Marc Taro Holmes, whose watercolors I have long admired, has gotten together on Facebook with a few friends as administrators to issue a 30-day challenge for the month of June, called 30x30 Direct Watercolor. It's basically another daily practice challenge to get people into the discipline of painting every single day, a goal to which I aspire but almost never achieve. But the part that's different is the word "direct." His challenge is specifically to paint with little to no pre-drawing involved, to think in colors, shapes, masses, and light, rather than getting stuck on outlines and details. Since I have been all about the contour ever since I studied with Brenda Swenson and took up drawing with a pen, this is radically different for me.
I started thinking back, and can't honestly remember ever making a painting without first making a fairly elaborate and complete drawing. So I'm going to try it. It's not a requirement for the month, so I may also do some of my usual ink-and-then-watercolor efforts. But it's definitely a good method to change the way I look at my subjects, and it's probably about time I took on something different.
I had a little time this morning, so I did a straight, brush-to-paper rendering of the orange tree in my back yard as a practice, anticipating June. It definitely looks different to my regular efforts. This month will be interesting.
This is really good. Loose and interesting. Yes, you need to continue with this sort of work.
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