Before? After? Better? Worse?

Now that I’m spending a little time in my studio again, I am having fun playing with watercolors. There are many different watercolor styles, and I have ideas about how I’d like my watercolors to look, but forget that! I know what I like but I don’t know how to make it happen. Oh, well.

As I’m re-learning various watercolor techniques, I’m browsing around, watching a few tutorials, and just “doing my own thing” for the most part. Even if I have no plan, even if nothing is inspiring me, it’s still fun to open up my paints, grab a few brushes, and just play at my easel.

Recently during one of my afternoon play-times, I tried to come up with a landscape that looked a bit like the visions in my head — something soft, loose, evocative, almost mysterious. Needless to say, the result is nothing like my vision, but here you go:

This was done with my Japanese gansai. I was playing around with a few different brushes, and just having fun. With a mat around it, it doesn’t look too bad, so I was actually fairly happy with it.

Then as I browsed around, I came to a video tutorial for a loose watercolor landscape, and I was surprised to see an artist creating a painting very similar to what I’d just made. Here is a screen shot from the video:

Please note that I wasn’t following this tutorial. My landscape was completed before I came across this video. Yet the basic idea and the general color scheme is about the same between these two watercolors.

But then the instructor went on to do a few other things. First, he “wiped away” several streaks of paint to create a feeling of rays of light coming through the trees. To be honest, I wasn’t too impressed by his technique, and at this point, my painting had already thoroughly dried, so I couldn’t even attempt such a thing. Maybe next time.

Finally, he finished his landscape by adding more trees — after his initial work had dried. He then splattered a bit of color, and since my painting was quite dry, I decided to go ahead and give it a try. I couldn’t really ruin anything, after all. Not that adding trees and splatters would improve the painting, either. It was just something to try.

Is it any better? Is it worse? Do the added trees and splatters make any difference, really? Probably not. I think I do like the “after” version better just because it does have a bit of “added interest”. Overall, though, it’s just another messy watercolor landscape. That seems to be my natural waterolor “style”.

And in case you’re curious, here’s the completed painting from the tutorial.

Sure, I wish my painting looked more like this. I wish my colors were darker and richer. I wish I could bring my own creative visions to life. Alas, it’s not to be, and that’s all right. As I’ve said many times, becoming a watercolor artist is NOT a goal I have.

So, I’m content to be who I am and to do what I can. I’ve discovered a delightful new book of watercolor projects, so I’m going to have a lot of fun just “easing my way” back into art and playing with my paints. That’s all I can do, and right now, that’s all I want to do.