Learning to paint peonies in a vase

Peonies are so romantic, aren't they? I think I might love them even more than roses.  This painting is another one that is inspired by the lovely Miriam at the Inspiration Place.  It is from Miriam's Watercolour Secrets class. I loved her painting so  much it made me a little reluctant to attempt my own version. I needn't have worried. Peonies are so delightful it's hard not to enjoy painting them.  And Miriam makes the whole process seem very manageable - thanks, Miriam!

Watercolour flowers no 10

A lovely tropical hibiscus for the 10th in my watercolour flowers series for this month. I'm in a tropical mood because I am currently sunning myself on a beach holiday. Sun, sand and drinks with little umbrellas in them. Yes. That's the life!

Watercolour flower no 9 - Oriental Quince

A friend suggested that I should paint some oriental quince blossoms... what a lovely idea that was for my 9th watercolour flower in the series. And so much fun to paint!

Watercolour flowers no 8 - Pink Iris

I do love irises. In my mind they are always blue but I have recently learned that they come in all sorts of glorious colours. When I saw some that were pink, magenta and an almost deep aubergine purple I just had to paint them.

Painting white flowers can be a tricky business

Painting white flowers can present something of a challenge. White watercolour paint will just not do. Painting white flowers on white paper leaves you with little option but to paint them by not painting them at all. You have to paint the negative space around them leaving the untouched part of the paper to make the outline of the white flower.  Then you can improve its shape and form by adding in some shadows.

It's a fascinating idea to have the daisy represented more by the space it takes up and the shadows it casts than by its own form. It makes me wonder if that is a little like the way we live our lives. Our impact is felt by the space we take up, and the imprint we leave behind.  We can't help but be shaped by the way the world treats us. In equal measure, we leave our own mark on the world. Our environment and the people around us are changed by our presence. Hopefully for the better.

Occupy your space in the world proudly. Cast happy shadows. May the imprint you leave behind today be as joyful as the daisy's.

Should a beginner buy expensive paint?

 

I have to say I am loving my Schminke watercolour paints. I spent a long time pondering whether it really did make a difference using the 'artist quality' version of the paints as opposed to the 'student quality'.  It is always a rather tough call  when you are starting out.

When you know you are just learning it is hard to justify expensive paint. It is something of a widely held notion that you first 100 paintings are going to be rubbish - it is just something you have to work through. (Actually some say 500.... lets be gentle and start with 100). If you are interested in this idea, you might want to check out Lynn Whipple's rather charming short video on the matter.

Expecting a few dodgy paintings inevitably leads to some reluctance about splashing out on professional paint. However, doesn't a beginner need all the odds stacked in their favour? Such as paint that behaves the way it is supposed to? Glorious, vibrant colours?

So should a beginner buy expensive paint? There is is no easy answer to the dilemma. I think that the deciding factor within the available budget is whether the 'good' paint will inspire or inhibit you. If you will be happy to splash it about in your early experiments then I say go for it. But if it is going to make you even more critical of your early efforts and cause you to agonise over every brush stroke then it rather defeats the purpose. Sometimes it is easier to give yourself permission to be a beginner if you are not worrying about wasting supplies. (And by the way, if it is fun, it is not a waste, regardless of your opinion of the final output.)

The main thing is to get on with those paintings. Whether you use cheaper paint or professional quality paint doesn't really matter. It only matters that you give yourself the chance to paint yourself happy.

Mindfulness... the easy way

This morning I have spent the day surrounded by paint and paper and watercolour pencils and crayons. It is a glorious way to escape the world for a few hours and surrender completely to a joyful absorbing task. To me it is one of the easiest ways to practice mindfulness.

Mindfulness describes being fully present in the moment. Being aware of what is and accepting it without judgement.  Learning mindfulness helps us to find more balance in our lives through greater emotional equilibrium. We can learn to be less affected by the external environment. It can help us become more aware of our own negative thought patterns and enable us to replace them with more helpful ones. It can increase our effectiveness in our work and improve our relationships with other people.  Small wonder we hear about it so often and see it used by coaches, therapists and business people.

There are many ways to practice mindfulness. There is a short but helpful document from the Black Dog Institute that is a great starting point.  It suggests meditation, as well as practicing mindfulness during regular activities such as eating and walking.

My favourite way to practice is with some sort of happy creative activity. Choosing an activity that you do purely for the sake of recreation and allowing it to absorb your attention. Perhaps that is why it is easier. If it is a task you enjoy it draws your attention effortlessly rather than you having to try and consciously maintain your focus. I don't think it really matters what the activity is. Baking, knitting, drawing, painting or colouring in a colouring book. Its all good for you.

At last, something that is good for you that you can actually enjoy doing.

Watercolour poppies for beginners

Watercolour poppies for beginners

I found a really fun video on You Tube for today's watercolour flowers. Loose, happy poppies sitting on some grass painted with a straw - yes a straw!

Having access to so many ideas and techniques relating to whatever we want to learn is obviously brilliant. However, I am painfully aware that it is also something that stops us from taking action. It is very much easier to watch some one else paint than to get out all the supplies and have a go yourself. Especially if you suspect it will probably not turn out looking much like the one in the video. And of course, You Tube will then offer you all sorts of other similar videos to watch. Before you know it, you have spent the day watching lots of other people skillfully practicing something you wanted to do.

What a fascinating irony that the videos designed to teach us to paint something can also be the very thing stopping us from doing any actual painting ourselves. I fall prey to this all the time, but today I can say, (with a little less hypocrisy) switch off the video and get out your paints!

By the way, if you would like to paint along (or just watch and think about what it would be like to paint along..) here is the link to some watercolour poppy paintings for your viewing pleasure, including the one with the straw.

If you are a budding painter looking for a quick, manageable project, I think you will enjoy these watercolour poppies for beginners.  The video is a fun introduction to painting without a pencil sketch (be brave, you can do it!), painting wet in wet, and using some less conventional painting tools.

And if painting flowers in watercolour is your thing, how about painting these joyful hydrangeas?

This is an easy painting project for a beginner. Learn all my tips and tricks to loose expressive watercolour painting in this real time narrated video tutorial lesson.

( No drawing is required - I’ve done that for you! )

Click on the button above and start painting loose hydrangeas today!

More tulips - is there a better symbol of spring?

More tulips

More tulips this morning, because I can't help myself. The tulip festival starts here in Melbourne soon - can't wait!

This particular tulip festival has been going since 1954.  I'm not sure it gets any better than over half a million tulips nestled in the beautiful Dandenong ranges. The only thing to decide is when exactly to go... hmm Children's week? Food, wine and jazz week? Irish week?

3 quick tips to improve the vase life of those willful irises

I love blue flowers. There really don't seem to be all that many of them. Irises are some of my favourites. I love how wild they seem. They don't last well in vases which is a shame, but somehow I can't help but admire that sort of willful obstinacy in refusing to be tamed.

If you do want to try and improve the vase life of your irises here are three quick tips:

• use sharp pruning shears to cut the irises as a 45 degree angle
• add a floral preservative to the water (you can make your own with lemon-lime soda!)
• keep the vase out of direct sunlight

A new series for the first day of spring

It is the first day of spring today. For the first time in what feels like a very long time we have sunshine and blue skies.  My first painting in the new series for this month feels rather apt, given all that.  Joyous tulips in happy colours.

I am taking a class called Watercolour Secrets with the lovely Miriam Schulman, over at The Inspiration Place.  These tulips are one of the class projects. They were so much fun to do, I decided to spend the whole month making more. So this month it will be a series of flowers (no faces, this time!), mostly 9" x 12" on 300gsm watercolour paper. I am using my delightful new Schminke watercolour paints... and hoping the weather holds!

The final face in this month's series

So here she is - the final face in the series for this month. I do love my markers and I do love drawing faces. However, I am very pleased to begin something new tomorrow!

The features of our face

"The features of our face are hardly more than gestures which force of habit made permanent. Nature, like the destruction of Pompeii, like the metamorphosis of a nymph into a tree, has arrested us in an accustomed movement." - Marcel Proust

The art of procrastination

Some days you can spend hours at the computer, busily working away. Click, click, type, type. No end of activity. Sounds productive. And then eventually you realise that it is because you  decided you desperately needed to take a free online typing test to check your typing speed.  Because this of course is of greater or at least equal importance to working on that post you committed to write, or all those other tasks on the list.

There are many battles to be fought in the creative process. It is practice for everyday life.  There is a complete gauntlet to be run each time you try to indulge your creative urges. If the inner critic doesn't thwart you, procrastination might.

Its a sneaky beast, this Procrastination. Sometimes it is in disguise. It can cloak itself in the guise of research. Maybe planning. Getting organised. These things are all very valid, potential productivity enhancing activities. However, they are ancillary, support activities, not the main event. Important? Yes. Helpful? Yes. But if they are standing between you and the task at hand, efficient they are not.

If you feel busy then you may not realise that you are procrastinating. Procrastinating, sounds like you are not doing much. Therefore if you are actively engaged in furious activity you can't be procrastinating.

Procrastination is fear of beginning. Researching, planning and getting organised are all helpful activities that will ensure that your project gets off to a good start.  But they are the preliminaries. This preliminary phase needs to be curtailed. Preparation is always key to setting up your project for success.  Eventually you have to ask yourself if you are  just procrastinating. There is never 'enough' research. You have to just start, even if you don't feel ready.

The bible on getting things done is called Getting Things Done by David Allen. But if your procrastination time budget does not extend to reading a whole book here are 29 lifehacks for procrastination instead.

How to manage your inner critic

I was supposed to post Face no 12... this one above, yesterday. I drew her. I was not pleased. I decided to begin again.  Having completed Face no 13, I concluded she was worse than Face no 12. Ah, the inner critic.

When the inner critic pipes up with her judgement, it is easy to feel paralysed.  To just stop seems an easier, and far more sensible solution than to continue.

The inner critic is a defense mechanism. Her aim is to reduce our risk.  To prevent us from being judged by others, and possibly hurt in the process.  However, despite these good intentions, sometimes she succeeds only in strangling the muse, and any motivation to act on any creative urge.

Learning how to manage your inner critic stems from that awareness. Knowing that it is a protective mechanism we can acknowledge  and appreciate the self care intention. From this much gentler place we can assess more rationally the seriousness of the risk perceived by the inner critic.

To make that evaluation you need to return to your 'why'. Why are you creating? There are a host of valid reasons. In fact, I don't think I can think of an invalid one. But the mere fact that you began the creation process suggests that it is a necessary self expression. We all have the right to express ourselves, regardless of our talent or ability. To create just for the sake of creating.  As the creator, your job is to create, not to judge the creation.

Create because you feel the inclination to create.

Create because it gives you joy.

Create for the delight of the process.

Let the output of your creative process be whatever it will be. Inevitably, with practice you can only become better. But if you let the inner critic thwart your process in the early stages, you will never get to see that for yourself.

Is a pretty face like a passport?

Drawing pretty faces is delightful. Especially watching perfect creamy complexions reveal themselves in the wake of the marker.

I can't help but ponder just how helpful a pretty face actually is. Some say pretty face, easy life. Perhaps so. Interesting how many judgments we make based on just a person's face.  Most are positive, I'd say, but certainly not all of them.

On balance, if given a choice we would rather be pretty though, surely? It's like the old adage about money not buying happiness, but making unhappiness bearable. Being pretty opens a few doors, but has an obvious downside as Julie Burchill points out...

"It has been said that a pretty face is a passport. But it's not, it's a visa, and it runs out fast." Julie Burchill

Drawing is so good for you

There is something delightful about drawing windswept hair and pouty mouths.

My tenth face in the series for this month includes both. And it's in my favourite combination of turquoise and purple. Life is good.

One of the beauties of taking out a drawing book is that you can make whatever it is that you want to see. Create a world composed entirely of the things you like. Omit everything you would rather not see. Such freedom.  Where else can you find that?

Small wonder that drawing is so good for you.

How is your happiness project going?

Is happiness one of your priorities? Probably, yes.

If you ask most people what they want in life, chances are they will eventually say that they want to be happy.  So most of us want happiness, but do we actually do anything to actively seek it?

Gretchen Rubin did. She devoted a year of her life to her happiness project it in fact, and wrote a book about it.

I think it is something we should all consider. Not writing a book about it, necessarily... but what we actually do for ourselves daily in the pursuit of happiness.

Do you know what makes you happy? What do you do for fun?

I suspect far too many of us may have lost sight of the true answers to these questions. Those answers are easily subsumed by expectations we  hold of what sensible, appropriate grown ups should do with their leisure time. That of course assumes that we haven't given up on the idea of leisure entirely, in the pursuit of 'success', whatever that may mean to us.

Reading Rubin's account of working through these questions is certainly thought provoking. I have to admit, my initial thoughts included the worrying doubt that devoting a year of a life to one's personal happiness might just be a touch self-indulgent. How telling... I now conclude that it is not at all a selfish luxury. Rather more a responsibility.  Each of us brings our energy to the world. Each of us is responsible for choosing what sort of energy that will be.

"Happiness is the meaning and purpose of life, the whole aim and end of human existence." Aristotle

The Happiness Project is not a prescriptive instructional manual. It is more like a diary of Rubin's year long project. It concludes with suggestions on how to start one's own happiness project, recognising that no two projects will be alike. It is up to each one of us to work out what it would take to increase our happiness. If you are wondering where to begin, then I highly recommend this book.  Not only for the delightful, personal writing, but for the extensive resource lists at the end of the book.

To my mind, our whole lives are our happiness projects. I wholeheartedly support the idea of setting clear goals of things to add to our lives, or things to change in order to increase our everyday happiness.  Analysis, setting objectives and determining measurable action steps to achieve these things - of course I like all that. But I don't see it as the work of a finite period of time. No indeed, that is the work of a lifetime.

Do we only see what we expect to see?

Face no 8 in the faces series turned out to be a thoughtful little thing with pensive purple eyes.

I rather like the idea of  purple eyes. If the eyes were a very bluish purple I think they would make you look very carefully at the person. I bet it would be one of those things that just made a person more noticeable but that you might not necessarily put your finger immediately upon just what it was that made them remarkable.

I had a friend  who had one of his eyebrows shaved off once by his buddies when he fell asleep after a night on the town. (Yes. The things boys do when they are young....) Anyway, the thing was it made him look ...interesting. Only slightly unusual. There was something different about his face but you didn't immediately notice what that was. I suppose our brains fill in the missing information if it is only a small missing piece. Things seem the same but there is an intuitive nagging that keeps you looking.

Sometimes we only see what we expect to see.

Do you recognise any of these Shakespeare quotes about faces?

When in doubt... look to the Bard.... so let's see what William Shakespeare had to say about faces:

"One beautiful heart is better than thousand beautiful faces"

"There's no art to find the mind's construction in the face"

"My comfort is that old age, that ill layer-up of beauty, can do no more spoil upon my face."

"False face must hide what false heart doth know."

"How soon my sorrow hath destroyed my face."

"The tartness of his face sours ripe grapes."

Do you recognise any of these Shakespeare quotes about faces?