Learning by Doing

Ever since I started this enterprise with acrylics (and some paint pens) I have been climbing a learning curve. Art is a teacher that uses both positive reinforcement and crushing blows. I am glad that I learned through knitting that you can alway start again.

I finished a section and learned that size does matter ... or at least scale does. My tropical fish are far too big for their background and they look monstrous when small butterflies are in close proximity.

I worked really carefully to produce a cloud of butterflies and on the VERY LAST set of antennae the !@#$% ink pen splurted a great blob of indelible black ink all over the butterfly . I wiped it out and sanded down to the primer and repainted that section in the red background colour. It did not look much better and certainly would not hide the original error. I slept on the problem and decided to make a garden for the butterflies and inserted a bush over the offending black/red blob. It looks better, and my hands have lost most of their indelible ink, but now the fish look ridiculous. I will start fresh on their space ... sand and then paint the whole thing from scratch ... and create some fish that fit. Maybe!

Or maybe I will decide that fish do not belong on a higher plane than butterflies and I will do something completely different.

I have learned to treat paint pens with great respect and caution. I have learned that paint brushes may be less stable than pens but they are infinitely more forgiving.

I am gaining confidence in my ability to draw. We lose that confidence as we age ... or at least some of us do. It never occurred to me when I was a child that I did not have good eye-hand coordination. I suspect we can all sing and draw and write but we all find some things more difficult than others so we give up on the ones that challenge us.

Who knows? Maybe I will start singing next! :-)