Today I want to share with you my thoughts and perseverance, and why it’s one of THE MOST IMPORTANT things.
Perseverance & Giving Yourself a Chance
I usually plan out my podcast episodes, or I have something specific to say.
This time I was preparing to start recording, and suddenly perseverance popped into my mind.
I immediately thought of it in the context if – success takes TIME. If you are not willing to persevere and try again and again, you’ll never make it.
Perseverance is Important in Both BUSINESS and ART
The reason why I talk a lot about these topics is that, this is really what’s on my mind most of the time. This has been the case for the past 1-2 years, if not longer.
In my watercolor journey, I can really sense the importance of persevering. There were MANY times I got punched in the face by the medium.
I was on a roll (painting a few nice artworks), and then found out I suddenly have ZERO control over the paint.
I went through tough challenges.
Had I not continued regardless, I could never win. And I’m only just now starting to win.
Business is TOUGH
That’s another thing I’m coming to terms lately. Building wealth, financial and business success is hard. It takes a lot of effort, making mistakes along the way and continuing regardless.
This is something I had to learn the hard way. I’m not sure how to put it in words, so I’ll just say this: There is no finish line.
There’s never that point that you get to – that you can really say – I’m done and can rest now. Work always continues, and it’s all a part of one long process.
Hedging it!
I’d like to give one caveat.
I think it’s important to do things smartly. If you’ve been doing something for a LOOONG time and you don’t see results, maybe it’s a good idea to try something else.
Or, at the very least – realize you may not achieve everything you wanted in that area. But if you enjoy it – I’ll be your biggest supporter.
I think this requires looking inside and figuring out what you want, what the results are and what the best course of action is.
I Got Lucky!
The first book I published on Amazon started selling the next day.
That’s insane.
I don’t know what would’ve happened had that not been the case.
Would I have published three more books? Would I have continued? Or may I’d just quit and “go get a job”.
Who knows? For now, all I can do is be super-grateful for the success I WAS able to achieve so far.
And that’s a good note to move onto the Artist Corner (;
Artist Corner
Today I presented Stanislaw Zoladz. He is a Polish painter living in Sweden.
His style is realistic, with some expressionism thrown in on some of his work. I absolutely love it.
In this episode I want to talk to you about filming art videos outside, and the challenges that accompany that.
I Love Painting and Sketching Outside
I really love creating outside. Seeing the scene in front of you, hearing the sounds, seeing the people. It’s just such a superior experience.
Plus, you get to translate the scene from a three-dimensional manifestation onto a two-dimensional paper.
This is an extremely important experience that you don’t get painting from photos.
Filming Art Videos Outside
So that brings me to art videos.
On the one hand, I really enjoy filming outside. It has a freshness to it.
Also, I have a funny feeling that this has something to do with my more advanced work. With things I want to do when I’m at the height of my career.
I want to show my work and everything I’m doing.
I don’t know if this is a bug I caught from figures like Gary Vee, or something that’s inherently mine.
But I do know it’s there.
But It’s a HUGE Challenge for me, at Times
Filming outside is challenging for me.
I think I can divide this challenge into two elements.
Fear that filming will hurt my artistic results. This is a legitimate fear, but I believe that’s something you learn to deal with. When you are so used to recording everything you do, the camera becomes “invisible” to you.
Fear of filming in public, in front of other people. One of the scariest (and funniest) moments are when I’m just about to talk, and there are many people around my. I know I’m going to surprise them =P
So this led to some challenges. On the one hand I KNEW I have to do this.
On the other, this is scary!
My Decision
I decided to film myself arting outside once a week.
And here’s the thing that will soften it. I don’t rely on that footage at all. I record my three weekly videos normally. And IF what I recorded outside is good, I’ll add it to the schedule.
This really reduces a lot of the pressure (:
You see, I have a tendency to strive for perfectionism at times. So in my head, “the painting process must be perfect”. But if I know that my sole purpose is to record, and whatever happens with it doesn’t matter – this takes off a lot of the pressure.
Artist Corner
In this episode I talked about Carol Evans.
Carol is a watercolor painter, and I think it’s best to let her art speak for itself.
She does crazy beautiful, semi-photo-realistic paintings. You can check out her artwork here:
In today’s episode I want us to talk about how to constantly improve your art skills by challenging your artistic beliefs.
Inspiration VS Isolation
In my artistic journey, I deliberately put myself through 2 different time periods: inspiration and isolation. I alternate between these two on a regular basis.
Inspiration is the time to soak up new knowledge, and find a specific artist (or artists) to learn from.
Isolation is a consolidation period when I only focus on making art, and eliminate any external influences. I don’t look at other peoples’ works, and I try to deliberately disconnect from outside inspiration.
Challenging Your Artistic Beliefs
By revisiting the inspiration stage, you introduce “shock” to your system.
You find new things that “work” for you and your style. You learn of new ways to create the impression you want. New painting techniques and approaches.
This is the heart of this episode. I use this to challenge my own beliefs about the “right way” of creating art / painting / sketching.
This can relate to macro ideas like the entire painting process, or the preparation. It can also relate to micro ideas – such as specific techniques.
Going through the cycles
I find this cycle to be very rewarding. The Isolation period allows me to internalize all the new things I learned.
It’s precisely thanks to these two extremes that I was able to improve (as I believe) this quickly.
And this is what I wanted to share with you today (:
Artist Corner
In this episode I talk about David Howell.
David is a watercolor and oil painter. What fascinates me about his work is that he uses NO PENCIL.
He doesn’t draw before he paints. To be more accurate – he draws several preparatory sketches. But he doesn’t draw on the watercolor paper intended for the painting.
I find this amazing and refreshing. His work also has a very gentle feel to it, and a great sense of light.
He does a lot of seascapes and dock scenes. You can read more about him HERE.
A while ago I worked on this painting of a pastry called Rozalach (which is insanely delicious!!).
I also recorded the entire painting process.
As I was watching the footage, I realised it would be great material to talk about DRAWING in the context of painting.
In other words, this is great content to explain how to draw for a painting.
so without further ado, here’s the video (and if you prefer to read – scroll on! 😉)
Drawing for a painting is different
Drawing for a painting is different from drawing when pencil is the final purpose in mind.
It requires to be as detailed as necessary, but not more than that.
With this process, I starting by marking the edges of the pile of Rozalach pastries.
You can see what these look like in the reference pic on the top left corner.
Once I finished indicating the edges, I was able to fill up the space with quick sketches, representing the shapes of the tasty doughy rolls.
This is the hardest part. Once you get those guidelines in, it’s only a matter of filling in the gaps with the finer details.
Here you see me filling in those details. The main things I’m looking for are strong changes in values (meaning darks and lights).
When drawing for a painting, this is extremely important.
Here is the final drawing!
This is a good indication of how a typical drawing that’s ready to paint will look.
Some prefer to be more detailed, while others prefer less details.
I will tell you what – I recommend experimenting with both. Trying different levels of detail has its utility.
More detailed – may allow for more realistic results.
Less detailed – allows you to practice using the brush more, and “drawing” with the paint (rather than just “coloring” the areas between the lines).
And now is my favourite part – The drawing is ready to be painted! At this stage I can already imagine the colors I’ll be using, and the transparency of watercolor (which I love).
Painting
List of colors:
New Gamboge
Quinacridone Burnt Orange
Pyrrol Scarlet
French Ultramarine
Here is the very first wash.
My main concern is achieving an even result that’s “flowing” properly, and a variety of interesting colors.
Sometimes I go really wild with my colors (especially with portraits), but this time I decided not too.
I was afraid the colors will make it harder to communicate what I painted (a pastry that not everyone will be instantly familiar with).
And so I decided to go with an interesting range of yellows, oranges, reds and some blues.
Notice how I also made sure to connect the Rozalachs with the background. The purpose is to ensure they don’t appear to be “cut off” from the background. We want them to look like an integral part of the setting.
I find this extremely important at times, especially with painting people as a part of a scene.
After that, I move onto the second wash, where we’ll put in the darker shades.
This immediately breaks the painting down into more discernible shapes that actually have a meaning.
In most paintings, I find this to be the most difficult stage. That’s because you really need to start paying attention to the drawing.
There’s one cool effect I think I was able to get at this stage.
The pastries are covered in sugar powder. To indicate that powder’s texture I made use of the paper’s texture (I’m using a cold-press paper for this one).
Notice the areas just under the Rozalachs in particular. I used dry brush strokes that will preserve the paper’s texture and create a powder-like effect.
