat down today and started to paint. Before I began  studying art, I had no idea of all that was involved in producing a painting.
I began the process in looking for something I wanted to paint. That is fun and interesting. The next step is to study the painting and do a sketch. After I did the sketch, then I was ready to transfer that to the watercolor paper. Watercolor paper is delicate and can’t take erasures, so the “dirty secret” is that I use graphite paper to “transfer” my design to the watercolor paper. But even doing that, I go over the drawing with light pencil markings and correcting the drawing.
Then I have to choose which paints I will use. Because blue tends to be a high coverage color, I had to chose carefully to find a transparent blue. I only recently have come to understand that not all watercolors are created equally. Some are opaque and other transparent. So it was a matter of testing my paints and finding the more transparent blue. I was able to find a cobalt blue and mix it with a neutral gray and it turned out perfectly. The yellow was another problem, as I only had one transparent yellow and as it turns out, way too lemony in color. So I am working on adding some transparent red on top to “warm” up the yellow.
So you can see I spent some 5-6 hours getting “ready” to paint.  I am not the most patient person in the world so this requires a lot out of me to work slowly and methodically. But the results are so worth it. I will probably finish the painting in another sessions of 3-5 hours. That will be a quick painting for me. It’s hard to believe how much I have learned over the last three years. And just to remind you, here is one of my first drawings.
I just discovered this quote, after making my post, and I thought it so apropos. It is by James Ellis (whoever he is)"The mind paints before the brush."