I’ve been wanting to start a painting for a while but couldn’t decide what. I have a couple of photos my husband took of a baby owl we saw in our garden a while ago. I asked him to print them out for me because I wanted to do a painting – but of course did’t get around to it thanks to perfectionism and fear of failure.
I have also been thinking about doing another picture in the same style as Funky Fish but another creature. I thought perhaps a crocodile (crazy croc) or a chicken/cockerel (got to be funky chicken!).
This morning I watched the first bit of a painting training video which listed 3 essential things:
- Learn the essentials of painting techniques
- Practice – challenging the comfort zone, increasing output not time, working small and perfection does NOT matter.
- Master the Mind – excuses are often based on fear; shortcuts are lies; expense is not an issue; we all make mistakes; we are all learning; and (very importantly) your work matters.
If that wasn’t enough, I then saw a post from a Faith & Arts Facebook group asking us what is our motivation for creating. I had to admit to suffering procrastination: should I do a realistic owl painting or a funky style one? After a conversation with someone decided I would do one of the owl paintings, but not sure which. She suggested I do the more difficult of them to get out of my comfort zone. That would definitely be the realistic version! The funky style is relatively easy and is akin to doodling. Finally, on another Facebook group for artists there was the Wednesday ‘what’s on your easel’ post. That was it – I was going to show something on my easel today.
And so, at the end of the afternoon, this is what is on my easel:
I decided I would start both the funky and the more real looking owl and have both on the go. I found a rather nice tawny owl photo as a reference for the feet of the funky version. The realistic one is in the grass and no feet showing. They are both on canvas boards and using acrylic paints.
I will continue to take photos of the owls in progress so I can record them on my blog. Not sure how long it will take as we are going away for a couple of weeks and I don’t want to take acrylic paints with me. I shall take my watercolours and crayons.
Elizabeth Jones' Diary 