Here's my LAST painting in the series:
This is a tiny one - maybe 6" x 6". I am happy with the looseness and composition. I used a viewfinder which helped quite a bit, and added some of the porcelain shards we discovered in the creek yesterday. This is the now-baked head of the same fish I painted two days ago. Still worth painting!
Thank you all for joining me. I have learned quite a bit. Let me run through the revelations that hit me over this 30 days.
1. Some days you just feel it
I went into some paintings just knowing they were going to work - and they usually did
2. Bristle brushes work better for me than soft nylon ones do
I like the way they push the paint around. Unfortunately, I didn't get to use any bristle brushes until day 28, when my wife brought me some from the states. They are so much better.
3. Sketching helps
Sketching out locations with a pencil or brush to get the right placement of objects helps a lot. I used to just attack the canvas without much planning - now I've discovered that often leads to blah compositions and awkward moments.
4. You really only need a few colors
Today's painting had four in it. Red, yellow, blue and white.
5. Plein air painting is much tougher than still life
Rain, climbing mountains, fast shifts in the light, trouble with atmospheric perspective... I need to get out with my easel more. This has been a terribly rainy month with rain most days - the rainiest yet - and so I didn't get nearly as much outdoor time as I had hoped. Maybe in the dry season! I'm committed to plein air painting and I need to do a lot more, but I've also decided that I can tell stories with still life, which is a new thing for me.
6. Daily painting has improved me
The last painting I did was much easier than the first. Each day I learned something new or built on a previous discovery. I need to keep doing this for a year!
Maybe I'll do just that.
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