Tag: seascapes

Watercolour Sketch a Day – That’s 5 Years!

by communicatingcreatively, posted in Painting

Today marks 5 years of doing a Watercolour Sketch a Day, every day, straight!

On 26 January 2019, I decided to aim to do a Watercolour Sketch a Day as I wanted to:

  • Create a daily Art practice
  • Improve my skills

I remember that after 7 days being happy that I had managed to get that far. Prior to setting my goal of a Watercolour Sketch a Day, I used to do one and then Life would get in the way, and before too long, 2 weeks had gone by. At that rate, it would take me a long time to improve.

Here is Watercolour Sketch a Day #1

It was done on cheap Monte Marte Watercolour paper with Winsor and Newton Cotman Half-Pan Watercolour paint.

About a month after I started, I was about to sign up for 10-week Watercolour course, then the first Covid lockdown hit, and so no course. Instead, I did 120 days straight of YouTube tutorials.

As time went by, gradually I improved however, I also noticed that I would ‘plateau’ and sometimes it seemed that I was going backwards…

Mostly, I endeavour to do the Watercolour Sketch a Day in the early morning before ork although due to various commitments, that is not always possible. The later in the day it gets done, of course the more tired I am so sometimes, the resulting sketch is not as good perhaps as it would have been if I had completed it earlier. Whatever I come up with I post on my Instagram page called ‘Communicating Creatively.’ All 5 years of Watercolour Sketch a Day’s are there.

The latest I have completed was 11.00pm at night.

Also, over time, I changed to using Artist quality Watercolours (Winsor & Newton; Daniel Smith and Schminke), and starting using Artist quality 300gsm/100% Cotton (Saunders Waterford; Winsor & Newton), and Art Spectrum 300gsm/35% Cotton materials.

Here is today’s Watercolour Sketch a Day.

So, where to from here?

I am looking forward to doing Watercolour Sketch a Day, 5 years 1 Day tomorrow. Yes, the journey will continue as I feel I have a long way to go to get to where I want to be as an Artist. I need to get outside my comfort zone more, too.

A few people have asked me, over time, what is the number you are heading for?

My reply is simple, all I am aiming to do is ‘a Watercolour Sketch a Day’ to practice and improve my skills. I just happened to have done that every day, for 5 years straight.

Happy painting!

Till next time!

Written by David Johnson

26 January 2024

https://www.instagram.com/communicatingcreatively/

1,091 Days and Counting…My Daily Art Practice

by communicatingcreatively, posted in Painting

Today marks the 3rd anniversary since I started my ‘Daily Art Practice’ of a ‘Watercolour Sketch a Day’. For my 1,091st day I decided to sketch/paint a subject that I really seem to enjoy, a Lighthouse.

“Afternoon On The Coast”

One day, I will gather up all my Lighthouse sketches and put them in a blog post for no other reason than to see them altogether. I think it would be fun!

Looking back, I was pleased to do 7 days in a row and when I reached 1 month I really had no expectations of being able to keep up this daily Art practice for 1 year, yet alone 3.

My goals for the ‘Daily Art Practice’ were:

  • Aim to do one Watercolour Sketch a day (and look no further than that)
  • Be a Sponge
  • Improve my skills through practice
  • Lean from my mistakes
  • Practice, practice, practice!

I don’t believe I am ‘naturally talented’ in sketching and painting. Like all children I did draw at school and at home though I am not one of those Artists ‘who have been drawing/painting all throughout their life’, studied Art and are now full-time Artists. (I’m actually a Mortgage Broker and co-run our business with my Wife, Susan and have an additional Mentoring role for Small Business startups. I’m also involved in Toastmasters {Public Speaking}, and BNI {Business Networking}, as well as two other associations).

From 1982 – 2016 I was firmly entrenched in Photography. In the 1990’s, I briefly had an interest in drawing but that didn’t last long as Photography was ‘still King’. In 2010, I took a basic Drawing course and began dabbling in Watercolour (briefly) before dabbling in Acrylic and Oil over the years. In 2016, I decided to concentrate on Oils but it seemed difficult to find the time, consistently.

In 2018, I rediscovered Watercolour though finding the time seemed difficult again. I had a ‘real desire’ to learn it and started looking for ways to allocate more time to it and was (over the course of time) attracted as well to Line and Wash. On Australia Day, 26 January 2019 I decided to aim to do a Watercolour Sketch a Day.

Along the journey so far I’ve:

  • Learnt about some sketching, drawing and painting techniques
  • Colour mixes
  • Brush use
  • Colour Theory
  • Made an innumerable amount of mistakes
  • Increased my belief in myself that I can do this
  • Sold 3 A4 paintings (unexpected)
  • Joined Red Point Artists Association, Port Kembla
  • Made some great connections through Art groups

What’s next?

Well, I still have a lot to learn (and there’s more fun to have) so tomorrow I’m aiming to a Watercolour Sketch and the day after, another one…

My Daily Art practice with Watercolour has also re-inspired my Oil Painting practice so I am aiming to allocate time to that on a regular basis now and am planning to enter some Art Exhibitions and submit my own Art to the next Members Exhibition of the Red Point Artists Association.

Till next time!

Written by David Johnson

26 January 2022

My Watercolour Sketch a Day images can be found at:

https://www.instagram.com/communicatingcreatively/

My larger paintings can be found at:

https://www.instagram.com/light.inspired/

Time To Challenge Myself more

by communicatingcreatively, posted in Painting

Since hitting the 1,000 mark with my Watercolour Sketch a day, I’ve been attempting to do less tutorials and also less working from reference photos. I’ve enjoyed doing the tutorials but I thought it was time to start challenging myself more by doing my own original compositions whilst attempting to apply the techniques I’ve been learning within the tutorials.

One of the challenges I have with the daily sketches is that sometimes, I do not get a lot of time to spend on them. Sometimes it can be as little as 15 minutes, sometimes up to an hour. I love doing the daily sketches but am conscious that when time is short, I don’t get the chance to do the multiple layer washes are required.

I still want to do the daily sketches as I want to keep my daily art practice going (Art is not my full-time occupation) as I want to continue to improve and I find the practice quite meditative.

One of the things I am aiming to do is more A4 size Watercolour and Line and Wash paintings. These will need to be done on weekends.

Below are a few of my original sketches since passing the 1,000 day mark.

Till next time!

Written by David Johnson

November 2021