A few watercolor paintings

May 6, 2025

I've been trying some watercolor painting these past few months after being inspired by my friend Mignon.

Growing up, I took weekly art classes. I generally enjoyed these, except for the watercolor segment, which I found really frustrating. The paint never seemed to behave the way I wanted them to; I remember painting a section of a lighthouse over and over, trying to bend it to my will, until the paper started to tear and fray and I was forced to give up. So I was relieved when the class moved on to acrylic painting, which I found a lot more fun, and I never touched watercolor again.

Returning to watercolor as an adult has been a lot more fruitful. I think my key realization was that you have to paint from light to dark; you can't really add light colors on top of darker colors the way you can with acrylic.

12/30/24: My first page, just experimenting with the paint and how the colors and water behave.
1/5/25: My first sketch, in my parents' backyard.
1/23/25: Miso the dog, at paint night hosted by my friend Kathleen!
3/26/25: Painted from a photo of a 1980s Toyota Tercel that I took a couple years ago. I'm really happy with how this turned out, but it took a lot of time and was a very rigid and careful sort of painting. I'd like to learn to be more loose.
Two recent quick sketches: An empty coffee cup, and a butte on Lake Powell.

I'm kind of embarrassed that I've only done these few paintings so far. I've been finding it really hard to start painting, maybe because each one feels like such a commitment of time and focus. But once I do start, I enjoy it a lot, and I'm usually pleasantly surprised at the results.

I think there's a positive feedback loop to tap into here, where painting more would lead to painting coming more easily, which would lead to painting more. I think I just need to decide to commit to this and build the habit.