Last day of class for Basic Watercolour. The more I moved through the lesson pieces which were really hard for me, I noticed they pushed me to another level of skill.

We were to submit 2 out of 3 that we did. I picked the peaches and this watermelon. The cupcakes felt stiff and unnatural so I did not pick it. Everyone else picked the watermelon. I had wanted to ask the teacher why mine looked cartoony. I didn’t know how to describe cartoony to the teacher so I didn’t. He had mentioned a number of times that art is not a facsimile of the scene or the picture but I can’t get it. He said the form is more important than the texture and I also couldn’t get it. I frankly still don’t get what watercolour art is – he said botanical art is mostly drawing and illustration.

I start the intermediate class next week. I am starting to see that he is right – I should take a break in between classes. for one I can have a rest. A second reason is that I can do some of those that I enjoy.

I did a drawing together with Scott Maier. As the drawing emerges, he explains the artistic decisions he takes and untangles my confusion about the level of detail needed, what to bring forward, what to push back. That makes a big difference in understanding what I am trying to do in watercolour. He untangled my confusion about detail and texture and it is this – our brain naturally seeks patterns. We only need to create suggestions and allow our brain to make the connection. This suggestion is form craved out by light and shadows. By squinting and removing these details, we see a simplified version of what we are trying to paint and makes the job easier.

These were painted part of my class homework for the NAFA Watercolour homework pieces. They were hard. Really hard – I threw away a number of practice pieces before getting to this and yet I still didn’t like what I did.

I want a higher level of realism which my art teacher has pointed out a few times that realism is not the point of watercolour paintings.

I have been mulling through this on and off: what is the realism that I am chasing after. Is it a copy of the picture?

When I was learning music, my music teacher gave me recording of a piece as reference. When I returned the following week and played it, she commented that I was able to produce a facsimile of her playing. I remembered that she said I was to express the musical feeling of the piece and not to copy her playing.

My artistic ability is shallow and all I can do at the moment is to try to match the picture. I don’t know what I should do if I am not suppose to copy the picture.

Funny – I felt pleased enough about the pear to state it on my blog and it now looks childish. For these, the only good thing I can say about them is that I have made some progress and I can pass up homework.

I really like what I did. I felt I broke through something and made a proper watercolour. I was faithfully trying to capture all the marks pear and it was starting to look stiff and plastic. I suddenly decided to just paint faster. I basically stopped looking at the details and started doing squiggly lines and dabbing it away. Colour wise, I painted a last layer of brighter green. These moves made the pear suddenly come alive.

Frankly I don’t really know what I did but it made a big difference to the whole thing.

Tried 6 cherries. Nothing is working out. The best thing was being able to lift out the colors for that glow spot.

Progress is a snail.