anika mari

I had intended to do another watercolor similar to my recent scalloped drawing in order to practice getting a specific painted watercolor effect that I didn’t quite get on the first try. For the new piece, I decided to change the overall composition slightly, so I started out by drawing in the shapes with a watercolor pencil.

When the drawing was complete, I looked at all the tiny shapes and didn’t feel like painstakingly filling in each one.

Not sure about what I did want to do, I switched directions and did a loose sketch of similar shapes on a much larger piece of sketch paper. I continued using a loose stroke when painting in the shapes, and ended up using orange overlapped by blue.

I really liked the end result. This is definitely one of those results that reminds me that I should always work on “good” paper, even when just doing sketchy stuff. Sometimes those are the pieces I love the most, but if it’s on wrinkly, acidy paper, it’s hard to justify framing it.

I was inspired to try out a simlarly loose style with the smaller piece I’d started earlier. The final result was quite different since the technique didn’t transfer precisely to the smaller scale.

I layered 5 different colors, and the result was much more spiky and chaotic than the orange and blue composition. If you are interested in seeing the progression of each layer, I have those photos up on flickr.

I wasn’t too happy with the end result of the 5 layered painting. I think that is because it was so different from what I’d originally intended to create, and also so different from the blue and orange composition that I liked so much. I got some pretty good feedback about the smaller painting that got me to look at it in a different way and appreciate the end result for what it is.

Even if it’s not my favorite thing that I’ve ever created, it’s a good example of what I love best about art–that by experimenting with techniques and following the path of ideas that lead to other ideas, I can come up with stuff that is very different from what I set out to do. By hearing what others thought and liked about my unexpected result, I’m reminded that having a final piece that is great every time isn’t what’s important. It’s the process that I love!