Keith Reeder
Watch the birdie...
All my life I've wanted to be a decent watercolourist and failed dismally.
It's frustrating, because I'm actually not bad at drawing - I've always been able to render a bird in pencil (and even won the odd award doing so) - but putting paint down?
Forget it. And I've tried.
The thing with watercolour is that it's at least as much about what you leave out as what you put in, and - due to a quirk of how my brain works, I'm sure - I can't "see" where I should be leaving paper untouched: I know the theory, I've read the books, and I've done the classes - and yet I still stick too much paint down.
I mention this only to point out that even if you're of an artistic inclination, some things might simply be beyond what you're wired for.
Don't get me wrong, I've managed to knock out the odd painting which has more or less pressed the right buttons, but it has never been a natural process, and to me they've all looked formulaic - which I hate.
It's frustrating, because I'm actually not bad at drawing - I've always been able to render a bird in pencil (and even won the odd award doing so) - but putting paint down?
Forget it. And I've tried.
The thing with watercolour is that it's at least as much about what you leave out as what you put in, and - due to a quirk of how my brain works, I'm sure - I can't "see" where I should be leaving paper untouched: I know the theory, I've read the books, and I've done the classes - and yet I still stick too much paint down.
I mention this only to point out that even if you're of an artistic inclination, some things might simply be beyond what you're wired for.
Don't get me wrong, I've managed to knock out the odd painting which has more or less pressed the right buttons, but it has never been a natural process, and to me they've all looked formulaic - which I hate.