As part of the subsection of 2023 goals that informally includes “get your ass out of the house” I decided to take a watercolor class through my town’s recreation program. It’s a six-week class that meets for two hours on a weeknight and all it’s doing is introducing us to the basics of watercolor. There are about 10 of us in attendance. Some have taken art classes before and some are like me and just want to get out of the house.
And I’m terrible it. So very bad. My washes are too dry, my dry areas are too wet, and there’s a 50% chance I’m painting on the wrong side of the paper I bought because it has no watermark and I peeled the barcode off before I knew that it indicated the back of the paper.
I had to buy a new palette because the cheap one I bought at Michael’s doesn’t have enough room to mix multiple colors. I almost accidentally drank from the paint rinse cup instead of my water bottle.
When I mix colors the results look really muddy.
And my trees aren’t happy little trees. They’re mildly perturbed trees. We also know that I can’t draw.
My funny little goal is to be able to paint little pictures of my house and garden and maybe the dog. The dog might be easiest, as he’s already naturally blurry and muddy.
The only thing I can nail is tearing the large sheet of paper (imperial size) into smaller sheets. I’m very good at tearing paper thanks to the times I used to help with tear sheets when I first started at the C-P.
But you know what? If I was decent at this on my very first go, I would be wasting my money at a beginner class. Right? RIGHT?
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Good for you! Everybody is bad at watercolor when they first start. And color mixing is only learning how different colors are made. Bet you’re doing a lot better at the end of the six weeks.